PART
1-THE BIBLE DOCTRINE OF SIN
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.