Sin And Grace
SIN AND GRACE
“Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly.”—Rom. 5:20.
Sin and grace are the two great words of the Christian Religion. They lie at the very heart of the Gospel of Christ. To fail in the understanding of the one is to miss the meaning of the other. Wrong views of sin always issue in false interpretations of grace. The Epistle to the Romans has come to be regarded as the very core of the Gospel, because it deals so completely with these two fundamental words. The fifth chapter sums up the great exposition in its broadest issues as represented in Adam and Christ. Between these two there is a parallel and a contrast; a parallel in the representative character of their works, and a contrast in the operation and issues of their representative acts. The sin of Adam involved the whole race in ruin; the righteousness of Christ restored men to the justification of life. That is the parallel. Apart from any consent or effort, all men are involved in the curse of the first and the atonement of the second. The act of the one is the act of all, and the results of the act are shared by all. The contrast is set forth in the five times “much more” of the chapter. The disobedience of Adam spread sin over the whole race, the obedience of Christ gathered the sins of all unto Himself. From Paradise there went forth the stream of death; from Calvary there flows the river of life. The grace of God in Christ has cancelled sin and destroyed the works of the Devil. Grace has abounded over sin.
The chapter sums up this teaching in five facts about sin, five facts about Jesus Christ, and five facts about grace.
Concerning Sin:
That sin came through Adam’s transgression; that death came by sin; that Adam’s sin involved the whole race; that this racial guilt did not destroy any man’s personal responsibility; that sin and death obtained universal dominion.
Concerning Christ:
That He stands to the race as its Second Representative and Head; that He died for the ungodly; that He rose again from the dead; that the virtue of His obedience is transmitted to those for whom He died; that through Him is imparted the gift of grace which is His own eternal life.
Concerning Grace:
That in Christ the ungodly are justified freely by His grace; that by fellowship with Him we are made righteous before God; that salvation is of grace and not of works; that as salvation restores to righteousness, so by righteousness man regains his regal dominion in life; that grace abounds beyond the ravages of sin.
Taking the first and third of these sets of facts we have stated the Christian doctrines of sin and grace.
I. The Christian Doctrine of Sin
The Bible always deals with man as a sinful being. The fact of sin explains the process of Divine Revelation and the whole economy of Redemption. The Law came to make sin manifest and to correct man’s transgression. Every part of the sacred ordinances proceeded on the assumption of man’s guilt and his need of cleansing. If man be not sinful, the whole Scripture is without meaning and the Gospel a delusion. The Book that gives unique distinction to man in his creation, tells of his transgression and humiliation. According to its account man failed to attain his destiny. He grasped at divinity by forbidden means and fell from his high estate. The bond of fellowship with the Divine was broken, and from kinship with God he fell to kinship with Satan. His understanding was darkened and his heart hardened. From the realm of the spirit he descended to that of the flesh. The symmetry of his nature was broken and its order reversed. Instead of unity there was conflict within him. That which should have governed became captive, and that which was meant for service assumed control. Confusion took the place of harmony, and chaos succeeded a well-ordered cosmos.
There are many witnesses to confirm this Scriptural account of man’s sinfulness. Every religion deals with man as a transgressor, for whose sin atonement must be made. Every conception of religion begins with the fact of sin. There is absolute unanimity in this in every grade of religious belief and ordinance. Not religion only, but every organisation of human life has to begin by reckoning with sin. Laws are passed, penalties fixed, and prisons built, on the assumption that sin exists wherever men are found.
