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WHAT IS SIN?
Paul's Testimony to the Doctrine of Sin
By Professor Charles B. Williams, B. D., PH.D.,
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
Theodore Parker once said: "I seldom use the word sin. The Christian doctrine of sin is the devil's own. I hate it utterly".
His view of sin shaped his views as to the person of Christ, atonement, and salvation. In fact, the sin question is back of one's theology, soteriology, sociology, evangelism, and ethics. One cannot hold a Scriptural view of God and the plan of salvation without having a Scriptural idea of sin. One cannot proclaim a true theory of society unless he sees the heinousness of sin and its relation to all social ills and disorders. No man can be a successful New Testament evangelist publishing the Gospel as "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth", unless he has an adequate conception of the enormity of sin. Nor can a man hold a consistent theory of ethics or live up to the highest standard of morality, unless he is gripped with a keen sense of sin's seductive nature.
Sin a Fact in Human History
Paul has an extensive vocabulary of terms denoting sin or sins. In the Epistle to the Romans, where he elaborates his doctrine of sin, he uses ten general terms for sin: 1. hamartia (hamartia), 58 times in all, 43 in Romans, missing of the mark, sin as a principle. 2. hamartêma (hamarteema), twice, sin as an act. 3. parabasis (parabasis), five times, transgression, literally walking along by the line but not exactly according to it. 4. paraptôma (paraptoma), 15 times, literally a falling, lapse, deviation from truth and uprightness (Thayer), translated "trespass" in R.V. 5. adikia (adikia), 12 times, unrighteousness. 6. asebeia (asebeia), four times, ungodliness, lack of reverence for God. 7. anomia (anomia), lawlessness, six times. 8. akatharsia (akatharsia), nine times, uncleanness, lack of purity. 9. parakoô (parakoee), twice, disobedience. 10. planê (planee), four times, wandering, error.
Besides these general terms for sin Paul uses many specific terms for various sins, 21 of these being found in the category of Romans 1:29- 31. Twenty-one equals three times seven and seems to express the idea of completeness in sin reached by the Gentiles. It is literally true that Paul uses scores of terms denoting and describing various personal sins, sensual, social, ethical, and religious. Is this not an unmistakable lexical evidence that the Apostle to the Gentiles believed in sin as a fact in human history?
Again, in all Paul's leading epistles he deals with sin in the abstract or with sins in the concrete. In Romans 1:18-3:20, he discusses the failure of both Jews and Gentiles to attain righteousness. These chapters constitute the most graphic and comprehensive description of sin found in Biblical, Greek, Roman, or any, literature. It is so true to the facts in heathen life today that modern heathen often accuse Christian missionaries of writing it after they have had personal knowledge of their life and conduct.
In 1 Corinthians, gross sins are dealt with—envy, strife, divisions, incest, litigation, adultery, fornication, drunkenness, covetousness, idolatry, etc. In 2 Corinthians, some of the same sins are condemned. In Galatians, he implies the failure of man to attain righteousness in maintaining the thesis that no man is justified by the deeds of the law, but any man may be justified by simple faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 2:14ff), and mentions the works of the flesh, "fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry," etc. (Ephesians 5:19). In Ephesians, he recognizes that his readers were "once dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1), and exhorts them to lay aside certain sins (Ephesians 4:25ff). In Colossians, he does the same. In Philippians, he says less about sin, or sins, but in Philippians 3:3-9 he tells his experience of failure to attain righteousness with all his advantages of birth, training, culture, and circumstances. In the pastoral epistles, he rebukes certain sins with no uncertain voice.
Paul's Experience the Psychological Proof to Him of His Doctrine of Sin
Paul was a Pharisee. Righteousness, or right relation with God, was his religious goal. As a Pharisee he felt that he could and must, in himself, achieve righteousness by keeping the whole written and oral law. This kind of (supposable) righteousness he afterwards describes and repudiates. "For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh: though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Howbeit, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea, verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I suffered the loss of all things and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Philippians 3:3-9, American Standard Version ).
His experience as a Pharisee in trying to work out a righteousness of his own showed him to be a moral and religious failure. This experience he reflected in Romans 7:7-25 (So Origen, Tertullian, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and most modern New Testament scholars, though Augustine and a few modern New Testament scholars think the passage refers to the experience of a Christian). "Sin, finding occasion through the commandment, beguiled me and through it slew me... that through the commandment sin might become" (be shown to be) "exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not; for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do... Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord". So we see that Paul by his experience with the law was led to see that "in him, that is, in his flesh, dwelt no good thing;" that in his members is the sin principle enslaving him so that he "is sold under sin", that is, under the sway of this sin principle. He thought the law could help him to be righteous. All it could do was to show him his helplessness as a sinner and drive him in his despair to Christ as his only Rescuer "out of the body of this death". All the righteousness he could achieve was insufficient. Only God's own righteousness, given through faith in Christ Jesus, could satisfy the conscience of the awakened sinner or be acceptable to God.
The Origin of Sin
The apostle does not discuss the larger problem, the origin of sin in God's moral universe. Whence and how did sin originally enter the moral universe? Paul does not undertake to solve this problem. Only the relative and temporal origin of sin, its entrance into the human race on earth, not its absolute and ultimate source, engages the thought of Paul.
But what is his testimony as to how and when sin entered the human race? The classic passage on the source of human sin is Romans 5:12-21. Let us consider it. Paul testifies that sin entered our race in and through the disobedience of Adam. "As through one man sin hamartia, hamartia, the sin principle] entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation... for as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners" (Romans 5:12,18,19). In this parallelism between Adam and Christ, Paul is seeking to show, by contrast, the excellence of grace and the transcendent blessedness of the justified man in Christ. He is not primarily discussing the origin of human sin. But that does not depreciate his testimony. The fact that it is an incidental and not a studied testimony makes it all the more trustworthy and convincing.
Nor is Paul here simply voicing the thought of his uninspired fellow countrymen as to the entrance of sin into our race. Dr. Edersheim says: "So far as their opinions can be gathered from their writings, the great doctrines of original sin and the sinfulness of our whole nature were not held by the ancient Rabbis". ["Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," I. 165.] Weber thus summarized the Jewish view as expressed in the Talmud: "By the Fall man came under a curse, is guilty of death, and his right relation to God is rendered difficult. More than this cannot he said. Sin, to which the bent and leaning had already been planted by creation, had become a fact, 'the evil impulse' (cor malignum, 4 Es. 3:21) gained the mastery over mankind, who can only resist it by the greatest efforts; before the Fall it had power over him, but no such ascendency". [Altsyn. Theol., p. 216.] The reader is referred to Wisd. 2:23ff, Ecclus. 25:24 (33), 4 Es. 3:7, 21ff, Apoc. Baruch 17:3; 54:15,19, as expressions of the Jewish view of the entrance of sin into the world and the relation of Adam to the race in the transmission of guilt. One of these passages, Ecclus. 25:24 (33) the sin of the race is traced back to Eve: "from a woman was the beginning of sin".
Observe that Paul goes beyond the statement of any uninspired Jewish writers:
1. In asserting that Adam and not Eve is the one through whom sin entered into the race.
2. That, in some sense, when Adam sinned, "all sinned", and in his sinning "all were... made" (katestathêsan, stood down or constituted) "sinners"... (Romans 5:19). The apostle here means, doubtless, that all... the race was seminally in Adam as its progenitor, and that Adam by the process of heredity handed down to his descendants a depraved nature. He can scarcely mean that each individual was actually in person in Adam. If Adam had not sinned and thus depraved and corrupted the fountain head of the race, the race itself would not have been the heir of sin and the reaper of its fruits, sorrow, pain, and death.
3. That in the introduction of sin into the race by its progenitor the race itself was rendered helpless to extricate itself from sin and death. This the apostle asserts over and over again and has already demonstrated before he reaches the parallelism between Adam and Christ. "That every mouth may be stopped and all the world brought under the judgment of God"; "because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (3:19,20).
The Essence and Nature of Sin
This brings us to ask, What constituted the essence or core of sin, as Paul saw it? Modern evolutionists emphasize the upward tendency of all things, and so sin is regarded by them as merely a step in the upward progress of the race; that is, sin is "good in the making". Christian Scientists go still farther and regard all pain and evil as merely imaginary creations of abnormal minds. [See "Science and Health."] There is no actual evil, no real pain, say they. Does either of these views find endorsement in Paul? It must be noted that Paul nowhere gives a formal definition of sin. But by studying the terms mostly on his pen we can determine his idea of sin. He uses mostly the nounhamartia (hamartia), 58 times, from the verb hamartanô (hamartano), to miss the mark, to sin. To miss what mark? In classical Greek it means "to miss an aim", "to err in judgment or opinion". With Paul to sin is to miss the mark ETHICALLY and RELIGIOUSLY. Two other words used by Paul show us what the mark missed is: adikia (adikia), unrighteousness, lack of conformity to the will of God; anomia (anomia), lawlessness, failure to act or live according to the standard of God's law. So the mark missed is the Divine law. Parabasis (parabasis), transgression, emphasizes the same idea, failure to measure up to the line of righteousness laid down in the law.
