The Final Disposition of Sin.
By F. A. Tryne
F. A. TRYNE: In answer to your queries we reply, 1. Christ did not bear the sins of the world in his body on the tree, in the sense of removing them from the world. Sin still rests on the sinner, unless he avails himself of the provisions that have been made for its removal. In this sense, then, Christ bore them, that is to provide a way for their removal. 2. When sin is removed from us by our availing ourselves of this provision made by Christ, the forgiveness is relative, not absolute; that is, the sin is forgiven so far as we are concerned, and we are just as free as though we had never committed it; but the sin still exists, and falls somewhere else. It is removed first to the sanctuary, and when the ministration there is closed, to the head of the antitypical scapegoat, the devil. The devil is the originator of sin. He first introduced this vile progeny into God's fair universe. He is therefore responsible for all the results. The whole account, so to speak, is placed to his charge. But he has succeeded in inducing a great many to share with him in this work, and take a measure of the responsibility upon themselves. Fallen angels, and the apostate human race, are associates with him in his rebellion against the government of God, to share with him, unless pardon intervenes, in the punishment due to such a crime. But for the human race, as they did not originate sin, but have been seduced into it by other influences, means have been provided whereby they can obtain pardon, and free themselves from all complicity in this work of the devil. Those who do this, rid themselves of the guilt, and escape the consequences, of their sins. Had they remained in sin, they would have been punished for their sins as accomplices of the devil. Having become free from such a position, the guilt and responsibility of their sins falls back on the one to whom the whole account is chargeable—the whole account, except so far as he has induced others to share with him in it. But in case of the pardoned sinner, there is a portion of the great mass of iniquity, the responsibility of which no one is found to take; hence it goes to the only place left for it, namely, to the account of the author and originator of sin. We have said that the devil is the originator of sin. More than this, he is the direct instigator of sin, tempting and urging men forward to all the deeds of darkness which they commit. He is therefore indirectly responsible, not only as the originator, but more particularly as the instigator, for all the evil that is done under the sun. But so long as the sinner sees fit to retain the responsibility of his wicked deeds upon himself, so long the devil is free, so far as the sins of that individual are concerned; when, however, the sinner, through the intervention of Christ, becomes free from this, it falls back upon the only other party in the transaction. Nothing could seem to us more just and appropriate, than that this should be so. Christ did not die to relieve the devil from any of the guilt or suffering due to his terrible work, but only to bring mankind, so far as they would accept of his offering, out from under the fearful load. Sins can perish or be obliterated only in the utter extinction of those to whom the guilt finally attaches, first in the persons of sinners as the branches, and finally in Satan as the root, of this evil tree. For a full discussion of the principles involved in this question, see “Atonement,” by J. H. Waggoner, published at this Office.