The development of modern thought has brought confirmation to many phases of Biblical teaching about sin, that were long the sport of unbelievers. The orthodox interpretations of facts may still be despised, but to the facts themselves it bears ungrudging witness. Theological formulae appear under such scientific terms as heredity, solidarity, and the survival of the fittest. They teach no more than the Scriptures have taught from the beginning, but we welcome their testimony to the fact and operations of sin. But if there were no other witness every man would be able to furnish his own. “I have sinned” is so universal, that we are driven to the conclusion that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Many attempts are made to account for sin’s origin in man. Some have contended that it is inherent in nature and inseparable from the flesh. Others urge that it is an incident of his growth, an inevitable stage in the process of his evolution, out of which he will grow as a child passes beyond infantile maladies. According to these there was no fall. At most it may have been a failure to rise, but it is more than likely “the fall was a fall upward.” That is the scientific way of falling! In the Scriptural account man was made a little lower than God and fell; in the scientific account he is made a little higher than the brute, but is rising all the time. In the one, sin is regarded as alien to man’s nature, a foreign element, which is no true part of his manhood; in the other, it is a necessary factor in man’s development from which he may never hope to be entirely free.
The Bible does not concern itself with the fall but with the fallen. It comes not to explain but to emancipate, not to philosophise but to save. It explains only where the explanation is deemed necessary to the salvation. The forgetfulness of this simplicity of Scriptural aim leads to much confusion. Stripped of all accessories of allegorical speech, the simple account is that sin entered through the acceptance of evil by the free will of man. Whatever the circumstances, this is the inner reality—man chose evil. There can be no other explanation of the ultimate fact. Without the free choice there could have been no sin. Evil can become possessed of the quality of sin only when it is man’s free choice. Where there is no choice there can be no sin. After all the searching criticism of the Genesis story, in all its essentials it stands as the only rational and adequate explanation of the evil that is in man, and his consequent need of Redemption.
What is sin?
We are on sure ground when we come to the Scriptures for the answer as to its nature and consequences. St. John defines sin as lawlessness. That is the final definition. It tracks sin to its innermost secret, and comprehends all the facts of its manifold operations. Sin is not an act but an attitude. The offence is not only in the transgression but in the intention; not merely in the violation of law but in the disposition of the heart.
Christ emphasised this in the Sermon on the Mount. Anger is murder in malice and motive. Lust is adultery though it never pass beyond the look of desire. The seat of sin is in the will. Man is judged not by what he does, but by what he wills to do. Intention determines quality. The same words may be a term of affection or a stinging insult. The motive makes all the difference. A blow may be an act of friendly playfulness or a challenge to deadly combat; the heart at the back of the hand settles which it is. There is many a thief who never steals. Lawlessness may stop short of transgression but it is the lawlessness that is sin. Man is not a sinner because he is a transgressor; he is a transgressor because he is a sinner. The sin of lawlessness precedes the act of transgression. Disobedience in act is the effect of which lawlessness is the cause. It is not a question of any one commandment but the disposition of the heart to the Giver of them all.
This definition of sin explains a fact and a passage. The fact is the variation in transgression, and the passage is James 2:10. Sin is the revolt of man against the authority of God; that is the essential fact. Different men carry their revolt into practice by breaking different commandments. The same man rarely, if ever, breaks them all. Indeed men are generally very proud of the commandments they keep, and have no sympathy with men who are vicious on lines where they themselves are virtuous. The drunkard will often boast of his chastity, the immoral man is thankful he is not a thief, and the profane swearer flatters himself that he never lies. As a matter of fact none have any room for boasting. That the drunkard is not an adulterer, the immoral man a thief, and the swearer a liar, is simply an accident of temperament and circumstance. When we go astray we turn “every one to his own way.” Given the conditions of desire and opportunity, the man who breaks one commandment would break any one in the Decalogue. The particular point at which we trespass is a matter of small importance; that we should defy God’s boundary at all is the offence. The sliding scale of society is not recognised in the judgments of Heaven. It is the sin at the back of the sins that does the mischief; the sin in desire, intention, and will. Sin is lawlessness, and lawlessness is sin, whether it assume a virtuous or a vicious form. Man is judged not by his acts but by his heart.
