Sin

by J. BENNISON | Category: N/a | Feb 1951

This is an ugly word, nevertheless we are all deeply conscious that sin is in the world. However much we may feel that it ought not to be, it is there. It is an undeniable fact, and is possibly the greatest fact in the world apart from the cross of Christ. A sense of sin, not a lesson on morals or self expression, was the first essential in our being born again. The person who ignores sin in his own heart can dispense with the new birth. The word of God and modern teaching are in direct conflict with regard to the nature of sin. It is as a horrible disease pressing upon us from every side. An outward appearance of uprightness may be maintained in civilized countries, but the disease is there like a festering sore. "Out of the heart," the Lord Jesus said, " come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings "(Matthew 15.19). This is as true to-day as when spoken by our blessed Lord.

Man was created innocent. His desires were pure. He found his satisfaction in God. But it was necessary that man should do this of choice. Man was required to choose the will of God.

Instead, through the work of Satan, man made the fatal choice. Disobedience was the first sin-so fatally sinful. That one commandment, "Thou shalt not" (Genesis 2.17), was disobeyed and so:

"Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin" (Romans 5.12).

Sin, therefore, is essentially lawlessness, which is self-will. There is no better definition than 1 John 3.4, "Sin is lawlessness." God's will must be obeyed whether we approve or disapprove. Ours is not to reason why. It is vain to say, "I see no harm in it." We must ever remember that "The ways of the LORD are right" (Hosea 14.9), however they may appear to us.

Let the truth of this grip us and we shall be saved from many a pitfall. When Daniel, as the interpreter of God's message to Beishazzar, charged sin on that monarch, he clearly indicated the sin which lay at the root of all his sins-" The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified" (Daniel 5.28).

Remember then that sin is an offence as well as a disease, so that when we come to Christ we needed the double cure of cleansing from both the guilt and power of sin. The death and resurrection of the Saviour made this gloriously possible, having provided a perfectly just ground for the exercise of God's mercy. Assuredly we need a deeper dread of the fearfulness and guilt of sin. Allow me to quote from an unknown author :-" Sin gnaws the vitals, it stings like an adder. Sin separates man from God; it binds with iron chains; it is a scourge to torment us, an avenger to punish us. It charms for a while; then sweeps its victim like a vessel on to the rocks of destruction. Sin entered the Garden of Eden and blew out the lamp of life. The darkness cannot cover it ; the deep cannot hide it; death cannot annihilate it, the grave cannot destroy it; eternity cannot bury it."

Nowhere can we learn the awfulness of sin so well as at the cross. There the sinless Son of God became the Surety; "it was enacted and He became answerable." Those sufferings of the Saviour were not merely physical, but intense soul anguish, when "Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf" (2 Corinthians 5.21)

"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6.11).

J. BENNISON | Feb 1951
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