On the other hand, sin is not merely a negation. It is a positive quality. It is a "fall" (Paraptôma, 15 times). This is graphically illustrated by Paul in his description of the Gentile world's idolatry, sensuality, and immorality (Romans 1:18-32). First, they knew God, for He taught them about Himself in nature and in conscience (Romans 1:19,20). Secondly, they refused to worship Him as God, or to give thanks to Him as the Giver of all good things (Romans 1:21). Thirdly, they began to worship the creature rather than the Creator, then gave themselves up to idolatry in a descending scale, worshiping first human images, then those of birds, then those of beasts and reptiles (Romans 1:22-25). Fourthly, this wrong idea of God and false relation to Him degraded them into the grossest sensuality and blackest immorality (Romans 1:26-32). Is this progress of the race? If so, it is progress in the unfolding of sin's cumulative power, and that where human philosophy and culture were doing their utmost to stem the tide of vice and contribute to the advancement of human government, thought, art, and ethics—in the Roman Empire where flourished Hellenistic culture. But Paul was convinced from his own experience and his observation of society, illumined and led as he was by the Divine Spirit, that the sin principle in men was not an upward but a downward tendency, and that in spite of all the philosophies, and all culture and ethics, to train men in the upward way, intellectually, aesthetically, socially, and morally, still they were carried on down deeper and deeper in vice as they forgot God and followed out the trend of their own thoughts and desires. That is, if sin is a link in the chain of man's evolution, Paul would say it was a downward and not an upward step in the long road of man's development.
Let us look at another term used by Paul to express God's attitude toward sin. This is the term "wrath" (orgê), occurring 20 times in Paul's epistles. [This count follows Moulton and Geden, Concordance to the Greek Testament, and excludes Hebrews from Paul's epistles.] Thayer defines this term thus: "That in God which stands opposed to man's disobedience, obduracy, and sin, and manifests itself in punishing the same." [Greek English Lexicon to New Testament.] That is, sin is diametrically opposite to the element of holiness and righteousness in God's character, and so God's righteous character revolts at sin in man and manifests this revulsion by punishing sin. This manifestation of the Divine displeasure at sin is not spasmodic or arbitrary. It is the natural expression of a character that loves right and goodness. Because he does approve and love right and goodness, He must disapprove and hate unrighteousness and evil. The spontaneous expression of this attitude of God's character toward sin is "wrath". How heinous and enormous sin must be, if the loving and gracious God, in whom Paul believes, thus hates and punishes it! Its nature must be the opposite of those highest attributes of God, holiness, righteousness, love.
Take another term used by Paul, hupodikos (hupodikos), guilty (Romans 3:19). Thayer thus defines this term: "Under judgment, one who has lost his suit; with a dative of person, debtor to one, owing satisfaction". [Greek English Lexicon to New Testament.] In this passage it is used with the dative of God (theô) and so "all the world" is declared by Paul to be "under judgment of God, having lost its suit with God, owing satisfaction to God" (and, it being implied, not able to render satisfaction to Him). This passage implies that the essence of sin is "guilt". Man by sin is "under judgment", "under sentence". He has come into court with God, is found to have broken God's law, and so is guilty and liable to punishment. A secondary element in sin is implied in this term, the helplessness of man in sin, "owing satisfaction to God", but not able to render it.
It must be noted that Paul thinks of this guilt as having DIFFERENT DECREES according to the light against which the sinner sins (Romans 2:12-14). The Gentile sins without the law, that is, without knowing the requirements of the written law, and so he perishes without the law, that is, without the severity specially provided for the transgressor in the written law. But the Jew, who sins against the superior light of written revelation, shall receive the more severe penalty prescribed in the written law. All men are guilty of breaking God's law, but the different realms of law afford different degrees of light, and so the various transgressors are guilty in varying degrees, just as there are different degrees of murder and manslaughter, according to the circumstances and motives of those guilty.
Paul uses the term sin to express three phases of sin: First, the sin principle, or sin in the abstract. He uses the term more often in this sense than in any other. He often personifies the sin principle, doubtless because he believes in the personal Satan. Secondly, by implication he teaches that man is in a state of sin. (Romans 5:18,19). "All men unto condemnation" means that men are in a state of condemnation—guilty of breaking God's law, and therefore worthy of punishment. "Made sinners" signifies that man's nature is essentially sinful, and so man may be said to be under the sin principle, or in the state of sin (though this phrase, "in the state of sin," does not occur in Paul, but first in theologians of a later age). Thirdly, Paul uses several terms for sin which signify acts of sin. Here he views it in the concrete. Men forget God, hate God, lie, steal, kill, commit adultery, hate parents, love self, etc., etc. In this sense he sees the stream of human conduct which is only the expression of the sin principle.
Relation of the Law to Sin
Does the law produce sin? Is the law sinful in that it causes men to sin? Not at all, asserts Paul. "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet; but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting; for apart from the law sin is dead", etc., etc. (Romans 7:7-14, R. V.) ... The following points seem clearly expressed in this passage:
1. The law is not the real cause of man's sin. Not even its severest demands can be charged with causing man's sin.
2. This is true, because the law is essentially "holy, righteous, good"; holy in the double sense of being a separate order of being and conduct ordained by God and also requiring holiness, or the following of this separate order of being and conduct; righteous in the sense of being the expression of God's will and the standard of man's thoughts and actions; good in the sense that it is ordained for benevolent ends. It is also called "spiritual" in the sense that it was given through God's Spirit and conduces to spirituality if obeyed from the right motive.
3. But this holy and righteous, good and spiritual, law became "THE OCCASION" of sinning. This Paul illustrates with the tenth commandment. He would not have coveted if the law had not said, Thou shalt not covet. The Greek word for "occasion" (aphormê) means literally "a base of operations" (Thayer). The sin principle makes the command of God its headquarters for a life-long campaign of struggle in man, urging him to evil actions and deterring him from good ones. There is something in man which revolts from doing the thing demanded and inclines him to do the thing forbidden. Hence, the sin principle, using this tendency in man, and so making the law the base of its operations, becomes the "occasion" to sinning.
4. The law shows the sinfulness of sin—shows it to be heinous in its nature and deadly in its consequences. This is what Paul intimated in Romans 5:20, when he said, "the law came in besides that the trespass might abound". The law sows men that they are failures in the matter of achieving righteousness.
5. The law thus NEGATIVELY prepares the way for leading men to Christ as their only Rescuer. "Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24,25). The apostle was driven to despair as he plunged headlong into persecution and its enormous sins, but when he reached the end of his own strength he looked up and accepted deliverance from the risen Christ.
Relation of the Flesh to Sin
Paul often uses the term "flesh" (sarx) in contrast with the term spirit. In this sense flesh, according to Thayer, means "mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from Divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God". He regards the flesh (occurring 84 times) as the seat of the sin principle. "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18). He does not mean to deny that sin as a guilty act rests on the human will. He always takes for granted human freedom to choose. Yet he regards the lower nature of man (his sarx) as the element of weakness and corruption in man, which furnishes a field for the operation of the sin principle. The law is the "BASE of operations" (occasion), but the flesh is the open FIELD where the sin principle operates. This sin principle drags the higher man (called "the inner man", Romans 7:22, "the mind, or reason," nous, 7:25, or more usually, the spirit) down into the realm of the flesh and through the passions, appetites, etc. (Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 2:3), leads the whole man into thoughts, acts, and courses of sin.
But we must hasten to say that Paul does not adopt the Platonic view that matter is evil per se. Paul does not think of man's physical structure as being in itself sinful and his spirit, or soul, in itself as holy. He merely emphasizes the serfdom of man under the sway of the sin principle on account of the weakness of human flesh. Nor does Paul claim that human reason is free from sin because it approves the law of God. His expression (Romans 7:25) "I of myself with the mind [reason] indeed serve [am slave to] the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin", only emphasizes the fact of struggle in man; that the higher nature does approve the requirements of God's law, though it cannot meet those demands because of the slavery of his lower nature (flesh) to the sin principle.
The Consequences of Sin
This point needs no prolonged discussion. Paul thinks of death, with its train of antecedents, sorrow, pain and all kinds of suffering, as the consequence of sin. This means physical as well as spiritual death, and the latter (separation of man from fellowship with God) is of prime import to Paul. We need not bring Paul into conflict With the claims of modern natural scientists, that man would have suffered physical death had Adam never sinned. The only man that scientists know is the mortal man descended from Adam who sinned. Therefore they cannot logically assert that man would have died had Adam not sinned. Nor need we say that Paul's cosmic view of sin, namely, that the entrance of the sin principle into human life by Adam vitiated the whole cosmos, that because of sin "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now" (Romans 7:22), is unscientific. He here merely asserted the great fact that all cosmic life, plant, animal, and human, has been made to suffer because of the presence of sin in man. Who can doubt it? See Romans 5:12-14,21; 6:21; 7:10; 8:19-25; Ephesians 2:1, etc.
