FUNDAMENTAL to our understanding of the whole human race is the fact of sin. It is fundamental to our understanding of the whole course of human history, and of the present state of western society in particular. Indeed it is the only explanation of all the sorrow and suffering, and all the violence and hatred, which fills the world. And, above all, it should be fundamental to our understanding of ourselves as individuals.
Sin has consequences which extend beyond human relationships, for it affects our whole relationship with God. Every single individual, male and female, young and old, rich and poor, is by nature under condemnation, eternal condemnation, because all have sinned against God. For those who are still alive it is as yet a suspended sentence, but only because of God’s forbearance and longsuffering. Yet it is not that kind of suspended sentence which can be avoided by better behaviour, by some more effective attempt at keeping the law of God for the rest of one’s life. That is out of the question because “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (Rom 3:20). The sentence is suspended to give the opportunity for repentance. But where there is no repentance a time of reckoning must come, for God is a God of perfect justice, who cannot pass by sin. And where there is a sense of the total evil of sin, as done against the infinitely holy God, sinners will see that there is a necessity in the punishment of sin. For if sin is not punished God must cease to be just, and that can never happen.
Where then is there a place for such a petition as David’s: “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions” (Ps 25:7)? The answer comes in the next part of the verse: “According to Thy mercy remember Thou me”. The exercise of mercy on God’s part is perfectly consistent with His justice, for “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps 85:10). Mercy can be shown to the sinner by not inflicting the sentence, because, a substitute was provided — a substitute who could endure the infinite penalty which is the just recompence of sin. It is righteous because sin is an infinite evil, and sin is an infinite evil because it is committed against an infinite God. Christ, the divine Saviour, the altogether suitable substitute, endured the full penalty of divine wrath against sin – not His own sin, for He had none, but the sin of all that great multitude who were given to Him in the eternal covenant, and who as perfectly sanctified in heaven will to all eternity sing to the praise of divine mercy, as a mercy which is exercised in perfect harmony with divine justice.
The simple truth of the gospel is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. In Him were fulfilled the words of Isaiah: “He will magnify the law and make it honourable” (42:21). If the law was dishonoured by countless transgressions from the moment when man fell, here is One who as the sinner’s substitute honoured the law by keeping it perfectly. Likewise in enduring the penalty of the law He honoured the law in all its claims against those whose sins he was bearing, for He entered with full heart into the justice of God in its claims for full satisfaction because of a broken law, although the sentence, “Thou shalt surely die”, fell on Himself. Even when enduring the divine anger against sin in His body and soul He could say, “But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Ps 22:3).
Just as surely as the Father declared at His baptism and on the mount of transfiguration, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” so He made it known by the resurrection that He was well pleased with the Son’s work at Calvary. Satisfaction had been made to a broken law, and it was now declared to all succeeding generations that Christ had magnified the law and made it honourable.
In the gospel it is made known that no one who believes in Christ can perish, and all who hear the gospel are commanded to believe. Yet it seems strange that a command should be needed in such circumstances: sinners under sentence of eternal death told that they can only escape if they believe in Him who was crucified and rose again. It speaks with great force of the hardness of every sinner’s heart that no one will embrace this Saviour apart from divine power. It speaks of tremendous blindness in every human heart that sinners do not recognise either the danger of an undone eternity or the freeness with which salvation is offered to the undeserving. It speaks of extraordinary rebellion when sinners will not respond with the utmost eagerness to the command to repent and believe the gospel. And it speaks of the great power of the god of this world to blind “the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor 4:4).
It is a solemn fact that “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecc 8:11). While the divine sentence of condemnation is suspended, man’s heart is continually being hardened in sin and is being particularly hardened by resistance to the gospel. The hard heart of man is ever unwilling to believe that the sentence will ever be inflicted against him, and he is equally unwilling to believe that the salvation which is offered to him is really good. He is unwilling to accept that he could be happy if he is saved, for holiness is not attractive to man’s fallen heart. But the fact is that God brings this salvation near to us in His goodness.
Only those who have been made willing to submit to God and His way of salvation can understand the greatness of the blessings which are included in that salvation. As when, for instance, the Lord calls, “Come out from among them . . . and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters” (2 Cor 6:17f). Who that has experienced true family love and can look at God with an unbiased heart (that is, a renewed heart) can doubt that the tender care of an all-wise Father in heaven is an unspeakable blessing? This blessing of adoption, besides the blessings of justification and sanctification, and every other blessing that flows from them, was purchased by Christ. Not only does He deliver sinners from perishing, not only is the sentence of condemnation removed, but the sinner is brought into a condition where he is treated as a child and has been given the heart of a child. He is still a wayward child, but the heavenly Physician is dealing with that waywardness and, at the point of leaving this world for a better, that waywardness will be completely removed. The blessedness of heaven is not only that there will be no more sorrow or suffering, no more violence or hatred; the greater fact is that in heaven there will be no more sin. But if a life of holiness in this world is unattractive to those whose hearts are still biased by sin, how much more unappealing will be an existence where everything is perfectly pure, where there is not the slightest stain of sin. What reason then for all to pray, “According to Thy mercy remember Thou me”!
When we take into account the corruption of human nature we should not be surprised that unconverted sinners under the gospel so often remain unconverted. They have hearts that are blind to their danger, to the infinite evil of sin, and to the blessedness of a state of salvation both on earth and in heaven. Nor should we be surprised at the attitude of those who oppose true Christianity. False religion has an attractiveness to the natural heart which the truth can never claim. It is a road to blessedness which does not emphasise the corruption of the human heart or the helplessness of the sinner dead in trespasses and sins. Idolatry in its various forms appeals to the senses in a way that the simplicity of Scriptural worship never can.
Yet false religion can never ultimately satisfy its followers. A generation will come which will see through its emptiness but, unless the Lord will work in saving mercy, only to turn to some other form of false religion or, as this generation has done so largely, turn to no religion at all. Or, perhaps one should say, to a religion whose chief precept is to enjoy oneself to the maximum in this life. If every false religion is built on a thoroughly insecure foundation, this is a religion which has no foundation at all. Hence the widespread questioning of whether life has any meaning — which has so characterised young people over the last few decades. Yet perhaps there has never been a time when more books were published trying to show in one way or another that Christianity is false. Fallen man has always put great effort into suppressing the truth, because the truth is perceived as a threat to a comfortable existence in sin. Today books which claim to give a Life of Jesus, for instance, are sold in their multiplied thousands because multitudes wish to feel more secure in their rejection of Him as a Saviour. This generation is thoroughly secular, yet it seems to feel it necessary to have its unbelief bolstered. Man, it has been said, is incurably religious. He cannot feel secure in atheism, especially when confronted with the great reality of death. But he has no wish to acknowledge the living God, although God has so clearly revealed Himself.
The greater part of the professing Church is unspeakably culpable in having aided and abetted the increasing secularity of our times by covering over the clear light of the Scriptures with her unbelief. Now she looks around in surprise because almost no one pays attention to her any more. The Church must learn once more to take seriously the fact that all are by nature under God’s condemnation. She must also face the fact that hers is the trumpet by which the world is to be called to recognise this solemn fact and by which the remedy is to be proclaimed. The Church must learn to set Christ — as He is revealed in the Scriptures — at the centre of her message. How we should long for a time when a reinvigorated Church would proclaim faithfully throughout the world the good news that the Son of God became man so that He might work out a perfect salvation for sinners! And how we should pray that this message would be powerfully applied by the Holy Spirit to multitudes of hearers, so that the awful sentence which hangs over their head would be removed for ever! Such a time has been promised. May the Lord hasten it!
KDM