“In thy sight no man living is righteous” (Ps. 143:2). These statements are used in Scripture to describe the condition of all men outside of Jesus Christ the Saviour. To wrest these words from their connection and apply them to saved men to prove that they are not righteous and that they continually are coming short of the glory of God, is to take all meaning and significance out of the language of Scripture. It is because this is our natural state that we need a Saviour. When He saves us, are we left in the same state? Some have carried this strange use of the words of Scripture to the extent of believing (or thinking that they believe) that Paul considered himself still the chief of sinners after he was saved. He speaks of himself as the chief of sinners for the very purpose of showing the greatness of the grace of the Saviour which availed to save the chief of sinners, and that grace was not found vain. But what would we say of a Saviour whose grace abounded in such a way as still to leave Saul the chief of sinners? That is not Paul’s Saviour, and that is not the way Christ’s grace operates even in the lives of those true Christians who think they believe themselves still to be unrighteous sinners. Perhaps the Scripture that has suffered most from this method of lifting it out from its environment is First John, one, eight: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” A passage which was written for the express purpose of giving the children of God the glad tidings that they need not sin, and pointing out God’s provision for keeping them walking in the light, has somehow become for many a stumbling block which keeps them in darkness. Now whatever John, one, eight means it must be in accord with the later word that these things he was writing that we may not sin. “And if any man sin, we have an Advocate.” “_If any sin._” That means there is a possibility of _not sinning_, as well as the admitted possibility of sinning. He does not say “_When_ a Christian sins,” which would make sin inevitable. Now if a Christian were sinning all the time, this word of assurance against sinning, and also the word of comfort and assurance for the Christian who has been overtaken in a fault would be robbed of all meaning. First John, one, eight, therefore, cannot mean that Christians are sinning continually, or if they are, the next verses urge them to get out of that condition. The literal rendering of this verse is, “If we say that we have not sin,” or “If we say that we do not have sin.” The negative is an adverb, not an adjective. The ordinary renderings, “If we say that we have _no_ sin,” might encourage the assumption that the Apostle was speaking of degrees of sin and warning against the thought of being free from all sin. But sin is not something that can be divided; if there is sin, there is sin, and it is not here a question of more or less sin.