1 John 5:18 and 1 John 3:9 are saying the same important thing. “That which is born of ” refers to the thoughts, ideas, or qualities that proceed from Principle. They cannot sin, i.e., deviate from the nature of their source—because their seed remains in their origin. They keep themselves—remain what they are—for this reason, and the wicked one, the one liar, cannot touch them. That which is born of God remains in God and is not subject to so-called material conditions.
All this is in the same way that nothing can alter your im- age in the mirror, because the life, substance, form and action of the image remain in their origin in front of the mirror and not in the image. This is why man, as “that which has not
a single quality underived from Deity,” is not a reflector but reflection. The relationship of manifestation is to its source, or Principle, and never to anything else. At Calvary, Jesus’ relationship was to his Father, Love, and so he could not help showing forth the nature of God that kept itself, remained what it was, regardless of what an apparent outside was doing.
This too is why “in the order of Science, in which the Principle is above what it reflects, all is one grand concord” (S&H 240:10-11).