2 Corinthians 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest to God… I. THE DESIGN AND PRACTICAL TENDENCY OF THE THREATENINGS OF GOD IS TO PERSUADE MEN TO HOLY OBEDIENCE. 1. This will appear if we consider them as a measure of God's moral government. They are not empty threats, but are designed to secure the salutary effects of that government upon its subjects. This is apparent on the very face of them. They are annexed to the laws of that government, and their execution is connected only with the violation of its laws. It is essential to the very nature of a moral government that its authority be supported by threatened punishment. Without it, there is nothing to show that its claims are to be enforced; nothing to show that it may not be violated with impunity. 2. This design has been expressly declared. (1) On Sinai. Here even Moses exceedingly feared and quaked. And why? "That His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not." Similar impression was designed at the reading of the law at Ebal and Gerizim. (2) In the gospel commission, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned."(3) In the facts of Christian history. Look at the trembling jailor falling down before Paul and Silas; at the trembling and astonished Saul of Tarsus; at the three thousand pricked in the heart. And now say, whether these men despised the terror of the Lord, or felt it? The same gospel has produced the same effects in every age. II. THE DIRECT TENDENCY OF THE DIVINE THREATENINGS IS TO PERSUADE MEN TO OBEY THE GOSPEL. Not that the Divine threatenings have such a tendency viewed as denunciations of mere suffering. To tell a man that he is exposed to the fires of hell may disquiet him; but so far from tending to excite holy affection in the cold heart of man, it tends only to harden in despair, or awaken more violent enmity against God. But if mere terror has no tendency to soften the heart into love, how is it that the threatenings of God have a tendency to subdue the heart into cheerful submission to His will? I answer — 1. By the solemn alternative which they reveal to man. Now, although the mere disclosure of this alternative, of obedience or death eternal, will never of itself convert the sinner, yet no sinner will ever be converted without it. If to array the terrors of the Almighty against the sinner will not weaken the ardour of earthly attachments, and check the ardour of earthly pursuits, nothing can. These, at any rate, are enough to do it. 2. By the manner in which they enforce the necessity of compliance with the terms of salvation. It is only when the sinner sees that the threatenings of God cannot be defied with safety, and that there is no other way of escape than that to which his own heart is desperately opposed, that he begins to stand in awe of his almighty Sovereign. And it is in the threatenings of the infinite God that he sees his helpless necessity of submitting to His terms. 3. By the evil of sin, which they show to the sinner. The evil of sin must be learned from God's estimate of it. Man, the sinner himself, is not a safe judge on this question. Now, what should we think of God's estimate of sin, had He annexed no penalty to transgression? 4. By this revelation of the character of God in its glory and excellence. This they do as they reveal the full measure of His abhorrence of sin. This is God's holiness, and His holiness is pre-eminently His glory. As God loves the happiness of His creatures, He loves their holiness as the only means of their perfect happiness. As He loves their holiness He abhors sin. God's abhorrence of sin, then, is the exact measure of His benevolence. If we would see God in His abhorrence of sin, we must see Him through the medium of His threatenings. 5. By the manner in which they unfold the claims of God for the sinner's obedience in all their pressure of obligation. By these it is that the sinner is made to see, if he sees at all, who and what that God is with whom he has to do. 6. By the fact that they are not absolute, but conditional. Absolute threatenings would have no salutary influence whatever. But "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."Conclusion: 1. What has been the influence of the Divine threatenings upon us? Saints, as well as sinners, ought to derive practical benefit from them. 2. We see why God threatens sin with eternal punishment. 3. The object of preaching terror is not to agitate with alarm, but to persuade. 4. We see the self-deception, and the hardihood in sin of those who scoff at the Divine threatenings. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. |
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