The Destruction of Sin by A. T. Robinson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 27, 1913

The Destruction of Sin

By A. T. Robinson

A. T. ROBINSON

“And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn . . . the fat of the peace-offerings. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.” Lev. 6: 12, 13. That ceremony meant much to the devout, believing Jew. Through faith it brought into his soul the divine reality of the saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The service in the earthly sanctuary was a type of the gospel. But while it was a type, in that it shadowed forth the great offering to be made on Calvary, it was much more than a type to the believing Jew. It was the divine channel through which all the blessings of the gospel were made a reality to him. It is a mistaken idea to suppose that only a sort of typical pardon of sin could be obtained under the Jewish economy. Every offering prompted by faith, brought the offerer into full possession of all that the particular offering symbolized.

In nearly every sacrificial offering made by the penitent Jew the fat of the animal was to be carefully separated and afterward burned upon the altar. It was by this means that the fire was ever to be kept burning upon the altar.

Fire is an agent of destruction, an element which consumes all that it has to prey upon. The fat of the animal offered in sacrifice always represented sin. Separating the fat and burning it upon the altar represented the divine process by which sin is separated from the sinner, and its final and eternal destruction by fire.

Upon the altar of every human heart that is fully surrendered to God, through the office work of the Holy Spirit a fire has been kindled which will never go out, unless it is quenched, until all the dross of sin, all the base metal in the character, is burned out. This process calls for a constant surrender, on the part of the individual, of everything in his life which the Holy Spirit reveals to him is not right.

It is a fundamental doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists that, when the Lord comes, he will find a people in this world in whose lives sin will have come to an end. The promise of God to make Israel a holy people, which has been awaiting fulfilment for thousands of years, will be realized by God’s remnant people before the second coming of Christ. Here is the wording of such a promise: “That your days may be . . . as the days of heaven upon the earth.” Deut. 11: 21.

When Jesus comes, he is to “present . . . to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Eph. 5: 27. Before such a people can be found, it is evident that they will have ceased sinning. Sin will have been separated from their lives. The prophet Isaiah describes such a people, and tells us of the process by which this separation shall have taken place. Here are his words: “In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.” Isa. 4: 2-4.

Sin cannot exist in the presence of God because the glory of his presence is a “consuming fire” to sin. “Our God is a consuming fire,” is the declaration of both the Old and New Testaments.

The purpose of the gospel is twofold, —to destroy and make an end of sin, and to save the sinner from his sin. In order that sin may be destroyed and the sinner saved eternally, he must be saved from sin now. There must be a separation of sin from the sinner, preceding the final destruction of sin; otherwise the sinner will be destroyed in the destruction of sin.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation from sin to every one who accepts its provisions. Only those who are saved from the power of sin through the gospel now, in this life, will be saved eternally in the kingdom of God. Every one in whose life the power of the gospel does not work a separation of sin during his probationary life, will perish in sin when sin is destroyed.

The fire that is kindled by the Holy Spirit burns upon the altar of the human heart, and will entirely consume sin out of the life, if it is not quenched. But if that fire is quenched, then the individual will be consumed in the fire that consumes both sin and sinners. In the message borne by John the Baptist, we read: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matt. 3: 11, 12.

“Our God is a consuming fire.” When Christ made his first advent to this world, he came to be the Saviour of mankind. He came not to destroy sin, but to “save his people from their sins.” He took upon him human flesh and blood. His

glory, which otherwise would have destroyed every being in whom sin was found, was veiled with humanity. He thus became “the author of eternal salvation” from sin. But O, how unlike the first advent of the Son of God will be his second coming, “when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels”! Luke 9: 26. Says the psalmist, in describing the second advent: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.” Ps. 50: 3.

“By the sacrifice of himself”—by his life and his death on the cross—he made “an end of sins.” Dan. 9: 24. At his second advent he comes to “put away sin” by the sacrifice which was made on the cross. The great eternal purpose of the first advent was to make an end of sin. The great eternal purpose of the second advent will be to put away sin.

At the incarnation Christ took upon him sinful human flesh, flesh that was full of the motions of sins, striving for the mastery in his life. In that kind of flesh he lived a sinless life. Thus he “condemned sin in the flesh.” He terminated the right of sin to rule and reign in human flesh. By doing this—by conquering sin in sinful flesh—he gained for his followers the right to live a sinless life in sinful flesh. He made “an end of sins” for every one who will appropriate what he has done for him. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Rom. 6: 12.

The fulness of the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ is nothing short of complete victory over the power of sin in one’s life. The dominion of sin in the life of the Christian is a constant denial of two of the greatest truths of the gospel: First, it denies the fact that Christ actually “condemned sin in the flesh,” and second, it denies the fact that the gospel “is the power of God” to save from sin.

College View, Nebr.

(To be concluded)