Sin is to be found in the heart of man, where the root of every sin resides. The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; and out of his heart there proceedeth all that defileth the man, even adultery, fornication, theft, murder and all other evils. Sin is the transgression of the law of God and is to be seen also in the rejection by men of the divine Redeemer, revealed in the gospel. Paul refers to those who were enemies of the Cross of Christ; and earlier the Jews were charged with the sin of killing the Prince of life.
Throughout the Bible, sins of many and varied kinds committed by sinners and saints, are made known for our learning and warning. Some of these are peculiar to the persons guilty of them and are not generally committed in actual practice by others.
Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ for money and with a kiss. The Council of the Jews under the high priest charged the Son of God with blasphemy because he claimed to be who He was. Men reviled the Lord while He hung on the Cross, after, instrumentally, obtaining His crucifixion. Men stoned godly Stephen to death because he declared to them the truth regarding themselves as being the murderers of the Lord. Elymas, the sorcerer, sought to turn away Sergius Paulus from instruction respecting the Christian faith being given him by Paul and Barnabas. Men persecuted the apostles because they preached Jesus and the resurrection; and the witnesses of the Lord have been persecuted down through the ages of the Church’s history. Others have professed to know God and yet did not keep His commandments; and the Apostle John, in his First Epistle, declares that such were liars.
The aforesaid sins make a formidable list indicating what man is capable of, and yet it is a limited list. Each sin mentioned
possesses a peculiar and distinctive character of its own. Those who committed them had their own special and personal reasons and motives for acting as they did and reveal how varied, many and distinctive are the evils that can proceed from the heart of man.
On the question of the particular nature or rather the peculiar, unusual nature of some sins, the exposure of a certain sin by the Apostle John in his First Epistle is of interest. He writes: “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him”. Now the moral law states, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”. In the above case a man is proved to be a liar in bearing false witness in relation to himself and involving God’s name. This liar’s sin, of course, comes within the scope of the prohibition of the moral law as quoted above. Yet this lie is a special type of sin, as apart from bearing false witness against another.
Again, we may select another sin which may not ordinarily be met with by individuals nor be so commonly committed. That is, the evil action and conduct on the part of Elymas, in seeking to turn away Sergius Paulus from the faith, in which he was being instructed by the apostles. Certainly there are some, even today, who have been brought by the Lord to entertain a real, serious interest in the gospel and spiritual things; and on this being evident, they have encountered opposition by one or more of their fellow sinners to the fact of their having such an interest in the Gospel of Christ. This sin was such, that it was punished immediately by God, in that Elymas was rendered blind for a season, after being told that he was a “child of the devil”. This sin may not be thought to be sin at all by some. It may not be considered out of place by ignorant persons, to be critical of a member of their family or of an acquaintance who begins to show a serious interest in the things which concern the salvation of the soul and eternity. The fact is, that the conduct of such, by word or deed, constitutes a particular type of sin, in seeking to come between such a one and the gospel and salvation. It may well expose those guilty of it to an immediate manifestation of the divine displeasure against them. Another distinctive sin, not mentioned above, is that which the Apostle Paul deals with in connection with the conduct of Hymenæus and Philetus (see 2 Tim.: chapter 2). These men apparently had a place in the Church. First of all, they erred concerning the truth and were maintaining that the resurrection was past already, that is, the general resurrection of the dead which Christ taught would take place at the last day, when they that are in their graves would hear the voice of the Son of God and rise, some to the resurrection of life and others to the resurrection of damnation. We give as
a likely background to the error of those men, what is recorded in Matthew, chapter 27, verses 51 and 52. Following immediately upon the death of the Lord Jesus, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. Then we are told that “The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many”. Now this was a limited number who arose on this remarkable occasion and included only saints. The doctrine of Christ clearly asserted that the full resurrection would involve all that were in their graves and include also they that had done evil, that is, the wicked. So if Hymenæus and Philetus were basing their view of the resurrection as past already because some saints rose after Christ’s resurrection, they were in conflict with Christ’s teaching and were in serious error. But their particular sin did not merely consist in holding error; but in teaching their erroneous view to others with the deplorable effect that they overthrew the faith of some. So they, in effect, influenced others to cease believing in the essential and fundamental reality of a future resurrection at the last day. This conduct in their case, and in every case of a like character, constitutes outstanding and heinous sin. This particular sin is being committed today by men in the professed Christian Church, who hold erroneous and rationalistic views in their “treatment” of the Bible. Such men teach others in Colleges and Congregations and overthrow any belief in the mysteries of the Christian faith in the minds of many. We repeat, that this conduct constitutes a particularly heinous sin, of which men are not ashamed nor afraid as they might well be of adultery or murder.
In turning briefly to the Biblical record of sins committed by some of the people of God, we immediately remember David’s sin in relation to Bethsheba or earlier on, Aaron’s involvement in the worship of the golden calf. And in the New Testament, we read of Peter’s denial of his Lord. These were obvious and serious cases of backsliding.
Yet there are other types of conduct on the part of believers, of which we read, and which were inconsistent with the practice which is according to godliness and dishonouring to God. We will do little more than mention some of such cases. David insisted upon numbering Israel and Judah. After doing so his heart smote him, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly . . .” Likely confidence in the great number of valiant men in Israel and Judah, and forgetfulness of God as his strength, were inherent in this sin. Pestilence slew seventy thousand of his people as a punishment from the Lord. Then again, there is the
conduct of godly King Jehoshaphat of Judah, who went to assist wicked King Ahab of Israel to regain Ramath-gilead. Jehoshaphat nearly lost his life in the battle which ensued. Later he was severely reproofed by Hanani the seer thus: “Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?” And he was warned that the Lord was angry with him.
In the New Testament the eleven disciples are solemnly reproved by their risen Lord, because they believed not them which had seen him after He was risen. Jesus “… upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart”. Then we read in the Epistle to the Galatians, how the Apostle Peter was discovered to be blameworthy by the Apostle Paul, who writes: “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed”. Paul relates that “before that certain came from James, he (Peter) did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews likewise dissembled with him: inasmuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissemulation”. Paul further describes this conduct thus “… I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel …” This is a serious charge arising out of an unusual and particular sinful line of conduct having its source in fear of man.
Readers may wonder as to the purpose in view in reciting all these sins of sinners and saints. We all need to be reminded once and again, not only by a repetition of the truth that, “Sin is the transgression of the law”; but by an application to Biblical records of the sins of men, that man is wholly depraved and wicked in his nature. Surely we live in a day when evil is called good, and good evil and the Scriptural doctrine of man’s total depravity discounted. Then it is well, that it should be made known from the Word of God, that certain motives, words and actions considered more or less harmless, are in reality evil and very sinful. It is as believers themselves will examine and study the Scriptures of truth, that they will come under the guidance and light of the Holy Spirit, to discern and discover in their own hearts and conduct, sins that they were not clearly aware of before. The malady of sin must never be relegated to the background, but must be faced and exposed by the Church of Christ in its teaching, preaching and writing in an adequate measure and in a faithful manner. The remedy in the Son of God and through His Cross and shed blood, then becomes, as it is, glad tidings of great joy for the church to proclaim to sinners and also to believers.