Chapter 40.
SIN AND JUDGMENT TO
COME
BY
SIR ROBERT ANDERSON,
K. C. B., L.L. D.,
The
Book of Judges records that in evil days when civil war was raging in
MAN
A FAILURE
That
man is a failure is denied by none save the sort of people who say in their
heart, "There is no God." For, are we not conscious of baffled aspirations,
and unsatisfied longings after the infinite? Some there are, indeed,
we are told, who have no such aspirations. There are seeming exceptions,
no doubt — Mr. A. J. Balfour
instances "street arabs and advanced thinkers" —
but such exceptions can be explained. And these aspirations and
longings — these cravings of our
higher being — are quite distinct
from the groan of the lower creation. How, then, can we account for
them? The atheistical evolution which has superseded Darwinism can tell
us nothing here. They are a part of the mass of proof that man is by nature
a religious being; and that indisputable fact points to the further fact that
he is God’s creature. People who
are endowed with an abnormal capacity for "simple faith" may
possibly attribute the intellectual and aesthetical phenomena of man’s
being to the great "primordial germ," a germ which was not
created at all, but (according to the philosophy of one of
Mark Twain’s amusing stories),
"only just happened." But most of us are so dull-witted
that we cannot rise to belief in an effect without an adequate
cause; and if we accepted the almighty germ hypothesis we should
regard it as a more amazing display of creative power than the "Mosaic
cosmogony" described.
WHY
A FAILURE?
But
all this, which is so clear to every free and fearless thinker, gives rise to a
difficulty of the first magnitude. If man be a failure, how can he be a creature
of a God who is infinite in wisdom and goodness and power? He is
like a bird with a broken wing, and God does not make birds with broken wings.
If a bird cannot fly, the merest baby concludes that something must have
happened to it. And by an equally simple process of reasoning we conclude
that some evil has happened to our race. And here the Eden Fall affords
an adequate explanation of the strange anomalies of our being, and no
other explanation of them is forthcoming. Certain it is, then, that man is God’s
creature, and no less certain is it that he is a fallen creature. Even if Scripture
were silent here, the patent facts would lead us to infer that some disaster
such as that which Genesis records must have befallen the human race.
MAN
WITHOUT EXCUSE
But,
while this avails to solve one difficulty, it suggests another. The dogma
of the moral depravity of man, and irremediable, cannot be reconciled
with divine justice in punishing sin. If by the law of his fallen nature
man were incapable of doing right, it would be clearly inequitable to punish
him for doing wrong. If the Fall had made him crooked-backed, to punish
him for not standing upright, would be worthy of an unscrupulous and
cruel tyrant. But we must distinguish between theological dogma and divine
truth. That man is without excuse is the clear testimony of Holy Writ.
This, moreover, is asserted emphatically of the heathen; and its truth is
fully established by the fact that even heathendom has produced some clean,
upright lives. Such cases, no doubt, are few and far between; but that
in no way affects the principle of the argument; for, what some have done
all might do. True it is that in the antediluvian age the entire race was sunk
in vice; and such was also the condition of the Canaanites in later times.
But the divine judgments that fell on them are proof that their condition
was not solely an inevitable consequence of the Fall. For, in that case
the judgments would have been a display, not of divine justice, but of ruthless
vengeance.
DEPRAVITY
IN RELIGIOUS NATURE
And,
further, if this dogma were true, all unregenerate men would be equally
degraded, whereas, in fact, the unconverted religionist can maintain as
high a standard of morality as the spiritual Christian. In this respect the life
of Saul the Pharisee was as perfect as that of Paul the Apostle of the Lord.
His own testimony to this is unequivocal. (Acts 26:4,5; Philippians
3:4-6). No less so is his confession that, notwithstanding his life
of blameless morality, he was a persecuting blasphemer and the chief of sinners.
(1 Timothy 1:13).
