Romans 7:13 Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good… We can best estimate the extent of any good by filling our minds with the vastness of the evil which that good was destined to take away. If I were standing upon the margin of the sea, and pondered the greatness of its capacity, and, as I thought, some vast mountain were to roll itself into its bosom and disappear, would not the thought help me to the exceeding depth of those mighty waters? So, by God's grace, the contemplation of the enormity of my "sin" will assist me to some measure of that love in which that enormity has been absorbed. I. WHAT IS "SIN"? 1. The transgression of the law. Our first parents had a law — "Thou shalt not eat of it." They transgressed that one law, and it was "sin." We have one law — love. We transgress it, and it is "sin." 2. Rebellion — the resistance of a human mind against the sovereignty of its Creator. It little matters in comparison what may be the act: the fact is the important thing. Man measures "sin" by the injury it inflicts upon society, or upon the sinner. God measures it by the degree of its rebellion against Himself. 3. No "sin" is single. You commit some offence, and it breaks all God's laws. "Whosoever shall offend in one point is guilty of all."(1) The principle of obedience is a single thing: the man that has broken one law has violated this principle, and therefore he is as much a breaker of the law as if he had broken a thousand things. (2) All God's law is one — "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." He that had done one "sin," did not love God. (3) If you take anyone "sin," you will be surprised to find how many "sins" he rolled and coiled up in that little compass. Remember, first, that all "sins of commission" begin in "sins of omission." And if you add to that the thought, the desire, the motive, the act itself and its consequences, and when you put all this over against the mercies, how will that, which once looked one, swell out a thousandfold? II. WHAT DOES SIN DO? 1. Any sin occupies a certain space, and there is a certain period of sinning. The spot and the period may be very small; nevertheless, that was God's place, and "sin" had no right to be there. Therefore that sin was a trespasser. It came wrongfully upon God's territory. 2. It did much more than "trespass." By your sin you have taken a jewel out of the crown of God. Therefore I charge upon every sin with robbery. 3. Further, when God draws the real character of a murderer, he draws it thus — "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man." Now, "the image of God" is innocence, and purity, and love. But sin violates these, and therefore breaks God's image and is a murderer. But of what sort? The most aggravated possible. For if there had been only one "sin," that one "sin" would have required the blood of Jesus Christ to wash it out. And if it he thus with all "sin," how much more must it be with some of you who "crucify the Son of God afresh"? III. WHERE WILL IT END? I have said that every sin lies in a series; and none can calculate what will be the chain of consequences, which shall stretch on and on beyond time into eternity. The Bible tells us of an awful state in which a soul may pass into a hopeless and unpardonable condition. First there comes the grieving; then the resisting; then the quenching; then the blaspheming of the Spirit; and so the reprobate state draws on. But it is quite clear that every sin which a man wilfully does is another and another step in advance towards the unpardonable state: and in all sin there is a tendency to run faster, faster, as it makes progress. Indeed, there is not a "sin" which has not death bound up in it. A sin leads to a habit, a habit to a godless state of mind, and the godless state of mind to death. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. |
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