This silences for ever the scorn that has been poured on Adam’s Apple. The significance of an act cannot be measured by the value of the thing that gave the occasion. Moral quality is not affected by quantity. The law is one. It is not a succession of separate and independent precepts, but a unit. When any one point is broken, the whole is broken. He that is guilty of offence in the one point is guilty of all. The whole Decalogue is summed up in the one word Love. The same word sums up God and Duty. To break the least, sins against Love, God, and Duty. Not that sin has no degrees, nor that the man who offends only in one point is as bad as the man who offends in all, but to break at all is to break the whole. One leak will sink a ship, and one sin, whatever its form, separates the soul from God and sinks it in degradation and death.
As sin is the sum of all sins, so death is the sum of all its consequences. “The wages of sin is death.” That something more than physical death is meant, is evident both from the narrative in Genesis, and in the Scriptural use of the word. When man sinned he died. Sin is always followed by death. Men are said to be dead while they live. Sin slays the man made in the Divine image. It separates him from God in whom is his life. Guilt, disorder, and desolation are the marks of the soul’s death. Whatever the laws of heredity, they do not exonerate the sinner from his guilt. God holds the sinner responsible for his sin. Disorder follows alienation from the true Centre of his life: disorder within himself, and disorder in the world. After disorder, desolation. Wickedness lays waste all things beautiful and good. It turns Paradise into a wilderness and Heaven into Hell. It is in the heart and in the world as a loathsome pestilence. Sin is the most terrible thing in God’s universe. We have all sinned. There is none sinless among us. The only prayer that becomes our lips is: “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
II. The Christian Doctrine of Grace
Over against this terrible word sin, stands the greater word Grace. This conjunction of the two defines the limits of our consideration of the word which comprehends the Evangelical faith. Grace goes over the trail of sin, tracks it to its innermost recesses, destroys its power, undoes its mischief, and turns its very weapons to its own destruction. Grace not only conquers, it more than conquers; it not only abounds, it abounds more exceedingly. We are saved by grace. What is grace? There is no definition of grace as there is of sin. It defies definition. It is illimitable, infinite, eternal. It is illustrated but never defined. In this connexion it is the overflowing mercy of God, without regard to merit on the one hand or obligation on the other. We had no claim. Our sin had forfeited every right we ever possessed. God was under no obligation. We had defied His authority, rejected His word, and voluntarily forsaken Him for His sworn foe. But of His mercy He saved us. “God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Grace redeemed, delivered, and restored man from the curse and dominion of sin. The overtures did not come from man but from God. From first to last, salvation is of the grace of God.
The Method of Grace
Grace is peculiarly associated with the mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the sacrifice of the Cross it finds its highest expression. Grace comes to us through Him. Sin finds its destruction in His death. The Cross is meaningless apart from sin. The Scriptures leave us in no doubt that to save man from sin, it was necessary that Christ should die. His death was vicarious and sacrificial. He was “The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Sin laid the sinner under the wrath and condemnation of God. It separated from God and destroyed the basis of fellowship, which was identity of life. Before man could be restored, sin’s penalty must be paid. A way must be found by which God could be just, and the justifier of the ungodly; a way by which man could be restored not only to the possibility of fellowship, but to moral and spiritual fitness for it. That problem was solved in Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of the Father. It is the burden of the Gospel that He died for our sins. He gathered unto Himself and bore in His own Person the sin of the whole world. Every sinner may look to the Cross and say, He “loved me, He gave Himself up for me.”
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood,
Alleluia! What a Saviour!
How does the grace of God operate to the abounding over sin?