The
solution of this seeming enigma is to be found in the fact so plainly declared
in the Scripture, that it is not in the moral, but in the religious or the
spiritual sphere, that man is hopelessly depraved and lost. Hence the terrible
word as true of those who stand on a pinnacle of high morality as of
those who wallow in filthy sin — "they that are
in the flesh cannot please God." "The ox knows his owner,
and the ass his master’s crib." But, as
for us, we have gone astray like lost sheep. The natural man does not know
his God.
MAN
A SINNER IN CHARACTER
While
then sin has many aspects, man is a sinner, I repeat, primarily and essentially,
not because of what he does but because of what he is. And this brings
into prominence the obvious truth that sin is to be judged from the divine,
and not from the human, standpoint. It relates to God’s requirements
and not to man’s estimate of himself.
And this applies to all the many aspects in which sin may be regarded.
"It may be contemplated as the missing of a mark or aim; it is then or
: the overpassing
or transgressing of a line; it is then : the disobedience to a voice; in which case it
is : the falling where
one should
have stood upright; this will be : ignorance of what one
ought to have known; this will be : diminishing of that which should
have been rendered in full measure which is : nonobservance of a law, which is or
: a discord,
and then it
is and
in other ways almost out of number."
This
well known passage from Archbishop Trench’s
"Synonyms" must not be taken as a theological statement of doctrine.
As Dr. Trench notices on a later page, the word has
a far wider scope than "the missing of a mark or aim." It
is used in the New Testament as the generic term for sin.
And
has
a far deeper significance than the "non-observance of a law."
H we
read in 1 John 3:4; and "sin is lawlessness" is the revisers’
admirable rendering of the apostle’s
words. What
anarchy is in another sphere, anomia is in this —
not mere nonobservance of a law, but a revolt against, and defiance of
law. "Original sin" may sometimes find expression in
"I cannot;" but "I will not" is at the back
of all actual sin; its root principle is the assertion of a will that is not subject
to the will of God.
THE
CARNAL MIND
Spiritual
truths are spiritually discerned; but when the Apostle Paul declares
that "the carnal mind," that is, the unenlightened mind of the natural
man, "is
enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God" (Romans
8:7), he
is stating what is a fact in the experience of all thoughtful men. It is not that
men by nature prefer evil to good; that betokens a condition due to vicious
practices. "Given up to a reprobate mind" is the apostle’s description
of those who are thus depraved by the indulgence of "shameful passions."
The subject is a delicate and unsavory one; but all who have experience
of criminals can testify that the practice of unnatural vices destroys
all power of appreciating the natural virtues. As the first chapter of
Romans tells us, the slaves of such vices sink to the degradations, not only
of "doing
such things," but of "taking pleasure in them that do them" (Romans
1:24-32). All
power of recovery is gone there is nothing in them to which appeal can be
made. (I cannot refrain from saying that if I can intelligently "justify
the ways
of God" in destroying the cities of the plain, and decreeing the extermination
of the Canaanites, I owe it to knowledge gained in police work
in London, for unnatural vice seems to be hereditary) But
this is abnormal. Notwithstanding indulgence in "natural" vice, there
is in
man a latent sense of self-respect which may be invoked. Even a great criminal
is not insensible to such an appeal. For, although his powers of self-control
may be almost paralyzed, he does not call evil good, but acknowledges
it to be evil. And thus to borrow the apostle’s
words, he "consents
to the law that it is good." But, if he does so, it is because he recognizes
it to be the law of his own better nature. He is thinking of what is
due to himself. Speak to him of what is due to God, and the latent enmity
of the "carnal mind" is at once aroused. In the case of one who has had
a religious training, the manifestations of that enmity may be modified or
restrained; but he is conscious of it none the less.
Thoughtful
men of the world, I repeat, do not share the doubts which some theologians
entertain as to the truth of Scriptural teaching on this subject. For,
every waking hour brings proof "that the relationship between man and
his Maker has become obscured, and that even when he knows the will of
God there is something in his nature which prompts him to rebel against it."
Such a state of things, moreover, is obviously abnormal, and if the divine
account of it be rejected, it must remain a mystery unsolved and unsoluble.
The Eden Fall explains it, and no other explanation can be offered.