The Universality of Sin
Paul regards every man as a guilty sinner, however great may be his natural or cultural advantages. He felt that he had the greatest advantages "in the flesh" to attain righteousness (Philippians 3:3-9), but he had miserably failed (Romans 7:24). Therefore all men have failed (Romans 1:18- 2:29). But he is not satisfied with a mere experiential demonstration of the universality of sin. He likewise bases it on the dictum of Scripture (Romans 3:9-20). More than that he studied the facts of human life, both Jewish and Gentile, and so by the inductive method is led by the Spirit to declare "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20); "All have sinned and are coming short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
The Persistence of the Sin Principle
In Galatians 5:17,18, Paul tells the Galatian Christians that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would". Lightfoot says: "It is an appeal to their own consciousness: Have you not evidence of these two opposing principles in your own hearts?" ("Commentary on Galatians." in loco.) The Galatian Christians are exhorted to "walk in the Spirit" and let not the sin principle, which is not utterly vanquished in the flesh at regeneration, prevail and cover them in defeat and shame. This same persistence of the sin principle is described in Romans 8:5-9, where he surely is describing the experience of believers. Then in Philippians 3:12-14, he alludes to his own Christian experience thus: "I count not that I have already obtained; or am already made perfect; but I press on if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold.... I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus". Paul knew by experience that the old sin principle still pursued him and that on account of the weakness of the flesh he had not reached the "goal" of practical righteousness. Even in his old age (1 Timothy 1:15) he breaks forth in the consciousness of his own enormous inherent sinfulness: "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief". Every Greek scholar knows that in the last clause, "I am", both pronoun and verb being expressed and their order inverted, is emphatic. Sin pursued the great and consecrated apostle even down to gray hairs. Sin is a Napoleon conducting his disturbing, destructive, and death bringing campaigns even in the Christian's life. We may, by the grace of God and the help of the Spirit, make him prisoner on Elba, but he will escape and continue till life's latest breath to distract our minds and defeat our holiest ambitions. But this Napoleon in the realm of our religious experience, like the Napoleon in the experience of European kings and nations, shall meet his Waterloo.
Sin Finally Vanquished in Christ Jesus
Paul has this thought of conquest in mind in that unique passage, Romans 5:12-21. The conquest of sin by grace in Christ Jesus far transcends the demolishing power of sin handed down by Adam to his posterity. "But where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". This is the apostle's paean of triumph as he draws the last pen stroke in describing the blessedness of the justified man.
The first historic conquest of sin in Christ was His conception without sin; though born of a sinful woman, her sinful nature was not handed down to Him. Then followed victory after victory—in those thirty silent years in which He never yielded to a single sinful impulse; in the wilderness struggle when in that supreme moment He said, Get thee hence, Satan; on Calvary when He meekly submitted to the sufferings of human sin, in which submission He showed Himself above sin; in the resurrection when death was defeated and driven from his own battle field, the grave, while He as the Son of God arose in triumph and in forty days? afterward sat down on the right hand of the Father, to send to men the Spirit to apply and enforce His mediatorial work.
Then this conquest of sin is personalized in each believer. At regeneration the sin principle is subdued by the Spirit in Christ and the Divine nature so implanted, as to guarantee the complete conquest of sin. In the life of consecration and service the sin principle goes down in defeat step by step, until in death whose sting is sin, the believer triumphs in Christ on the last field; he feels no sting and knows the strife with the sin monster is forever passed, and in exultation he receives "an abundant entrance" to the kingdom of glory, as Paul triumphantly received it. (Philippians 1:21,23; 2 Timothy 4:6-8).
—Fundamentals, The
By Professor Charles B. Williams, B. D., PH.D.,
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
Theodore Parker once said: "I seldom use the word sin. The Christian doctrine of sin is the devil's own. I hate it utterly".
His view of sin shaped his views as to the person of Christ, atonement, and salvation. In fact, the sin question is back of one's theology, soteriology, sociology, evangelism, and ethics. One cannot hold a Scriptural view of God and the plan of salvation without having a Scriptural idea of sin. One cannot proclaim a true theory of society unless he sees the heinousness of sin and its relation to all social ills and disorders. No man can be a successful New Testament evangelist publishing the Gospel as "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth", unless he has an adequate conception of the enormity of sin. Nor can a man hold a consistent theory of ethics or live up to the highest standard of morality, unless he is gripped with a keen sense of sin's seductive nature.
Sin a Fact in Human History
Paul has an extensive vocabulary of terms denoting sin or sins. In the Epistle to the Romans, where he elaborates his doctrine of sin, he uses ten general terms for sin: 1. hamartia (hamartia), 58 times in all, 43 in Romans, missing of the mark, sin as a principle. 2. hamartêma (hamarteema), twice, sin as an act. 3. parabasis (parabasis), five times, transgression, literally walking along by the line but not exactly according to it. 4. paraptôma (paraptoma), 15 times, literally a falling, lapse, deviation from truth and uprightness (Thayer), translated "trespass" in R.V. 5. adikia (adikia), 12 times, unrighteousness. 6. asebeia (asebeia), four times, ungodliness, lack of reverence for God. 7. anomia (anomia), lawlessness, six times. 8. akatharsia (akatharsia), nine times, uncleanness, lack of purity. 9. parakoô (parakoee), twice, disobedience. 10. planê (planee), four times, wandering, error.
Besides these general terms for sin Paul uses many specific terms for various sins, 21 of these being found in the category of Romans 1:29- 31. Twenty-one equals three times seven and seems to express the idea of completeness in sin reached by the Gentiles. It is literally true that Paul uses scores of terms denoting and describing various personal sins, sensual, social, ethical, and religious. Is this not an unmistakable lexical evidence that the Apostle to the Gentiles believed in sin as a fact in human history?
Again, in all Paul's leading epistles he deals with sin in the abstract or with sins in the concrete. In Romans 1:18-3:20, he discusses the failure of both Jews and Gentiles to attain righteousness. These chapters constitute the most graphic and comprehensive description of sin found in Biblical, Greek, Roman, or any, literature. It is so true to the facts in heathen life today that modern heathen often accuse Christian missionaries of writing it after they have had personal knowledge of their life and conduct.
In 1 Corinthians, gross sins are dealt with—envy, strife, divisions, incest, litigation, adultery, fornication, drunkenness, covetousness, idolatry, etc. In 2 Corinthians, some of the same sins are condemned. In Galatians, he implies the failure of man to attain righteousness in maintaining the thesis that no man is justified by the deeds of the law, but any man may be justified by simple faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 2:14ff), and mentions the works of the flesh, "fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry," etc. (Ephesians 5:19). In Ephesians, he recognizes that his readers were "once dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1), and exhorts them to lay aside certain sins (Ephesians 4:25ff). In Colossians, he does the same. In Philippians, he says less about sin, or sins, but in Philippians 3:3-9 he tells his experience of failure to attain righteousness with all his advantages of birth, training, culture, and circumstances. In the pastoral epistles, he rebukes certain sins with no uncertain voice.
Paul's Experience the Psychological Proof to Him of His Doctrine of Sin
Paul was a Pharisee. Righteousness, or right relation with God, was his religious goal. As a Pharisee he felt that he could and must, in himself, achieve righteousness by keeping the whole written and oral law. This kind of (supposable) righteousness he afterwards describes and repudiates. "For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh: though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Howbeit, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea, verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I suffered the loss of all things and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Philippians 3:3-9, American Standard Version ).
His experience as a Pharisee in trying to work out a righteousness of his own showed him to be a moral and religious failure. This experience he reflected in Romans 7:7-25 (So Origen, Tertullian, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and most modern New Testament scholars, though Augustine and a few modern New Testament scholars think the passage refers to the experience of a Christian). "Sin, finding occasion through the commandment, beguiled me and through it slew me... that through the commandment sin might become" (be shown to be) "exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not; for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do... Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord". So we see that Paul by his experience with the law was led to see that "in him, that is, in his flesh, dwelt no good thing;" that in his members is the sin principle enslaving him so that he "is sold under sin", that is, under the sway of this sin principle. He thought the law could help him to be righteous. All it could do was to show him his helplessness as a sinner and drive him in his despair to Christ as his only Rescuer "out of the body of this death". All the righteousness he could achieve was insufficient. Only God's own righteousness, given through faith in Christ Jesus, could satisfy the conscience of the awakened sinner or be acceptable to God.
The Origin of Sin
The apostle does not discuss the larger problem, the origin of sin in God's moral universe. Whence and how did sin originally enter the moral universe? Paul does not undertake to solve this problem. Only the relative and temporal origin of sin, its entrance into the human race on earth, not its absolute and ultimate source, engages the thought of Paul.
