PART 1-THE BIBLE DOCTRINE OF SIN
By C.D.Cole
CHAPTER
1-THE NATURE OF SIN
Sin is a patent fact—its reality does not need to be argued. Sin is a fact of
experience, of observation, and of revelation. Sin is something I feel in my
own heart; it is something I see in others, even in my best friends and loved
ones; and it is something revealed in the Bible. The policeman pursues it, the
physician prescribes for it, the law discovers it, conscience condemns it, God
controls and punishes it, and yet nobody likes to own it. But as a matter of
fact, sin is all that anyone owns; he is a steward of everything else he may
possess. Obvious as sin is, there is a proneness to treat it like some folks
treat their trashy relatives; it is ignored and even denied.
Sin may be defined but it cannot be explained. To explain sin is to explain it
away. How sin got started in the universe is a profound mystery. It had no
place in the original creation, which God pronounced good. Sin is a parasite,
an interloper, an outlaw cell in the moral system, and a terrible monstrosity.
Sin made its appearance on earth in a garden of delights, after it had defiled
the heavens, and turned this fair earth into a wilderness of woe. In the
original creation we read only of heaven and earth, but later we are told of
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Sin is a cheat, a deceiver, and a destroyer. It promises pleasure and pays off
in pain. It promises life and pays off in death. It promises profit and pays
off in poverty—the loss of all good. Every sin is committed for profit. Nobody
would sin if he did not think it would profit in some form or other. There is
profit in sin, but it is short-lived. Moses took a long look and made the
wise choice. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He esteemed the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He chose in view of the day of
judgment.
Sin is dangerous beyond expression and description. Sin is violation of the
moral law of God, and violated law cries out for just retribution. Sin is
against God, the Judge of all the earth, and must be accounted for before God.
Crime is against human society. Human society may and does punish crime, but
only God can punish sin. Human society may fail to punish the criminal, but God
will not fail to punish the sinner who is without a Saviour. All crime against
men is also sin against God, but all sin against God is not crime against men.
Human society punishes men for what they do; God punishes men for what they are
and in proportion to what they do. Every sinner will either be punished in his
own person or in the person of a Surety and Substitute, even the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Surety of the better covenant. The only possible way for any
sinner to be brought into the favor of God as the Lawgiver was for Christ the
Just to suffer for the unjust. "For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" (#1Pe 3:18).
FALSE
DEFINITION OF SIN
1.
Modernism: "Sin is good in the making." John Fiske (1842-1901),
says that original sin is neither more nor less than the brute inheritance
which every man carries with him, and the process of evolution is an advance
towards true salvation. According to this view, the human race is on the way to
salvation; there is no hope for the individual; the race will be saved when the
process of evolution has made it perfect. It is like the process of improving
the razor-back hog by breeding. According to this view there is no
individual responsibility and therefore no individual salvation. Poor hope for
the individual who cries out, "What must I do to be saved?" Cold war
everywhere, and shooting wars in various places, with terrible consequences to
human happiness and safety, give the lie to the evolutionary process of
salvation.
2.
Christian Science: "Sin is a figment of a perverted imagination—-an imaginary
creation of abnormal minds." In other words sin does not actually exist;
it is not a reality. Some people just imagine they sin, and this imagination is
a disease of the mind. The man who is convicted of sin is unbalanced, and the
man who mourns over sin and seeks forgiveness from God is terribly insane. Such
nonsense is refuted by science, and Scripture, and common sense. When the
prodigal came to himself, he said, "I have sinned." The insane man is
the one who denies the fact of sin. "If we say that we have not sinned, we
make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us" (#1Jo 1:10).
3.
The Popular View: regards sin as only crime against society. Sinners are
young men sowing wild oats, prostitute women, murderers, and gangsters. Some
seventy or more years ago the Japanese resented the preaching of Paul Kanamoro.
They complained that he talked to them as if he were an official talking to
convicts. They confounded sin with vice. They could not distinguish between sin
and crime. Every person is a sinner, but all are not vicious or
criminals. There are many virtuous women, but no sinless women. There are
many law-abiding men but no sinless men. There are many beautiful babies, but
no baby without a sinful nature. "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me" (#Ps 51:5); "The
wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born,
speaking lies" (#Ps 58:3); "And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others" (#Eph 2:1-3).
SOME
TRUE DEFINITIONS OF SIN
1.
Westminster Confession: "Sin is any lack of conformity
to, or transgression of the law of God." This is a good definition and
includes both sins of commission and of omission. The moral law of God—-the
eternal standard of right and wrong is summed up in supreme love to God and to
our neighbor as ourselves.
2.
A.H. Strong: "Sin is any lack of conformity to the law of God, whether in
act, disposition, or state." This is a better definition, since it
recognizes sin as a condition of human nature. Sin resides in the heart; it is
quality of being.
3.
The Apostle John: "Sin is the transgression of the law" (#1Jo 3:4).
Or more literally: "Sin is lawlessness." There can be no sin
where there is no law. If there is no Lawgiver to Whom we must give account,
then there can be no sin, for sin is lawlessness.
MISSING
THE MARK
There is a Bible word which means "to miss the mark," and it is
translated sin some 200 times in our Bible. Man has missed the mark— he has
missed the purpose of his being. Man was created to reflect the glory of his
creator, but he has missed this aim and has come short of the glory of God.
Man is like a clock that fails to tell the time of day; he is like a car that
will not run; he is like coal that will not burn. Man is a failure in the
greatest and grandest enterprise—he has failed to glorify God.