THE
ROOT OF SIN
It
might be argued that an unpremeditated sin —
a sin in which mind and will have no part —
is a contradiction in terms. But this we need not discuss, for it is
enough for the present purpose to notice the obvious fact that
with unfallen beings such a sin would be impossible. As the Epistle of James
declares, every sin is the outcome of an evil desire. And eating the forbidden
fruit was the result of a desire excited by yielding to the tempter’s
wiles. When a woman harbors the thought of breaking her marriage
vow she ceases to be pure; and once our parents lent a willing ear to
Satan’s gospel, "Ye shall not surely
die," "Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil," their fall was an
accomplished fact. The overt act of disobedience, which followed as of
course, was but the outward manifestation of it. And, as their ruin was
accomplished, not by the corruption of their morals, but by the
undermining of their faith in God, it is not, I repeat, in the moral, but in
the spiritual sphere, that the ruin is complete and hopeless.
RECONCILIATION
THE GREAT NEED
Therefore
also is it that while "patient continuance in well doing" is within the
human capacity, Romans 2:6-11 applies to all whether with or without
a divine revelation; but of course the test and standard would be different
with the Jew and the heathen, and the denial of this not only supplies
an adequate apology for a life of sin, but impugns the justice of the divine.
judgment which awaits it no amount of success, no measure of attainment,
in this sphere can avail to put us right with God. If my house be in
darkness owing to the electric current having been cut off, no amount of care
bestowed upon my plant and fittings will restore the light. My first need
is to have the current renewed. And so here; man by nature is "alienated
from the life of God," and his first need is to be reconciled to God.
And apart from redemption reconciliation is impossible.
NEO-CHRISTIANISM
A
discussion of the sin question apart from God’s
remedy for sin would present the truth in a perspective so wholly
false as to suggest positive error. But before passing on to speak of the
remedy something more needs to be said about the disease. For the loose
thoughts so prevalent today respecting the atonement are largely due to an
utterly inadequate
appreciation of sin; and this again depends on ignorance of
God. Sin in every
respect of it has, of course, a relation to a savage; and as man is God’s
creature the standard is, again of course, divine perfection. But the God
of the neo-Christianism of the day —
we must not call it Christianity — is a weak and gentle
human "Jesus" who has supplanted the God of both
nature and revelation.
The
element of the folly in religious heresies affords material for an interesting
psychological study. If the Gospels be not authentic, then, so far as
the teaching of Christ is concerned, intelligent agnosticism will be the attitude
of every one who is not a superstitious religionist. But if the records
of the ministry be trustworthy, it is certain, first, that the Hebrew Scriptures
were the foundation of the Lord’s teaching; and
secondly, that His
warnings of divine judgment upon sin were more terrible than even the thunders
of Sinai. During all the age in which the echoes of those thunders mingled
with the worship of His people, the prophetic spirit could discern the
advent of a future day of full redemption. And it was in the calm and sunshine
of the dawning of that long promised day that He spoke of a doom
more terrible than that which engulfed the sinners of
THE
PERFECT STANDARD
And
here we may get hold of a great principle which will help us to reconcile
seemingly conflicting statements of Scripture, and to silence some of
the cavils of unbelief. The thoughtful will recognise that in divine judgment
the standard must be perfection. And when thus tested, both the proud
religionist Christendom "exalted to heaven" like
And this will be the scope and purpose of the judgment of the Great Day. The transcendent question of the ultimate fate of men must be settled before the advent of that day; for the resurrection will declare it and the resurrection precedes the judgment. For there is a "resurrection unto life," and a "resurrection unto judgment" (John 5:29). While the redeemed, we are expressly told, will be "raised in glory" — and "we know that we shall be like Him," with bodies "fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21) — the lost will be raised in bodies; but here I pause, for Scripture is almost silent on this subject, and conjecture is unsafe, it may be that just as criminals leave a prison in garb like that they wore on entering it, so the doomed may reappear in bodies akin to those that were the instruments of their vices and sins on earth. If the saved are to be raised in glory and honor and incorruption, (1 Corinthians 15:42-44), may not the lost be recalled to bodily life in corruption, dishonor and shame?
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