But what is his testimony as to how and when sin entered the human race? The classic passage on the source of human sin is Romans 5:12-21. Let us consider it. Paul testifies that sin entered our race in and through the disobedience of Adam. "As through one man sin hamartia, hamartia, the sin principle] entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation... for as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners" (Romans 5:12,18,19). In this parallelism between Adam and Christ, Paul is seeking to show, by contrast, the excellence of grace and the transcendent blessedness of the justified man in Christ. He is not primarily discussing the origin of human sin. But that does not depreciate his testimony. The fact that it is an incidental and not a studied testimony makes it all the more trustworthy and convincing.
Nor is Paul here simply voicing the thought of his uninspired fellow countrymen as to the entrance of sin into our race. Dr. Edersheim says: "So far as their opinions can be gathered from their writings, the great doctrines of original sin and the sinfulness of our whole nature were not held by the ancient Rabbis". ["Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," I. 165.] Weber thus summarized the Jewish view as expressed in the Talmud: "By the Fall man came under a curse, is guilty of death, and his right relation to God is rendered difficult. More than this cannot he said. Sin, to which the bent and leaning had already been planted by creation, had become a fact, 'the evil impulse' (cor malignum, 4 Es. 3:21) gained the mastery over mankind, who can only resist it by the greatest efforts; before the Fall it had power over him, but no such ascendency". [Altsyn. Theol., p. 216.] The reader is referred to Wisd. 2:23ff, Ecclus. 25:24 (33), 4 Es. 3:7, 21ff, Apoc. Baruch 17:3; 54:15,19, as expressions of the Jewish view of the entrance of sin into the world and the relation of Adam to the race in the transmission of guilt. One of these passages, Ecclus. 25:24 (33) the sin of the race is traced back to Eve: "from a woman was the beginning of sin".
Observe that Paul goes beyond the statement of any uninspired Jewish writers:
1. In asserting that Adam and not Eve is the one through whom sin entered into the race.
2. That, in some sense, when Adam sinned, "all sinned", and in his sinning "all were... made" (katestathêsan, stood down or constituted) "sinners"... (Romans 5:19). The apostle here means, doubtless, that all... the race was seminally in Adam as its progenitor, and that Adam by the process of heredity handed down to his descendants a depraved nature. He can scarcely mean that each individual was actually in person in Adam. If Adam had not sinned and thus depraved and corrupted the fountain head of the race, the race itself would not have been the heir of sin and the reaper of its fruits, sorrow, pain, and death.
3. That in the introduction of sin into the race by its progenitor the race itself was rendered helpless to extricate itself from sin and death. This the apostle asserts over and over again and has already demonstrated before he reaches the parallelism between Adam and Christ. "That every mouth may be stopped and all the world brought under the judgment of God"; "because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (3:19,20).
The Essence and Nature of Sin
This brings us to ask, What constituted the essence or core of sin, as Paul saw it? Modern evolutionists emphasize the upward tendency of all things, and so sin is regarded by them as merely a step in the upward progress of the race; that is, sin is "good in the making". Christian Scientists go still farther and regard all pain and evil as merely imaginary creations of abnormal minds. [See "Science and Health."] There is no actual evil, no real pain, say they. Does either of these views find endorsement in Paul? It must be noted that Paul nowhere gives a formal definition of sin. But by studying the terms mostly on his pen we can determine his idea of sin. He uses mostly the nounhamartia (hamartia), 58 times, from the verb hamartanô (hamartano), to miss the mark, to sin. To miss what mark? In classical Greek it means "to miss an aim", "to err in judgment or opinion". With Paul to sin is to miss the mark ETHICALLY and RELIGIOUSLY. Two other words used by Paul show us what the mark missed is: adikia (adikia), unrighteousness, lack of conformity to the will of God; anomia (anomia), lawlessness, failure to act or live according to the standard of God's law. So the mark missed is the Divine law. Parabasis (parabasis), transgression, emphasizes the same idea, failure to measure up to the line of righteousness laid down in the law.
On the other hand, sin is not merely a negation. It is a positive quality. It is a "fall" (Paraptôma, 15 times). This is graphically illustrated by Paul in his description of the Gentile world's idolatry, sensuality, and immorality (Romans 1:18-32). First, they knew God, for He taught them about Himself in nature and in conscience (Romans 1:19,20). Secondly, they refused to worship Him as God, or to give thanks to Him as the Giver of all good things (Romans 1:21). Thirdly, they began to worship the creature rather than the Creator, then gave themselves up to idolatry in a descending scale, worshiping first human images, then those of birds, then those of beasts and reptiles (Romans 1:22-25). Fourthly, this wrong idea of God and false relation to Him degraded them into the grossest sensuality and blackest immorality (Romans 1:26-32). Is this progress of the race? If so, it is progress in the unfolding of sin's cumulative power, and that where human philosophy and culture were doing their utmost to stem the tide of vice and contribute to the advancement of human government, thought, art, and ethics—in the Roman Empire where flourished Hellenistic culture. But Paul was convinced from his own experience and his observation of society, illumined and led as he was by the Divine Spirit, that the sin principle in men was not an upward but a downward tendency, and that in spite of all the philosophies, and all culture and ethics, to train men in the upward way, intellectually, aesthetically, socially, and morally, still they were carried on down deeper and deeper in vice as they forgot God and followed out the trend of their own thoughts and desires. That is, if sin is a link in the chain of man's evolution, Paul would say it was a downward and not an upward step in the long road of man's development.
Let us look at another term used by Paul to express God's attitude toward sin. This is the term "wrath" (orgê), occurring 20 times in Paul's epistles. [This count follows Moulton and Geden, Concordance to the Greek Testament, and excludes Hebrews from Paul's epistles.] Thayer defines this term thus: "That in God which stands opposed to man's disobedience, obduracy, and sin, and manifests itself in punishing the same." [Greek English Lexicon to New Testament.] That is, sin is diametrically opposite to the element of holiness and righteousness in God's character, and so God's righteous character revolts at sin in man and manifests this revulsion by punishing sin. This manifestation of the Divine displeasure at sin is not spasmodic or arbitrary. It is the natural expression of a character that loves right and goodness. Because he does approve and love right and goodness, He must disapprove and hate unrighteousness and evil. The spontaneous expression of this attitude of God's character toward sin is "wrath". How heinous and enormous sin must be, if the loving and gracious God, in whom Paul believes, thus hates and punishes it! Its nature must be the opposite of those highest attributes of God, holiness, righteousness, love.
Take another term used by Paul, hupodikos (hupodikos), guilty (Romans 3:19). Thayer thus defines this term: "Under judgment, one who has lost his suit; with a dative of person, debtor to one, owing satisfaction". [Greek English Lexicon to New Testament.] In this passage it is used with the dative of God (theô) and so "all the world" is declared by Paul to be "under judgment of God, having lost its suit with God, owing satisfaction to God" (and, it being implied, not able to render satisfaction to Him). This passage implies that the essence of sin is "guilt". Man by sin is "under judgment", "under sentence". He has come into court with God, is found to have broken God's law, and so is guilty and liable to punishment. A secondary element in sin is implied in this term, the helplessness of man in sin, "owing satisfaction to God", but not able to render it.
It must be noted that Paul thinks of this guilt as having DIFFERENT DECREES according to the light against which the sinner sins (Romans 2:12-14). The Gentile sins without the law, that is, without knowing the requirements of the written law, and so he perishes without the law, that is, without the severity specially provided for the transgressor in the written law. But the Jew, who sins against the superior light of written revelation, shall receive the more severe penalty prescribed in the written law. All men are guilty of breaking God's law, but the different realms of law afford different degrees of light, and so the various transgressors are guilty in varying degrees, just as there are different degrees of murder and manslaughter, according to the circumstances and motives of those guilty.
Paul uses the term sin to express three phases of sin: First, the sin principle, or sin in the abstract. He uses the term more often in this sense than in any other. He often personifies the sin principle, doubtless because he believes in the personal Satan. Secondly, by implication he teaches that man is in a state of sin. (Romans 5:18,19). "All men unto condemnation" means that men are in a state of condemnation—guilty of breaking God's law, and therefore worthy of punishment. "Made sinners" signifies that man's nature is essentially sinful, and so man may be said to be under the sin principle, or in the state of sin (though this phrase, "in the state of sin," does not occur in Paul, but first in theologians of a later age). Thirdly, Paul uses several terms for sin which signify acts of sin. Here he views it in the concrete. Men forget God, hate God, lie, steal, kill, commit adultery, hate parents, love self, etc., etc. In this sense he sees the stream of human conduct which is only the expression of the sin principle.
Relation of the Law to Sin
Does the law produce sin? Is the law sinful in that it causes men to sin? Not at all, asserts Paul. "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet; but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting; for apart from the law sin is dead", etc., etc. (Romans 7:7-14, R. V.) ... The following points seem clearly expressed in this passage:
1. The law is not the real cause of man's sin. Not even its severest demands can be charged with causing man's sin.
2. This is true, because the law is essentially "holy, righteous, good"; holy in the double sense of being a separate order of being and conduct ordained by God and also requiring holiness, or the following of this separate order of being and conduct; righteous in the sense of being the expression of God's will and the standard of man's thoughts and actions; good in the sense that it is ordained for benevolent ends. It is also called "spiritual" in the sense that it was given through God's Spirit and conduces to spirituality if obeyed from the right motive.
