p. 167 | Sin by Stephen N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 10, 1870

Sin.

By Stephen N. Haskell

“SIN is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3: 4. The law is a rule by which right is known. A law which comprehends every righteous principle, would be a perfect law, and could be correctly termed righteousness. Such is the character of the ten-commandment law: “All Thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119: 172; 19: 7; Isa. 51: 7; 42: 21; Deut. 6: 25.

Such a law would be a transcript of God’s mind, hence unchangeable in its form, and eternal in its duration. Such are the commandments: “All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Ps. 111: 7, 8; 89: 34.

Hence sin is to depart from the right way, and become unlike God. There can be no excuse for sin, no reason why man should sin; for sin is stepping from right, into wrong. It is anomalous, a violation of all law, and if a good and sufficient excuse can be rendered, then it is not sin; for a good and sufficient reason justifies the act; and if the act is justified, it is in harmony with the law, hence cannot be sin. Therefore, to confess sin, and drag along a reason why the act was committed, is a dishonor and stigma upon the law and its Author; for it is virtually saying, that in view of the circumstances the act was justifiable; hence the law was wrong; and as the law made no provision for the act, we sit in judgment on the law and its Author. Excuses for sin will be sought for in proportion as the enormity of sin is seen and felt, and the hideousness of it is estimated according to the importance attached to the law; and as the law is honored so is its Author.

To find ourselves sinners and be not condemned, because we were honest, is an awful mixing of light and darkness, and compromising God with sin. It shows a judgment and conscience which are unsafe to follow. Sin is sin, whether it be realized or not. “If a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.” Lev. 5: 17. When the sin came to the knowledge of the transgressor, then an offering was brought and confession made. Lev. 4: 14, 15.

There is a sort of moral dyspepsia in the world, arising from a diseased consciousness, ever desiring to be right, but continually found in the wrong, ever seeking to palliate the sin with a plea of honesty. By carefully reading the fifty-first Psalm, some light may be obtained how to look upon sin, and what kind of a confession and prayer will be found acceptable to God. God calls for true-hearted, whole-souled, Christians. Who will be one? S. N. HASKELL.