J. S. WASHBURN by J. S. Washburn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 10, 1902

J. S. WASHBURN

By J. S. Washburn

Freedom

J. S. WASHBURN

“Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” John 8:34. Jesus here states a truth which every man has proved to his sorrow. Sin is a cruel taskmaster, a merciless slave driver, who pays no wages but pain, sorrow, shame, and at the last, death.

In ourselves there is no escape, no remedy. “His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.” Prov. 5:22.

Haman built a gallows fifty cubits high, on which to hang Mordecai. But God delivered just Mordecai, and the very rope prepared for him took proud, cruel Haman and brought him to the painful, shameful death he had planned for another.

Thus with remorseless literalness was the wicked taken, destroyed by the cords of his own sin; and not less surely will every unrepentant man find himself some day held in bonds, dying in agony and shame because of his own sin. Do you think you will escape? “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” “Be sure your sin will find you out.” You cannot hide it so deep but it will hunt you to your death. For, listen! sin is within you, a part of yourself. You cannot run away, you cannot escape from it. While you live, it will abide with you, poisoning and destroying you.

You cannot cover yourself with falsehood, with denials. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Prov. 28:13. Others may be deceived, but God knows, and you cannot forget. Resisting the Spirit for a time, the sting may seem to be gone, but when in trouble or danger, when you are least able to endure it, then it will face you, taunt you, mock you, crush you, like the hissing, venomous serpent it is, this self-same sin you thought forgotten by yourself and all others.

O helpless, wretched one! is there deliverance from this loathsome, clinging serpent with its death-poison fang?—Yes, thank God. Christ can, will deliver. He who can raise the dead can utterly forgive sin, but there is one condition. “What can that be?”—Simply this, confession.

Confession and forgiveness are married. God hath joined them together. No man can put them asunder. Read Prov. 28:13 again, also Ps. 32:3–5. While David concealed his sin, he knew only a terrible unrest that was consuming his very life. He confessed his sin, and then found peace and rest. “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

All sin is against God; therefore all sin must be confessed to him. But we are also to confess our faults to those whom we have wronged; and then, thank God, we are as free as if we had not sinned.

The blessed proclamation of “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,” is an actual experience. “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” Psalm 7. We are free. There is no condemnation. Sin has no dominion over us. Christ is our Master, and his rule means liberty, life, and peace.

Thank God for the “glorious liberty of the children of God.” Even while still in this body, there is liberty from sin and sinning. Peace with God, perfect love which casts out all fear, now gives us boldness and power with God and with men. And then when he comes and changes this body of humiliation, and fashions it like unto the body of his glory, he gives us the actual, literal freedom of the universe. O, shake off the bands! go free in the Lord.

“God’s almighty arms are round me, Peace, peace is mine; Judgment scenes need not confound me, Peace, peace is mine. Jesus came himself and sought me, Sold to death, he found and bought me, Then my blessed freedom taught me, Peace, peace is mine.”