SIN AND ITS SINFULNESS.
By J. W. SCOLES
It certainly comes little short of doing despite unto the Spirit of grace for a professed child of God to engage in any willful transgression, and then to think lightly of it. Do not solace yourself with the idea that it is only a small sin, and that the Lord will not take much notice of it. Such inspirations are directly from the enemy of all righteousness and can have but one result, namely, to lead us away from God. Our souls can enjoy perfect communion with Christ only by having perfect confidence in him. When we realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin, it will at once be apparent to us that God can tolerate on our part no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. While he can and does look with pity upon the repentant, contrite soul, there is nothing about his nature that can admit of a compromise with sin. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon,” said Christ, and this is certainly as true to-day as it was when first spoken. If we justify ourselves in wrong-doing by saying that the Lord will not regard it, we virtually make him a partner in our transgression. But God himself declares that he will have nothing to do with alliances of this kind. “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” Ps. 50: 21. Nothing short of sincere repentance for transgression can meet the requirements of the case. Let the work be thorough. Let the motives which prompted the sin be examined in the light of an awakened conscience, and with humble confession to God, and loathing the thing which caused us to offend, let the iniquity be put away forever. Not until this is done can we have any right to expect acceptance at the throne of grace. But when this is done, and we present Christ as our surety, and plead his atoning blood in our behalf, we can just as surely expect that our merciful Father then and there does accept us, fully and freely forgives us, and is reconciled to us, as we could expect his condemnation otherwise. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1: 9. But while we avoid the extreme of regarding sin so lightly as to excuse it or to expect pardon without due repentance, let us also be careful lest we drift to the other side of the question, and brood over our wrongs until they seem to us to be beyond pardon. It is far better to so continually abide in Christ by an exercise of living faith that we can at all times realize his power to keep us from falling; but if, in an unguarded moment, the adversary should ensnare us, we should with all possible haste seek freedom at the throne of grace from sin’s polluting stain. And while it is true that we should so sense the baseness and defiling character of sin that, viewed from a human standpoint, it would seem unpardonable, it is also true that we should remember that when we truly repent of our sins and come to God, through faith in our blessed Redeemer, we in one sense change places with him in the sight of Heaven, and that because of his taking our place, the righteousness and purity of the precious Saviour is imputed to us, while the vileness and depravity of our transgression is borne by the Lamb of God himself in our stead. Oh, the depth of the riches of his grace! “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.” Is it any wonder that even the angels in Heaven are astonished and amazed to see such matchless love and such tender mercy extended toward fallen men? Oh, while God in his infinite pity, although hating our sins, yearns to restore us to his divine favor, and patiently waits to be gracious unto us, may we make our peace with him through the blood of the everlasting covenant! “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Prov. 28: 13. J. W. SCOLES.