"Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God ... are manifest" (1 John 3:9, 10).
Man cannot live God's life. Only God can live His own life. It would be the height of presumption for anyone to think that he could live the life of God. The life of God must be manifested in man, if he has any righteousness, but God Himself must live the life.
The apostle Paul expresses it thus: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
Note again how easy it is for one to set himself up as above God. Since righteousness is life, even the life of God, it is evident that for one to claim that he has life in himself,--that he has by nature in himself a principle that cannot die,--is the same as saying that he has righteousness in himself, and thus to claim indirectly that he is God. This again is "the man of sin" (2 Thes. 2:3).
It was this feeling that kept the Pharisees from accepting Christ. They "trusted in themselves that they were righteous" (Luke 18:9). They professed to believe in eternal life and searched the Scriptures with that in view; but Jesus sadly said to them, "You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life" (John 5:40). Why would they not come to Him? They thought they had it in themselves.
Christ came to this earth for the sole purpose of giving life to men, for they had forfeited life by sin. He gives His life to us, and that gives us His righteousness. The only reason why anyone will not come to Christ for life is that he thinks that he has it already. Again we repeat, that whoever claims that one may have eternal life without Christ, thereby claims that one may have righteousness without Christ. The two must go together." [1]
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