Chapter 27. Every Sin Will Be Punished According to the Degree of Guilt.
Chapter 27
1. For instance, I have heard from a certain Presbyter, who has heard it from the apostles, whom he had also seen, as also from their disciples, that a deserving punishment [as is clear] from the Scriptures was dealt out to the ancients for acting without the Spirit’s counsel. For, since God is not a respecter of persons, he dealt out a suitable punishment for things not done according to his will. For example, when David suffered the persecution from Saul on account of justice, and fled from King Saul and did not take revenge on his enemy, he was really singing of Christ’s coming and instructing the Gentiles with wisdom, and doing all things according to the Spirit’s counsel, and was pleasing to God. But when, because of his lust, he took Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, to himself, Scripture said of him, But the thing which David had done displeased the Lord. And the Prophet Nathan was sent to him to manifest his sin to him, that he, by passing sentence on himself and condemning himself, might obtain mercy and forgiveness from Christ: For the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had brought up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup, and it was like a daughter to him. Now, there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer, who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man that was come to him. Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man that has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity on the poor man.” And Nathan said to him, “You are the man who did this.” Then he continues with the rest: He upbraids him, enumerates the benefits of God toward him and that he had angered the Lord by his deed. For such deeds do not please God; on the contrary, great anger hangs over his house. At this David was moved to compunction and said, “I have sinned against the Lord,” and he sang the Psalm of Confession. And he awaited the Lord’s coming, who would wash and cleanse man held bound by sin.
The same is true of Solomon, while he continued to judge rightly and asked for wisdom, and when he built the type of the true temple, and when he told of the glories of God and announced the peace that would come to the Gentiles, and foreshadowed Christ’s reign, and spoke three thousand canticles in praise of God, and when he gave a natural explanation of God’s wisdom in creation in regard to all the trees, and all the plants, and all the birds, quadrupeds and fishes, and said, Will God indeed dwell with men on earth? Behold the heavens cannot contain him. Also when he pleased God, and all men admired him, and all the kings of the earth sought his favor, that they might listen to his wisdom which God had given him. The Queen of the South came to him from the ends of the earth to learn the wisdom that he possessed. The Lord, too, said that she would rise in judgment against the generation of those who hear his words but do not believe in him, and would condemn them, because she was submissive to the wisdom announced by God’s servant, whereas these despise the wisdom offered by God’s Son; for Solomon was a servant, but Christ was God’s Son and Solomon’s Lord. So while Solomon served God blamelessly and ministered to his economies, then he was praised. But when he took wives from all the Gentiles and permitted idols to be erected in Israel, Scripture says of him: Now King Solomon loved women, and took to himself foreign women. For when Solomon was old his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, for the foreign women turned away his heart after other gods. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as David his father. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was not wholly true to the Lord, like the heart of David his father. Scripture strongly rebuked him, as the Presbyter said, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
2. For this reason, too, the Lord descended into the regions below the earth, to proclaim the good news of his coming also to them and that remission of sins existed for those who believe in him. Now all those who hoped in him believed in him, that is, the just and the Patriarchs and the Prophets who foretold his coming and ministered to his economies. He forgave their sins as well as ours, and so we may not impute the sins to them without showing contempt for God’s grace. For just as they did not impute to us our uncontrolled deeds that we did before Christ was manifested in us, so it is not right for us to impute the sins to those who sinned before Christ’s coming. For all men fell short of the glory of God; they are, however, not justified by themselves, but through the Lord’s coming if they direct their attention toward his light. However, their deeds were written down for our instruction, that we might know, first, that our God and theirs is one and the same who is not pleased with sins, even if they are committed by people in high standing; and, second, that we should abstain from evil.
In fact, if those men of old, who surpassed us in gifts but for whose sake God’s Son had not yet suffered, were disgraced so much because they sinned in some manner and catered to the lusts of the flesh, what will not those suffer who are living now who despised the Lord’s coming and catered to their pleasures? For the former the Lord’s death was healing and forgiveness of sins, but for those who now sin, Christ will never die again, death no longer has dominion over him; but the Son will come in the glory of the Father to demand with interest from his stewards the money which he has entrusted to them; and from those to whom he had given the most, he will demand the most. And so we must not, as that Presbyter said, be proud or reprove the ancients, but we must fear lest after having had the knowledge of Christ, we should do something unpleasing to God and should no longer receive forgiveness of our sins, but should be excluded from his kingdom. With this in mind Paul said, For if he did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you, you who though a wild olive shoot, were grafted to the richness of the olive tree, and have become a sharer in its richness.
3. In the same way, you will see that the transgressions of the common people were described, not for the sake of the transgressors of that time but for our instruction, and that we might know that there is one God against whom they sinned, and against whom certain ones sin at present who claim to believe in him. The Apostle brings this out very clearly in his Letter to the Corinthians. He says, For I would not have you ignorant that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased, for “they were overthrown in the wilderness.” Now these things are a type for us, not to desire evil as some desired. Do not be idolators as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.” We must not indulge in immorality, as some of them indulged in immorality, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them put him to the test, and were destroyed by the serpent; or grumble, as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as a type, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
4. So the Apostle demonstrates without doubt and without contradiction that there is one and the same God who judged the sins of the past and who seeks out the sins of the present. And since he pointed out the reason for putting these things in writing, all these men are found to be uninstructed and audacious and even imprudent who, because of the transgression of the men of old and because of the disobedience of many of them, assert that the God of these men was the Creator of the world, and that he was made in degeneracy, but that there is another Father who was handed down by Christ, and this is the one whom each one of them thought up. They did not understand that just as in those days God was not pleased with most of them who sinned, so now many are called, but few are chosen, and that just as then the unrighteous and the idolators and the immoral lost their lives, so it is now. For the Lord announced that such are cast into eternal fire. The Apostle, too, said, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor the homosexuals, nor Sodomites, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the revilers, nor the robbers, will inherit the kingdom of God. That he is not saying this of those who are outside, but to us, lest we be cast outside the kingdom of God if we do such things, he continues, And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of God. And just as then those who did evil and destroyed others were condemned and cast out, so now, the eye that scandalizes is dug out, and the foot and hand [are cut off], lest the rest of the body perish in like manner. And we have a commandment, If a brother is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater or reviler, drunkard or robber—do not even eat with him. Again the Apostle says, Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them. And as then also the rest who approved them and associated with them, shared in the condemnation of sinners, so now a little leaven ferments the whole lump. And as then God’s anger came down upon the unrighteous, so now in like manner, as the Apostle says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth of God. And as then God’s vengeance came upon the Egyptians who unjustly punished Israel, so now too, as the Lord says, And will God not avenge his elect, who cry to him day and night? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Also the Apostle preaches in the same way in the Letter to the Thessalonians: Since God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted when the Lord Jesus is revealed, who will come from heaven with his mighty angel in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, coming from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed in him.