3. But this holy and righteous, good and spiritual, law became "THE OCCASION" of sinning. This Paul illustrates with the tenth commandment. He would not have coveted if the law had not said, Thou shalt not covet. The Greek word for "occasion" (aphormê) means literally "a base of operations" (Thayer). The sin principle makes the command of God its headquarters for a life-long campaign of struggle in man, urging him to evil actions and deterring him from good ones. There is something in man which revolts from doing the thing demanded and inclines him to do the thing forbidden. Hence, the sin principle, using this tendency in man, and so making the law the base of its operations, becomes the "occasion" to sinning.
4. The law shows the sinfulness of sin—shows it to be heinous in its nature and deadly in its consequences. This is what Paul intimated in Romans 5:20, when he said, "the law came in besides that the trespass might abound". The law sows men that they are failures in the matter of achieving righteousness.
5. The law thus NEGATIVELY prepares the way for leading men to Christ as their only Rescuer. "Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24,25). The apostle was driven to despair as he plunged headlong into persecution and its enormous sins, but when he reached the end of his own strength he looked up and accepted deliverance from the risen Christ.
Relation of the Flesh to Sin
Paul often uses the term "flesh" (sarx) in contrast with the term spirit. In this sense flesh, according to Thayer, means "mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from Divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God". He regards the flesh (occurring 84 times) as the seat of the sin principle. "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18). He does not mean to deny that sin as a guilty act rests on the human will. He always takes for granted human freedom to choose. Yet he regards the lower nature of man (his sarx) as the element of weakness and corruption in man, which furnishes a field for the operation of the sin principle. The law is the "BASE of operations" (occasion), but the flesh is the open FIELD where the sin principle operates. This sin principle drags the higher man (called "the inner man", Romans 7:22, "the mind, or reason," nous, 7:25, or more usually, the spirit) down into the realm of the flesh and through the passions, appetites, etc. (Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 2:3), leads the whole man into thoughts, acts, and courses of sin.
But we must hasten to say that Paul does not adopt the Platonic view that matter is evil per se. Paul does not think of man's physical structure as being in itself sinful and his spirit, or soul, in itself as holy. He merely emphasizes the serfdom of man under the sway of the sin principle on account of the weakness of human flesh. Nor does Paul claim that human reason is free from sin because it approves the law of God. His expression (Romans 7:25) "I of myself with the mind [reason] indeed serve [am slave to] the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin", only emphasizes the fact of struggle in man; that the higher nature does approve the requirements of God's law, though it cannot meet those demands because of the slavery of his lower nature (flesh) to the sin principle.
The Consequences of Sin
This point needs no prolonged discussion. Paul thinks of death, with its train of antecedents, sorrow, pain and all kinds of suffering, as the consequence of sin. This means physical as well as spiritual death, and the latter (separation of man from fellowship with God) is of prime import to Paul. We need not bring Paul into conflict With the claims of modern natural scientists, that man would have suffered physical death had Adam never sinned. The only man that scientists know is the mortal man descended from Adam who sinned. Therefore they cannot logically assert that man would have died had Adam not sinned. Nor need we say that Paul's cosmic view of sin, namely, that the entrance of the sin principle into human life by Adam vitiated the whole cosmos, that because of sin "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now" (Romans 7:22), is unscientific. He here merely asserted the great fact that all cosmic life, plant, animal, and human, has been made to suffer because of the presence of sin in man. Who can doubt it? See Romans 5:12-14,21; 6:21; 7:10; 8:19-25; Ephesians 2:1, etc.
The Universality of Sin
Paul regards every man as a guilty sinner, however great may be his natural or cultural advantages. He felt that he had the greatest advantages "in the flesh" to attain righteousness (Philippians 3:3-9), but he had miserably failed (Romans 7:24). Therefore all men have failed (Romans 1:18- 2:29). But he is not satisfied with a mere experiential demonstration of the universality of sin. He likewise bases it on the dictum of Scripture (Romans 3:9-20). More than that he studied the facts of human life, both Jewish and Gentile, and so by the inductive method is led by the Spirit to declare "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20); "All have sinned and are coming short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
The Persistence of the Sin Principle
In Galatians 5:17,18, Paul tells the Galatian Christians that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would". Lightfoot says: "It is an appeal to their own consciousness: Have you not evidence of these two opposing principles in your own hearts?" ("Commentary on Galatians." in loco.) The Galatian Christians are exhorted to "walk in the Spirit" and let not the sin principle, which is not utterly vanquished in the flesh at regeneration, prevail and cover them in defeat and shame. This same persistence of the sin principle is described in Romans 8:5-9, where he surely is describing the experience of believers. Then in Philippians 3:12-14, he alludes to his own Christian experience thus: "I count not that I have already obtained; or am already made perfect; but I press on if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold.... I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus". Paul knew by experience that the old sin principle still pursued him and that on account of the weakness of the flesh he had not reached the "goal" of practical righteousness. Even in his old age (1 Timothy 1:15) he breaks forth in the consciousness of his own enormous inherent sinfulness: "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief". Every Greek scholar knows that in the last clause, "I am", both pronoun and verb being expressed and their order inverted, is emphatic. Sin pursued the great and consecrated apostle even down to gray hairs. Sin is a Napoleon conducting his disturbing, destructive, and death bringing campaigns even in the Christian's life. We may, by the grace of God and the help of the Spirit, make him prisoner on Elba, but he will escape and continue till life's latest breath to distract our minds and defeat our holiest ambitions. But this Napoleon in the realm of our religious experience, like the Napoleon in the experience of European kings and nations, shall meet his Waterloo.
Sin Finally Vanquished in Christ Jesus
Paul has this thought of conquest in mind in that unique passage, Romans 5:12-21. The conquest of sin by grace in Christ Jesus far transcends the demolishing power of sin handed down by Adam to his posterity. "But where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". This is the apostle's paean of triumph as he draws the last pen stroke in describing the blessedness of the justified man.
The first historic conquest of sin in Christ was His conception without sin; though born of a sinful woman, her sinful nature was not handed down to Him. Then followed victory after victory—in those thirty silent years in which He never yielded to a single sinful impulse; in the wilderness struggle when in that supreme moment He said, Get thee hence, Satan; on Calvary when He meekly submitted to the sufferings of human sin, in which submission He showed Himself above sin; in the resurrection when death was defeated and driven from his own battle field, the grave, while He as the Son of God arose in triumph and in forty days? afterward sat down on the right hand of the Father, to send to men the Spirit to apply and enforce His mediatorial work.
Then this conquest of sin is personalized in each believer. At regeneration the sin principle is subdued by the Spirit in Christ and the Divine nature so implanted, as to guarantee the complete conquest of sin. In the life of consecration and service the sin principle goes down in defeat step by step, until in death whose sting is sin, the believer triumphs in Christ on the last field; he feels no sting and knows the strife with the sin monster is forever passed, and in exultation he receives "an abundant entrance" to the kingdom of glory, as Paul triumphantly received it. (Philippians 1:21,23; 2 Timothy 4:6-8).
—Fundamentals, The
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DO YOUR RESEARCH ON SIN
How Sin Entered Into The World Mankind Being Sinful In Nature Not Sinning Sinners
taken from—What Does the Bible Say About...
How Sin Entered Into The World Mankind Being Sinful In Nature Not Sinning Sinners
- Job 24:19-20
- Psalm 1:4-5
- Psalm 25:8
- Psalm 104:35
- Proverbs 8:32-36
- Proverbs 11:31
- Proverbs 13:6
- Proverbs 13:21-22
- Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
- Ecclesiastes 7:26
- Ecclesiastes 9:18
- Isaiah 13:9
- Isaiah 33:14
- Ezekiel 18:4
- Ezekiel 18:20
- Amos 9:10
- John 8:34-35
- 1 Timothy 1:8-9
- James 4:8
- 1 John 3:1-6
- 1 John 3:8
- 1 Kings 8:28-36
- 1 Kings 8:43-46
- 1 Kings 14:15-16
- 2 Chronicles 6:19-26
- Ezra 9:15
- Nehemiah 9:29-31
- Psalm 78:17-34
- Psalm 106:19-43
- Isaiah 64:4-5
- Jeremiah 3:24-25
- Jeremiah 8:14
- Jeremiah 16:16-18
- Jeremiah 30:12-15
- Ezekiel 28:12-19
- Daniel 9:4-14
- Micah 6:9-16
- Micah 7:9
- Zephaniah 1:17-18
- Hebrews 10:26-30
- 1 Kings 8:46
- 2 Chronicles 6:36
- Psalm 14:1-4
- Psalm 53:1
- Proverbs 20:9
- Ecclesiastes 7:20
- Isaiah 64:4-7
- Matthew 19:16-17
- Romans 3:9-12
- Romans 3:23
- Romans 5:12
- Deuteronomy 23:21
- Proverbs 21:4
- Proverbs 24:9
- Romans 14:22-23
- 1 Corinthians 15:56
- James 4:17
- 1 John 5:17
taken from—What Does the Bible Say About...
