A REMEDY IS PROVIDED by L. H. E.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 10, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 31.

A REMEDY IS PROVIDED

By L. H. E.

Sin Demands More and More—It Offers No Remedy, and Promises Only Worse and Worse Slavery—God Offers a Remedy for Sin—His Love for All Is Manifested

WHEN the apostle Paul asked, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” he meant to grant no license to continue in sin, but rather to emphasize freedom from sinning, having once been made free from past transgressions by the blood of Christ.

No one who realizes what sin is, and what sure punishment will follow those who transgress the law of God, will cherish sin in his heart. It is because our dulled senses are numbed by oft repeated disobedience, that sin loses its terribleness to us.

DO NOT REALIZE ITS AWFULNESS

The awfulness of sin cannot be realized by man in his present condition. Man is born in sin. From the first day of consciousness till death, he sees sin and its evil results ever about him. He has so familiarized himself with its effects, that his heart seems seared and his conscience dead.

Sin is deceitful. Its effects on the heart and conscience are like a deadly paralysis, which sends forth no cry of pain to call for help. It hardens the heart, and leaves its victim dead to his own best interests.

SIN DEMANDS MORE AND MORE

Sin is never satisfied. One indulgence only calls for more. Of itself it never leaves its victim to walk in virtue’s path, but demands more and more continuation in disobedience. Every transgression of God’s law only whets the appetite for a repetition of the act. Every road of sin leads farther and farther into the wilderness of rebellion. There is not one thing in sin that brings a remedy for itself. The thief may become honest, but not by stealing; the liar may come to the truth, but not by lying; the blasphemer may some day be influenced to use his lips in singing praises to Jehovah, but not by cursing; the unclean may some day walk in the path of purity, but not because of indulgences.

Sin never works reformation, but only goads its victim on in the downward road. Its entire history has been to multiply itself and ruin those whom it has smitten. Sin is like a poison in the blood; it whips the appetites into a mad frenzy for indulgence, while it paralyzes the will. The sinner is never normal. His passions and evil nature are aflame with desires, while his will slumbers, and his conscience is stupefied, so the carnal desires cannot be held in leash.

IT PROVIDES NO REMEDY

Sin has never offered a remedy for itself. It cannot deliver one soul from its horrible bondage. All its poor victim can say is, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Whoever violates the law of Jehovah has been bitten by sin, and the fiery sting can be cured only by the great Physician. Sin can kill, it cannot save; sin can send its victim to hell to be punished, but it has no way of satisfying the demands of the law of God.

GOD’S REMEDY FOR SIN

Christ is God’s remedy for sin, and the only means of salvation to the lost. No intellectualism, no activity, no shining talents, no gifts of riches, nothing in heaven above nor on the earth beneath, can save a soul smitten with sin, except faith in Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God. It was for this reason the apostle declared, “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.”

The blood of Christ has redeeming power, and faith in that blood has regenerating power. Christ, His life and blood are the only remedies for sin. When the angel announced to Joseph that his wife Mary should bring forth a son, he said that “He shall save His people from their sins.”

SIN DEFINED

Sin is the transgression of the law of God. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Without the law, there can be no sin; for “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” No transgressor has the means of salvation in himself. As he cannot save himself, and as sin cannot save him, his salvation must come from another source.

When the fiery serpents bit the people in the wilderness, there seemed to be no remedy. No physician in Israel could cure this bitten people. Then Moses was commanded to make a brazen serpent, and lift it up on a pole, that all who had been bitten might look upon it and live.

In all that country, there was no medicine that would cure the poison of the serpents’ bite. There were no rational methods provided for the sick whereby they might save themselves. The only thing the dying person could do was to turn his eyes to the serpent; and when he looked, he was healed. So it is with the sin-sick soul. He cannot find any remedy for sin but Christ. There is nothing that can wash that stain from the soul but the blood of the Son of man.

THE EVIDENCE OF GOD’S LOVE

Christ is God’s free gift to the lost and perishing. To Him the poor despairing sinner may come for cleansing and power. Christ is God’s evidence to the world that He loves men even when they are in sin, and He desires to free them from sin. Christ is man’s Saviour from sin, and not his license to sin. Grace does not abound that sin may continue. Rather, grace abounds that the sinner may be free from sin; for we are charged, “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ.”

“‘Worthy the Lamb that died,’ they cried; ‘Be exalted thus!’ ‘Worthy the Lamb,’ our lips replied, ‘For He was slain for us. Let all that dwell above the sky, The air, the earth, the seas, Conspire to lift Thy glories high, And speak Thine endless grace.’”

L. H. E.