the nature of the atonement is here in view but the effect of it in the life. and in Him is no sin.—lit., “and in Him sin is not.” He is essentially and eternally the sinless one, and this has been proved in the days of His flesh. This statement is not put as what believers know in addition to the preceding fact, though that is so; rather it is a truth independently expressed, and by it the apostle confirms his argument that sin is incompatible with relationship with God. The members of the heavenly