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SIN
Section I
All men are sinners. The nature of man, since the fall, is depraved
Since, then, the Scriptures are undoubtedly the word of God, with what reverence should we receive their Divine instructions; with what assiduity and humility should we study them; with what confidence should we rely upon the truth of all their declarations; and with what readiness should we obey all their directions. We are specially concerned to learn what they teach with regard to the character of men, the way of salvation, and the rule of duty.
With respect to the first of these points (the character of men), the Bible very clearly teaches that all men are sinners. The apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, not only asserts this truth, but proves it at length, in reference both to those who live under the light of nature, and those who enjoy the light of revelation. The former, he says, are justly chargeable with impiety and immorality, because the perfections of the Divine Being, his eternal power and Godhead, have, from the creation, been manifested by the things which are made. Yet men have not acknowledged their Creator. They neither worshiped him as God, nor were thankful for his mercies, but served the creature more than the Creator. In thus departing from the Fountain of all excellence, they departed from excellence itself. Their foolish hearts were darkened, and their corruption manifests itself not only by degrading idolatry, but by the various forms of moral evil both in heart and life. These sins are committed against the law which is written on every man's heart; so that they know that those who do such things are worthy of death, and are therefore without excuse even in their own consciousness.
With regard to those who enjoy a supernatural revelation of the character and requirements of God, the case is still more plain. Instead of rendering to this God the inward and outward homage which are his due, they neglect his service, and really prefer his creatures to himself. Instead of regulating their conduct by the perfect rule of duty contained in the Scriptures, by breaking that law they constantly dishonor God. It is thus the apostle shows that all classes of men, when judged by the light they have severally enjoyed, are found guilty before God. This universality of guilt, moreover, he says, is confirmed by the clear testimony of the Scriptures, which declare, "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one."
This language is not used by the Holy Spirit in reference to the men of any one age or country, but in reference to the human race. It is intended to describe the moral character of man. It is in this sense that it is quoted and applied by the apostle. And we accordingly find similar declarations in all parts of the Bible, in the New Testament as well as in the Old, in the writings of one age as well as in those of another. And there are no passages of an opposite character; there are none which represent the race as being what God requires, nor any which speak of any member of that race as being free from sin. On the contrary, it is expressly said, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." "In many things we offend all." "There is no man that sins not." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Hence the Scriptures proceed upon the assumption of the universal sinfulness of men. To speak, to act, to walk after the manner of men, is, in the language of the Bible, to speak or act wickedly. The world are the wicked. "This present evil world," is the description of mankind, from whose character and deserved punishment, it is said to be the design of Christ's death to redeem his people. "The world cannot hate you," said our Savoir, to those who refused to be his disciples; "but me it hated, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heard them." "We are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness."
This, however, is not a doctrine taught in isolated passages. It is one of those fundamental truths which are taken for granted in almost every page of the Bible. The whole scheme of redemption supposes that man is a fallen being. Christ came to seek and to save the lost. He was announced as the Savior of sinners. His advent and work have no meaning or value but upon the assumption that we are guilty, for he came to save his people from their sins; to die the just for the unjust; to bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Those who have no sin need no Savior; those who do not deserve death need no Redeemer. As the doctrine of redemption pervades the Scripture, so does the doctrine of the universal sinfulness of men.
This doctrine is also assumed in all the scriptural representations of what is necessary for admission into heaven. All men, everywhere, are commanded to repent. But repentance supposes sin. Every man must be born again, in order to see the kingdom of God; he must become a new creature; he must be renewed after the image of God. Being dead in trespasses and in sins, he must be quickened, or made partaker of a spiritual life. In short, it is the uniform doctrine of the Bible, that all men need both pardon and sanctification in order to their admission to heaven. It therefore teaches that all men are sinners.
The Scriptures, moreover, teach that the sinfulness of men is deep seated; or, consisting in a corruption of the heart, it manifests itself in innumerable forms in the actions of the life. All the imaginations of man's heart are only evil continually. God says of the human heart, that it is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." All men by nature are "the children of wrath." And therefore the psalmist says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
This corruption of our nature is the ground of the constant reference of everything good in man to the Holy Spirit, and of everything evil, to his own nature. Hence, in the language of the Bible, the natural man is a corrupt man; and the spiritual man alone is good. Hence, too, the constant opposition of the terms "flesh" and "spirit", the former meaning our nature as it is apart from Divine influence, and the latter the Holy Spirit, or his immediate effects. To be in the flesh, to walk after the flesh, to mind the things of the flesh, are all scriptural expressions descriptive of the natural state of men. It is in this sense of the term that Paul says, "In my flesh dwells no good thing"; and that our Savior said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
This humbling doctrine is, moreover, involved in all the descriptions which the Bible gives of the nature of that moral change which is necessary to salvation. It is no mere outward reformation; it is no assiduous performance of external duties. It is a regeneration, a being born of the Spirit, a new creation, a passing from death unto life; a change never effected by the subject of it, but which has its source in God. Of no doctrine, therefore, is the Bible more full than of that which teaches that men are depraved and fallen beings, who have lost the image of God, and who must be created anew in Christ Jesus before they can see the kingdom of heaven.
These scriptural representations respecting the universality of sin and the corruption of our nature, are abundantly confirmed by experience and observation. Men may differ as to the extent of their sinfulness, or as to the ill desert of their transgressions, but they cannot be insensible to the fact that they are sinners, or that they have sustained this character as long as they have had any self-knowledge. As far back as they can go in the history of their being, they find the testimony of conscience against them. As this consciousness of sin is universal, and as it exists as soon as we have any knowledge of ourselves, it proves that we are fallen beings; that we have lost the moral image of God with which our first parents were created. It is a fact, of which every human being is a witness, that our moral nature is such, that, instead of seeking our happiness in God and holiness, we prefer the creature to the Creator. It would be just as unreasonable to assert that this was the original, proper state of man, as to say our reason was sound, if it universally, immediately; and infallibly led us into wrong judgments upon subjects fairly within its competency.
The proof that man is a depraved being is as strong as that he is a rational, a social, or a moral being. He gives no signs of reason at his birth; but he invariably manifests his intellectual nature as soon as he becomes capable of appreciating the objects around him, or of expressing the operations of his mind. No one supposes reason to be the result of education, or the effect of circumstances, merely because its operations cannot be detected from the first moment of existence. The uniformity of its manifestation under all circumstances, is regarded as sufficient proof that it is an attribute of our nature.
The same remark may be made respecting the social affections. No one of them is manifested from the beginning of our course in this world; yet the fact that men in all ages and under all circumstances evince a disposition to live in society, that all parents love their children, that all people have more or less sympathy in the joys and sorrows of their fellow men, is proof that these affections are not acquired, but original, that they belong to our nature, and are characteristic of it.
In like manner, the apostle reasons from the fact that all men perform moral acts, and experience the approbation or disapprobation of conscience, that they have, by nature, and not from example, instruction, or any other external influence, but in virtue of their original moral constitution, a law written on their hearts, a sense of right and wrong. But if the uniform occurrence of any moral acts is a proof of a moral nature, the uniform occurrence of wrong moral acts is a proof of a corrupt moral nature. If the universal manifestation of reason and of the social affections proves man to be by nature a rational and social being, the universal manifestation of sinful affections proves him to be by nature a sinful being. When we say that anyone is a bad man, we mean that the predominant character of his actions proves him to have bad principles or dispositions. And when we say that man's nature is depraved, we mean that it is a nature whose moral acts are wrong. And this uniformity of wrong moral action is as much a proof of a depraved nature, as the acts of a bad man are a proof of the predominance of evil dispositions in his heart. This is the uniform judgment of men, and is sanctioned by the word of God. "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.—Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." This illustration was used by our Savior, with the express design of teaching, that the predominant character of the acts of men is to be taken as a certain index of the state of the heart; and hence the uniform occurrence of sin in all men is a certain evidence of the corruption of their nature. Indeed, there is no one fact with regard to human nature, which consciousness and observation more fully establishes, than that it is depraved.
Section II
The sins of men are numerous and aggravated
The Bible not only teaches that all men are sinners, and that the evil is deeply seated in their hearts, but, moreover, that their sinfulness is very great. The clearest intimation which a lawgiver can give of his estimate of the evil of transgression, is the penalty which he attaches to the violation of his laws. If he is wise and good, the penalty will be a true index of the real demerit of transgression; and in the case of God, who is infinitely wise and good, the punishment which he denounces against sin must be an exact criterion of its ill desert. If we are unable to see that sin really deserves what God has declared to be its proper punishment, it only shows that our judgment differs from his; and that it should thus differ is no matter of surprise. We cannot know all the reasons which indicate the righteousness of the Divine threatenings. We can have no adequate conception of the greatness, goodness, and wisdom of the Being against whom we sin; nor of the evil which sin is suited to produce; nor of the perfect excellence of the law which we transgress. That sin, therefore, appears to us a less evil than God declares it to be, is no evidence that it is really undeserving of his wrath and curse.