MAN
IS OFF CENTER
There is another word used to describe sin which means "to turn
aside from the straight path." This conception of sin is expressed in
"But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were
turned aside like a deceitful bow" (#Ps 78:57), where God complains
that Israel has turned aside like a deceitful bow. And again in Isaiah where we
are told that all like sheep have gone astray, and turned everyone to his own
way. Man is off-center. Instead of revolving around God, and making God’ s will
his chief delight, man has become a wandering star in the moral firmament.
COMPETITION
WITH GOD
Sin may be defined as competition with God for sovereignty- competition in the
realm of authority. This view of sin is seen in the story of the first sin as
recorded in Genesis three. The word sin does not occur in the account, but the
fact of sin does, and the nature of sin is also clearly revealed. Satan told
Eve that if they would eat of the forbidden fruit, their eyes would be opened,
and they would become as God, knowing good and evil. And when the deed was
done, God said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil" (#Ge 3:22)
Now, in what sense did man become like God by sinning? Obviously, it was not in
respect to character, for in sinning he lost the good character with which he
was created. Nor can it mean that man acquired the Divine attributes such as
power, holiness, and wisdom. In sinning man lost the power to live and die; he
lost his original holiness and became filthy or depraved; and he lost the
wisdom of his original creation and became a fool, sin brought death,
depravity, and delusion. Sin is consummate folly.
The only possible sense in which man became like God was in spirit and aim—not
in reality. Adam and Eve asserted their independence of God. They would make
their own laws and do as they pleased. They rebelled against His will for their
lives. They rejected His expressed will as to what they could have. They would
determine (know for themselves) what is good and evil—what is right and wrong.
They would no longer be tied to God’s Word about what they could do. They would
be a law unto themselves and do as they pleased. They would do that which was
right in their own eyes. Thus, they entered into competition with God for
sovereignty. In spirit and aim they made themselves God. They would make their
own will supreme.
Every sin is competition with God in the realm of authority. If I have the
right to determine what is right and wrong, then I am God-I am supreme in the
matter of authority. Sin is, therefore, a decoration of independence before
God, and this means war, for God has said "I am God, and there is none
else" (#Isa 46:9). And again, "Thou shalt have no other gods
before me" (#Ex 20:3). Great Britain could do little about it when
the American Colonies declared their independence—she lost the war. But there
is much God can do with His rebellious creatures. The sinner is waging a
hopeless war against his Creator. God is a jealous God and will tolerate no
rivals or competitors. God is the one and only person in all the universe who
has the right and the ability to do as He pleases. He is the only one who has
the right to act for his own glory. All that God does, whether in mercy or in
justice, is to the praise of His glory. Salvation is primarily to the praise of
His glory. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the
saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to
you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the
fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we
should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy
Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption
of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory" (#Eph 1:1-14).
THE
REALITY OF SIN
Is sin real? Ask Adam and hear him bemoan his loss of Eden. Is sin real? Ask
Abel. He cannot speak, but his blood cries to God for vengeance against his
murderer. Is sin real? Ask David and hear him say, "I acknowledge my
transgressions: and my sin is ever before me." Is sin real? Ask the rich
man in hell and listen as he says, "I am tormented in this flame." Is
sin real? Ask Pharoah and hear him say, "I have sinned," when he
discovered a dead boy in every home and a dead animal in every stable throughout
all the land of Egypt, Goshen excepted because of blood of the passover lamb.
Is sin real? Ask Peter and hear his confession: "Depart from me for I am a
sinful man." Is sin real? Ask Christian parents and hear them as they pray
for their godless children. Is sin real? Ask the Son of God and hear Him as He
cries out under its terrible load, "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken
me." Is sin real? Ask the martyrs and let them tell you the price they
paid for resisting sin unto blood.
The holier a man is the more he realizes what sin is. The fewer acts of sin are
on the part of those who grieve over the state of sin. A J. Gordon, the great
Baptist preacher of Boston, was a godly man, and yet just before he died, he
asked to be left alone. He was overheard confessing his sins so extravagantly
that it was thought he was in delirium. Luther was wont to cry out, "Oh,
my sins, my sins" Jonathan Edwards was said to be the holiest man of his
day, and yet his diary contains such abhorrence of himself as would make one
think he was the most wicked of all.
THE
POTENTIALITY OF SIN
Sin as an act of transgression is only a small part of sin. Nine tenths of the
mass of an iceberg is below the surface, so that only a small part of the total
is seen. And there is far more sin in every man than ever appears on the
surface in actual transgression. The potential evil is about the same in every
man. The Bible says there is no difference for all have sinned. If we have not
sinned outwardly as much as others it is due to the restraining grace of God
and not to anything good in our nature. When our Lord said that out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adultries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, and blasphemies. He was not describing any particular heart but the
heart of every man. When Paul said that the carnal mind is enmity against God,
he was speaking of the mind of humanity.
SALVATION
THROUGH A CO-OPERANT
The sinner is God’s competitor; the Saviour is God’s co-operant. The first Adam
competed with God for sovereignty and ruined all of us; the last Adam, Jesus
Christ, cooperated with God for our salvation. The first Adam said, "I
will;" the last Adam said, "Not my will, but Thy will be done."
The first Adam despised the will of God; the last Adam said, "I delight to
do Thy will, O God." And God’s will led Him along the rough road of
suffering through gloomy Gethsemane to bloody Calvary, where He cried, "It
is finished." All men are victims of the terrible tragedy of Eden; all
believers are victors through the tragedy of Calvary. And may writer and reader
bow in adoring wonder.
http://www.sounddoctrine.net/