Romans 7:1-4 says (to those who know the Law), "Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also have been put to death to the law by means of the body of Christ, to be
joined to Another, even to the One having been raised out from the dead, so that we should bear fruit unto God."
As for
1 John 3:4, for your consideration, I present the following quote by Gaebelein in his commentary on 1 John 2-3 :
[quoting]
"
1John 3:4-9.
"
He makes a contrast between sin and the new nature and shows the marks of one who abides in Christ and one who hath not seen Him neither knows Him. “
Every one that practiseth sin, practiseth lawlessness; for sin is lawlessness," this is the correct rendering. The definition of sin as “transgression of the law”
is misleading and incorrect. Before there ever was a law,
sin was in the world (
Romans 5:12, etc.); how then can sin be the transgression of the law? It is not
sins of which John speaks, but
sin, the evil
nature of man. Here the apostle regards man as doing nothing else but his own, natural will; he lives as a natural man. He acts independently of God, and, as far as he is concerned, never does anything but his own will. John is, therefore, not speaking of positive overt acts, but of the natural man’s habitual bent and character,
his life and nature.
"The sinner, then, sins, and in this merely shows in it his state and the moral root
of his nature as a sinner, which is lawlessness. But the born one, the child of God, is in a different position. He knows that Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that in Him there was no sin. If one knows Him and abideth in Him, that one sinneth not.
If the believer sins it is because he has lost sight of Christ and does not act in the new life imparted unto him. Another object usurps the place of Christ, and then acting in self-will he is readily exposed to the wiles of the devil
using his old nature and the world to lead him astray. If a man lives habitually in sin, according to his old nature, he hath not seen Him nor known Him.
A child of God may sin but he is no longer living in sin; if a professing believer lives constantly in sin it is the evidence that he has not known Him at all. There were such who tried to deceive them. Their teaching was evidently a denial of holiness, that there was no need of righteousness. But the demand is for righteousness, while those who practise sin, live habitually in it, are of the devil. No true believer lives thus, for he knows the One whose life he possesses was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.
"“Whosoever is begotten of God doth not practise sin, because his seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God.” This verse has puzzled many Christians, but it is quite simple. Every creature lives according to its nature. The fish has the nature of a fish and lives its nature in the water; a bird has its own nature and lives it in the air, and not under the water as the fish. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, “
That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Man has a fallen nature, the nature of sin, and that nature can do nothing but sin. That is why He said, “Ye must be born again.”
In the new birth the divine nature is imparted. This nature is He Himself, Christ, the eternal life. Christ could not sin for He is God, and God cannot sin.
The new nature believers possess cannot sin, for it is His nature. But why do new-born ones sin? Because the Christian has two natures, the old nature and the new nature. The old nature is not eradicated; a believer when he sins does so because he has given way to that old nature, has acted in the flesh.
But the new nature followed will never lead to sin, for it is a holy nature, and for that nature it is impossible to sin. Some have suggested out of ignorance that the translation ought to be instead of cannot sin “ought not to sin,” or “should not sin.” The Greek text does not permit such a translation, anything different from “cannot sin” is an unscriptural paraphrase."
--Gaebelein, Commentary on 1 John 2-3,
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gaebelein/1_john/2.htm
[end quoting; bold and underline mine]