There is a still more operative cause of our low estimate of the evil of sin. The more depraved a man is, the less capable is he of estimating the heinousness of his transgressions. And the man who, in one part of his career, looked upon certain crimes with abhorrence, comes at last to regard them with indifference. That we are sinners, therefore, is a sufficient explanation of the fact that we look upon sin in a very different light from that in which it is presented in the word of God. Nothing, then, can be more reasonable than that we should bow before the judgment of God, that we should acknowledge that sin really deserves the punishment which he has declared to be its due. That punishment is so awful, that nothing but a profound reverence for God, and some adequate conception of the evil of sin, can produce a sincere acquiescence in its justice. Yet nothing can be more certain than that this punishment is the proper measure of the ill desert of sin.
The term commonly employed to designate this punishment is death; death not merely of the body, but of the soul; not merely temporal, but eternal. It is a comprehensive term, therefore, to express all the evils in this world and the world to come, which are the penal consequences of sin. In this sense it is to be understood in the threatening made to our first parents, "In the day that thou eats thereof thou shalt surely die"; and when the prophet says, "The soul that sins, it shall die"; and when the apostle says, "The wages of sin is death." The same general idea is expressed by the word curse; "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them": and also by the word wrath; "We were by nature the children of wrath," "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men."
These and similar passages teach that sinners are the objects of the Divine displeasure, and that this displeasure will certainly be manifested. As God is infinitely good and the Fountain of all blessedness, his displeasure must be the greatest of all evils. The Scriptures, however, in order to impress this truth more deeply upon our minds, employ the strongest terms human language affords, to set forth the dreadful import of God's displeasure. Those who obey not the gospel, it is said, "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." Our Savior says, the wicked shall be cast "into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." At the last great day, he tells us, the Judge shall say to those upon his left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." In the last day, "all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation"; or, as it is expressed in Daniel, "to shame and everlasting contempt."
Whatever explanation may be given of the terms employed in these and many similar passages, there can be no doubt that they are intended to convey the idea of endless and hopeless misery. Whence this misery shall arise, or wherein it shall consist, are questions of minor importance. It is sufficient that the Scriptures teach, that the sufferings here spoken of are in degree inconceivably great, and in duration endless. The most fearful exhibition given of the future state of the impenitent, is that which presents them as reprobates, as abandoned to the unrestrained dominion of evil. The repressing influence of conscience, of a probationary state, of a regard to character, of good example, and, above all, of the Holy Spirit, will be withdrawn, and unmingled malignity, impurity, and violence constitute the character and condition of those who finally perish. The wicked are represented as constantly blaspheming God, while they gnaw their tongues with pain. The God who pronounces this doom upon sinners, is he who said, "As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." The most fearful of these passages fell from the lips of the Lamb of God, who came to die that we might not perish, but have eternal life.
It must be remembered, that it is not against the chief of sinners that this dreadful punishment is denounced. It is against sin, one sin, any sin. "Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." As far as we know, the angels were punished for their first offense. Adam and his race fell by one transgression. Human governments act on the same principle. If a man commit murder, he suffers death for the one offense. If he is guilty of treason, he finds no defense in his freedom from other crimes. Sin is apostasy from God; it breaks our communion with him, and is the ruin of the soul.
The displeasure of God against sin, and his fixed determination to punish it, are also manifested by the certain connexion which he has established between sin and suffering. It is the undeniable tendency of sin to produce misery; and although in this world the good are not always more happy than the wicked, this only shows that the present is a state of trial and not of retribution. It affords no evidence to contradict the proof of the purpose of God to punish sin, derived from the obvious and necessary tendency of sin to produce misery. This tendency is as much a law of nature as any other law with which we are acquainted. Men flatter themselves that they will escape the evil consequences of their transgressions by appealing to the mercy of God, and obtaining a suspension of this law in their behalf. They might as reasonably expect the law of gravitation to be suspended for their convenience. "He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption," as certainly as he who sows tares shall reap tares. The only link which binds together causes and effects in nature, is the will of God; and the same will, no less clearly revealed, connects suffering with sin. And this is a connexion absolutely indissoluble, save by the mystery of redemption.
To suspend the operation of a law of nature (as to stop the sun in his course), is merely an exercise of power. But to save sinners from the curse of the law, required that Christ should be made a curse for us; that he should bear our sins in his own body on the tree; that he should be made sin for us, and die the just for the unjust. It would be a reflection on the wisdom of God, to suppose that he would employ means to accomplish an end more costly than that end required. Could our redemption have been effected by corruptible things, as silver or gold, or could the blood of bulls or of goats have taken away sin, who can believe that Christ would have died? The apostle clearly teaches that it is to make the death of Christ vain, to affirm that our salvation could have been otherwise secured. Since, then, in order to the pardon of sin, the death of Christ was necessary, it is evident that the evil of sin in the sight of God must be estimated by the dignity of him who died for our redemption. Here we approach the most mysterious and awful doctrine of the Bible. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.—All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.—And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." God therefore was manifested in the flesh. He who, "being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He, then—who is declared to be the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power; whom all the angels are commanded to worship; of whom the Scriptures say, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.—Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thine hands: they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail" —even He, "who is over all, God blessed for ever," "forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
It is the doctrine of the Bible, that the infinite and eternal Son of God assumed our nature, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. It is obvious, that no severity of mere human suffering, no destroying deluge, no final conflagration, not hell itself, can present such a manifestation of the evil of sin and of the justice of God as the cross of his incarnate Son. It declares, in language which is heard by the whole intelligent universe, that sin deserves God's wrath and curse, and that none who refuse submission to the appointed method of pardon can escape its condemnation.
The penalty, then, which God has attached to the violation of his law, the certainty with which that penalty is inflicted, the doom of the fallen angels, the consequences of Adam's sin, and, above all, the death of Christ, are manifestations of the evil of sin in the estimation of God, which it is the highest infatuation for us to disregard.
However obdurate our hearts may be in reference to this subject, our reason is not so blind as not to see that our guilt must be exceedingly great. We cannot deny that all the circumstances which aggravate the heinousness of sin concur in our case. The law which we transgress is perfectly good. It is the law of God, the law of right and reason. It is the expression of the highest excellence; it is suited to our nature, necessary to our perfection and happiness. Opposition to such a law must be in the highest degree unreasonable and wicked.
This law is enforced, not only by its own excellence, but by the authority of God. Disregard of this authority is the greatest crime of which a creature is capable. It is rebellion against a Being whose right to command is founded on his infinite superiority, his infinite goodness, and his absolute propriety in us as his creatures. It is apostacy from the kingdom of God to the kingdom of Satan. There is no middle ground between the two. Every one is either the servant of God, or the servant of the devil. Holiness is the evidence of our allegiance to our Maker, sin is the service of Satan. Could we form any adequate conception of these two kingdoms, of the intrinsic excellence of the one and the absolute evil of the other, of the blessedness attendant on the one and the misery connected with the other; could we, in short, bring heaven and hell in immediate contrast, we might have some proper view of the guilt of this apostacy from God. It is the natural tendency of our conduct to degrade ourselves and others, to make Eden like Sodom, and to kindle everywhere the fire that never shall be quenched. This cannot be denied, for moral evil is the greatest of all evils, and the certain cause of all others. He, therefore, who sins is not only a rebel against God, but a malefactor, an enemy to the highest good of his fellow creatures.
Again, our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable; our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God. Our pride, vanity, indifference to his will and to the welfare of others, our selfishness, our loving the creature more than the Creator, are continuous violations of his law. We have never, in any one moment of our lives, been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had that delight in the Divine perfections, that sense of dependence and obligation, that fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God, which constitute the love which is our first and highest duty. It is in this sense that men are said to be totally depraved; they are entirely destitute of supreme love to God. Whatever else they may have is as nothing while this is wanting. They may be affectionate fathers, or kind masters, or dutiful sons and daughters, but they are not obedient children of God; they have not those feelings towards God which constitute their first and greatest duty, and without which they are always transgressors. The man who is a rebel against his righteous sovereign, and whose heart is full of enmity to his person and government, may be faithful to his associates and kind to his dependents, but he is always and increasingly guilty as regards his ruler. Thus we are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God, because we are never what his law requires us to be. If we have never loved him supremely; if we have never made it our governing purpose to do his will; if we have never been properly grateful for all his mercies; if we have never made his glory, but some other and lower object, the end of our actions—then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence.