First of all it secures the forgiveness of sin. The race is pardoned. The obedience of Christ was as truly representative as the sin of Adam. “So then as through one trespass the judgement came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life.” As the Apostle argues in the Epistle to the Corinthians, “One died for all, therefore all died.” The race died in Christ just as truly as the race sinned in Adam. When the First Representative sinned, all sinned. When the Last Representative died for sin, all died. This truth is expounded in the next chapter, and its full significance applied to experience. We died in Christ, therefore we are dead to sin; dead to its claims, dead to its allurements, dead to its dominion. We are free from the law of sin and death, delivered from the curse and penalty of sin; offenders, yet justified freely by His grace. This is the first note of the Gospel. “Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins.” “In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
The ambassadors of the Gospel of grace are sent to proclaim the forgiveness of sin. In the forgiveness of the race every offender is pardoned. Not may be, but is! Without exception and without condition we are sent to tell every sinner that Jesus Christ has made Atonement for the world’s sin, and through Him is preached the forgiveness of sin. That is the Gospel, and it is for sinners. How difficult it is to persuade men that the Good News is not reserved for worthy and respectable people! It is for prodigals, outcasts, wanderers; for every one that answers the description and title of sinner. The Lord came, not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The Church is sent to the same sort of people, and its one and only message is that God for Christ’s sake has forgiven them, and sends us to bring them back to Him. Every barrier is removed, every obligation met, every sin cancelled, every sinner forgiven; the Gospel is a message of a full, free, and universal pardon, on no other conditions than such as are involved in its acceptance through Christ.
That is not heresy but sound Gospel. Then what is the difference between a saved and an unsaved man? Simply this, that one has accepted his pardon and the other has rejected it. Personal acceptance is the only condition of personal salvation. A man may make the Cross of Christ of none effect, and though racially saved, be personally lost. In the Queen’s Jubilee year, 1887, I was in Edinburgh. Passing over George the Fourth Bridge one day I saw a picturesque procession of civic dignitaries going to the old Cross near St. Giles’ Cathedral. There was a great crowd, and I turned and followed them. After a great fanfare of trumpets, a Royal Proclamation was read declaring the Queen’s forgiveness of all deserters from the Army and Navy. I was not near enough to hear the terms of the proclamation, but I understood that all the deserters now pardoned should report themselves within so many days at the nearest military or naval depôt. I afterwards met two of them going to the Castle. What were they going for? To be pardoned? Nay, they were pardoned already. It had been publicly proclaimed. They went simply to claim the certificate of their pardon; not to beg for it, but to claim it. Is that too strong a word to use of the sinner’s forgiveness? Let St. John answer: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Faithful and righteous! Not compassionate and pitiful! Jesus Christ has secured for us a right which a righteous God cannot ignore. Charles Wesley is very bold, but not bolder than the Apostle warrants, when he sings—
That sinner am I
Who on Jesus rely,
And come for the pardon God cannot deny.
The acceptance of pardon implies return to allegiance, and restoration to fellowship and service. The deserter received his certificate and walked into his place in the ranks. He could not accept, and walk out to lawlessness. Even so are repentance and faith assumed in the act of acceptance. Pardon is granted to every sinner, and awaits only the sinner’s personal claim.
Then as pardon abounds over guilt, so sanctification abounds over the presence and effects of sin in the soul. Forgiveness without cleansing would not cover man’s need. The work of grace must be at least co-extensive with the work of sin. A sacrifice at the right hand of God secures our standing, but unless righteousness be implanted as well as imputed, we should still be in the bondage of sin. The Christ who laid down His life for our sins took it again, that He might impart it to us in the Person of His Spirit. Christ in the Heavens justifies; Christ in the heart saves. Where sin had its seat His throne is established. The will is surrendered, the heart cleansed, the desire changed, and the nature renewed. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation.” “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Cleansing and Regeneration restore man’s nature to its true order, and death is swallowed up in life.
The restored order in the man secures the restoration of the true order in the world. The new man necessitates a New Heaven and a New Earth. Personal regeneration is followed by social reconstruction.
Sin brought guilt, grace brings justification; sin separated man from God, grace brings him nigh by the blood of Christ; sin darkened the understanding and defiled the heart, grace brings light and knowledge and purifies the heart; sin disturbed the true order of man’s nature and defaced the Divine image within him, grace creates him anew after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness; sin cursed the world, grace restores its peace and beauty; sin brought death, grace brings the gift of life. Wherever sin abounded, grace hath abounded more exceedingly.
There are still the two Adams, and the responsibility of choice still lies with man. We may reject grace and continue in sin, or we may renounce sin and live in grace. Every man elects to be identified with Adam or Christ, to choose sin or grace. No man need continue in sin, for grace has abounded unto complete salvation.