1 John 3:5

Ye know. Again John appeals to his readers’ knowledge of the plan of salvation (cf. ch. 2:12-14,20,27).

Manifested. Greek phanerod, “to reveal,” “to make known”; in the passive, “to become visible,” “to become known,” “to be revealed.” In v. 2 ch. 2:28 and in phanerod is used for Christ’s second coming, but here applied to the incarnation.

Take away. Greek airo (see on John 1:29). The apostle here refers to the main purpose of Christ’s coming, the salvation of men from sin (see on Matt. 1:21). That purpose may be regarded as being fulfilled either by (1) Christ’s bearing away sin in an expiatory sense, or by (2) His destroying sin. Both interpretations are valid, since He does the first in order to be able to accomplish the second. In so doing, the Saviour takes away the lawlessness of which sin is an expression, and saves man from transgressing the law of God. However, Christ will take away the sin only of those who wish to be free from sin.

It is well to note, in the setting in which John makes the statement, that Christ was manifested to take away sin, not to take away law. The Gnostics wished to believe that the restraints, in the form of law, were removed in their case; but John knows that Christ retained the law while removing the transgression of the law (cf. on Matt. 5:17-19; Rom. 3:31).

Our sins. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of “our.” Such omission does not affect the basic meaning of John’s words, but the inclusion of “our” adds personal force to the message, and shows that the apostle is not speaking of sin in general, but of the Christian’s sin in particular.

In him is no sin. Literally, “sin in him is not.” In Christ there is neither the principle of sin nor the act of sin. John uses the present tense to emphasize that sin has never had any part in Christ’s life, either on earth or in heaven. Jesus was tempted, but temptation in itself does not defile. A man is defiled only when he yields to temptation. Our Saviour was aware of the temptations that pressed upon Him from every side (Heb. 4:15), but never for a moment did He allow His thought to go against the will of His Father. Sin constantly surrounded Him, it oppressed Him throughout His earthly life; yet it found no response in Him (John 14:30). He remained unstained by sin. The Sinless One was made sin for us (see on 2 Cor. 5:21). He was accounted a transgressor (Isa. 53:12) and treated as the vilest sinner, but through no sin of His own.