If the permanent moral dispositions of a man are evil, it must follow that his acts of transgression will be past counting up. Every hour there is some work of evil, some wrong thought, some bad feeling, some improper word, or some wicked act, to add to the number of his offences. The evil exercise of an evil heart is like the ceaseless swinging of the pendulum. The slightest review of life, therefore, is sufficient to overwhelm us with the conviction of the countless multitude of our transgressions. It is this which constitutes our exceeding sinfulness in the sight of God. While conscience sleeps, or our attention is directed to other subjects, the number of our transgressions grows, like the unnoticed pulsations of our heart. It is not until we pause and call ourselves to an account, that we see how many feelings have been wrong, how great is the distance at which we habitually live from God, and how constant is our want of conformity to his will. It was this that forced the psalmist to cry, "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me."
Again, we may judge of the greatness of our guilt before God, by considering the numerous restraints of his truth, providence, and Spirit, which we habitually disregard. The simple fact that sin is wrong, that conscience condemns it, is a constant and powerful restraint. We cannot avail ourselves of the plea of ignorance, as we have a perfect standard of duty in the law of God. We cannot resist the conviction that his commands are righteous; yet, in despite of this conviction, we live in constant disobedience.
We are, moreover, fully aware of the consequences of sin. We know the judgment of God, that those who do such things are worthy of death, and yet continue our transgressions. We are surprised at the drunkard, who indulges his fatal passion in the very presence of ruin, yet are blind to our own infatuation, in continuing to disobey God in despite of threatened death. We stupidly disregard the certain consequences of our conduct, and awake only in time to see that madness is in our hearts. This insensibility, notwithstanding the occasional admonitions of conscience, and the constant warnings of the word of God. constitutes a peculiar aggravation of our guilt.
Nor are we more mindful of the restraining influence of the love of God. We disregard the fact, that the Being against whom we sin, is He to whom we owe our existence and all our enjoyments; who has carried us in his arms, and crowned us with loving-kindness and tender mercies; who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; who has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, but has borne with our provocations, waiting that his goodness might lead us to repentance. We have despised his forbearance, deriving from it a motive to sin, as though he were slack concerning his promises, and would not accomplish his threatenings; thus treasuring up for ourselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Besides all this, we disregard the love of Christ. He came to save us from our sins, and we will not accept of his mediation, or reciprocate his love. There stands his cross, mutely eloquent; at once an invitation and a warning. It tells us both of the love and justice of God. It assures us that he who spared not his own Son, is ready to be gracious. All this we disregard. We count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing; we act as if it were not the blood of the Son of God, shed for us for the remission of sins. Or, it may be, we turn the grace of God into licentiousness, and draw encouragement from the death of Christ to continue in sin. This unbelieving rejection of the Saviour involves guilt so peculiarly great, that it is often spoken of as the special ground of the condemnation of the world. "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." "When he" (the Spirit of truth) "is come, he will convince the world of sin,—because they believe not on me." If "he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?"
This great sin of rejecting Jesus Christ as a Saviour, it must be remembered, is an often repeated and long continued sin. It is also one which is chargeable not on the openly wicked merely, but upon those whom the world calls moral. They, too, resist the claims of the Son of God; they, too, refuse his love, and reject his offers. It was when all other messengers had failed, the Lord of the vineyard sent his Son to his disobedient servants, saying, "They will reverence my Son." The guilt of thus rejecting Christ will never be fully appreciated until the day when He shall sit on the throne, and from his face the earth and heaven shall flee away, and no place be found for them.
Besides these restraints from without, we resist the still more effectual influence of the Spirit of God. That Spirit strives with all men; suggesting truth and exciting conscience, expostulating and warning, and drawing men from sin to God. It is from him that all good thoughts and right purposes do proceed. This Spirit we quench; we resist his gracious influences, not once or twice, but a thousand times. Though he will not always strive with men, he strives long, and returns after many insulting rejections, repeating the warnings and invitations of mercy. All men are sensible of this Divine influence, though they may not be aware of its origin. They know not whence proceed the serious thoughts, the anxious forebodings, the convictions of truth, the sense of the emptiness of the world, the longing after security and peace, of which they are conscious. God sends these admonitions even to those who are most contented with the world, and most happy in their estrangement from himself. He leaves no man without a witness and a warning. These strivings of the Spirit are not only frequent, but often urgent. Almost every man can look back and see many instances in which an unseen hand was upon him, when a voice, not from man, has sounded in his ears, when feelings to which he was before a stranger were awakened in his breast, and when he felt the power of the world to come. The shadow of the Almighty has passed over him, and produced the conviction that God is, and that he is an avenger.
From a review of what has been said, it is plain that the Scriptures teach not only that all men are sinners, but that their corruption is radical, seated in their hearts, and that it is exceedingly great. The severity of the penalty which God has attached to transgression, the certainty of its infliction, the costliness of the sacrifice by which alone its pardon could be obtained, are all proofs of the evil of sin in the sight of God. The greatness of our personal guilt is plain, from the excellence of the law which we have violated, from the authority and goodness of the Being whom we have offended, from the number of our sins, and from the powerful restraints which we have disregarded.
—Way of Life, The
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What are the signs of hypocrisy?
Jesus warned His disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees. He said they were trying to appear holy when their heart was far from God. The Pharisees could not keep their attitudes hidden however. Their selfishness would act like yeast, and soon they would expose themselves for what they really were—power hungry imposters, not devoted religious leaders. Each of us must resist the temptation to settle for the appearance of respectability when our hearts are far from God.
- Hypocrisy is knowing the truth but not obeying it. People can say they follow Jesus, but not be obedient to His Word.
- Hypocrisy is living a self-serving life. People may desire leadership only because they love position and control.
- Hypocrisy reduces faith to rigid rules. People can get end up worshipping their own rules and regulations about what they think God wants instead of worshipping god Himself.
- Hypocrisy is outward conformity without inner reality. People can obey the details but still be disobedient in general behavior. For example a person may carefully tithe his income but be rude and obnoxious to his co-workers or family.
Israel Reduced to Religion
1 Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what's best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time. 2 I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God—but they are doing everything exactly backwards. 3 They don't seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God's business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily hawk their wares. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it. 4 The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. 5 Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy—every detail of life regulated by fine print! 6 But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story—no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, 7 no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. 8 So what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest.
It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. 9 Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. 10 With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!" 11 Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it." 12 It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. 13 "Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help." 14 But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? 15 And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims,
A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God!
16 But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: "Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?" 17 The point is, Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ's Word is preached, there's nothing to listen to. 18 But haven't there been plenty of opportunities for Israel to listen and understand what's going on? Plenty, I'd say.
Preachers' voices have gone 'round the world, Their message to earth's seven seas.
19 So the big question is, Why didn't Israel understand that she had no corner on this message? Moses had it right when he predicted,
When you see God reach out to those you consider your inferiors—outsiders!— you'll become insanely jealous. When you see God reach out to people you think are religiously stupid, you'll throw temper tantrums.
20 Isaiah dared to speak out these words of God:
People found and welcomed me who never so much as looked for me. And I found and welcomed people who had never even asked about me.
21 Then he capped it with a damning indictment:
Day after day after day, I beckoned Israel with open arms, And got nothing for my trouble but cold shoulders and icy stares.
Romans 10:1-21 (MSG)
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The laws and principles by which Israel is to live as the people of God apply as principles to us today.
God is a holy God and we are to be a holy people. To be holy means to be separate from uncleanness and sin. The laws of the Levites are both general and specific, ceremonial and moral, and severe and merciful. In so far as these laws are moral they are perpetual in obligation, value and significance to God’s people today. Its demands may be summed up “whether you eat or drink, what ever you do, do all to the “glory of God.” The insistent demand is to be holy.
Burnt offering- Was to be an animal without defect and the entire animal was sacrificed. Different animals were allowed according to what you could afford. When men worship they stand before the Lord. It necessitates atonement for sin and purification from it through the blood of the sacrifice. But if you presented less than what you could afford, God would not accept your offering. We are to bring our bodies as a living sacrifice, a total surrender to God. If you have not given your life to Jesus your sin remains. True obedience is complete surrender. Obedience comes out of a saving faith. We can’t be obedient without the Holy Spirit and we don’t have the Holy Spirit without saving faith.
Cereal or grain offering- It is a memorial of fine flour, oil which is mixed with frankincense. This is a symbol of Jesus’ perfect character, the Holy Spirit, and the sweet smell of and beauty of being purified of sin. Leaven and honey were not be added and can be the symbols of sin and artificial sweeteners. Salt was to be used with all the sacrifices which is a symbol of permanence. The woman who anointed Jesus (Luke 7:38) offered a memorial to Him.
Peace offering- only part of the animal is burnt on the altar and implies that the worshipper is in a state of reconciliation with God.
Sin offering- if anyone who has sinned does not come forward in confession of guilt of his sin he is, and remains, unforgiven.
Guilt offering- is made in the case where a sin requires restitution.
These offerings are always voluntary.
Each soul had to appropriate the substitute offering for himself.
We are to be reminded of the seriousness of sin. God warned Israel about adopting the practices of the pagan nations. Today’s society still has pagan gods of a different sort.
God requires people to have
loyal obedience
to His word.
God will not accept a lesser sacrifice.