Sin and Crime

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 31.

We wish to repeat, what we have many times said, that there is a vast difference between sin and crime. A crime may be sinful, and a sin may be criminal; but neither of these is necessary. “Sin is the transgression of the law,” says the Inspired Word; that is, it is the transgression of God’s law, and pertains not to outward deed or act, but to the spirit, thought, motive, intent of the sinner. “The law is spiritual,” says the apostle, and therefore may be transgressed in the realm of thought and motive. Not only is he a murderer who kills his brother, but he is a murderer who hates his brother. (See 1 John 3:15.) Adultery includes cherished lust. (See Matt. 5:27, 28.) This is sin. Crime is transgression of civil law. If there were no law in this country against murder, it would not be a crime to kill, but it would be a grievous sin, even as hatred is, which the civil law can not prohibit. God’s law says, “Thou shalt not covet.” To transgress it is sin; but civil law could not prevent coveting if it so desired. Civil law can not, therefore, make sin a crime; it can only regulate the outward act.

It was a crime for the three Hebrew young men to refuse to bow down to the golden image set up by Nebuchadnezzar (see Daniel 3), but it was not sin; in fact, it would have been sin if they had bowed down. It was not sin for Daniel to pray to God, but the law of Persia made it a crime. (See Daniel 6.) Jesus Christ died a criminal, so did Paul, so has the great host of martyrs, but they were not counted sinners in God’s sight. Tennessee’s Sabbath-keeping Christians (Christ kept the Sabbath) are counted criminals by her laws to-day; but are they sinners? Does God count that sin which he has commanded to be done and which Jesus Christ did, even tho Tennessee or Maryland counts it crime? It is never good to be a sinner. It is always better to be a criminal, when the choice lies between sin and crime.