SIN AND CRIME | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 21, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 41.

SIN AND CRIME.

THERE are those, and they doubtless number the greater part of Christendom, who consider sin and crime to be synonymous terms in all cases. Sin is the violation of divine precepts, or, as expressed by the apostle, the most comprehensive definition ever given, "Sin is the transgression of the law;" that is, God's law, or the Decalogue. Compare 1 John 3:4 with Rom. 7:7.

Crime may also be against the divine government, and in that use would be synonymous with sin. But "crime" is generally used to express infractions of civil law. In this use it is entirely distinct from sin. Crabbe, in his "English Synonyms" on "Crime" and "Sin," says:—

Crime consists in a violation of human laws; . . . sin is a violation of divine law. . . . There are many sins which are not crimes nor vices. Crimes are tried before a human court, and punished agreeably to the sentence of the judge; sins are brought before the tribunal of the conscience, and will be punished in the world to come by the sentence of the Almighty. . . . Crimes vary with times and countries; but sin is as unchangeable in its nature as the Being it offends.

The above are very good definitions and illustrations. Crime may be sin, but sin is not crime. There are many sinners who are not criminals, and there are criminals who are not sinners. Crime has reference to outward or overt act. Sin lies in the actuating motive. Man may therefore sin in thought and his fellows may never know it, and therefore have no power to condemn or punish him. Sin, therefore, in all its forms must be left with God. He alone knows the heart, and, therefore, he alone can judge its motives. Man, on the other hand, can take into account only the overt act. Human courts have the right to condemn only that which is uncivil. Into the underlying motive human tribunals may not go, because they cannot go, only as the motive is revealed by word or act.

Human tribunals can punish men for the very act of murder, but God declares that he that hateth his brother is a murderer. Man can take cognizance of the known outward act of adultery, but God declares that the cherished lustful thought which man cannot know is adultery in his sight. The human takes account of the crime; the divine, of the sin. In the above cases of course the crime would also be sin.

But all crimes are not sins. When a human government enacts a law contrary to God's law, it is crime to disobey that law, but it is sin to obey it. Crime in that case is not sin. It was criminal to refuse to bow down to the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar set up, but to bow down was sin. Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego were criminals, but not sinners. It was a crime in the Medo-Persian Empire to ask a petition of any being save the King for a certain thirty days, but it was sin to obey the law. Daniel continued to worship God, and was because of that condemned as a criminal, but he was not condemned of God as a sinner.

The only way for a Christian to do is to serve God, and to submit himself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. But when man institutes an ordinance which to obey is sin before God, the Christian cannot submit to it for the Lord's sake. It is his duty to obey God. He will say to the human government, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye;" and his conclusion will inevitably be, "We ought to obey God rather than men." See Acts 4:19; 5:29.

The martyrs of the early church and of the Dark Ages were condemned as criminals and executed as criminals by those who claimed to be ruling in God's stead, but in the majority of cases their crimes were not sins; and whether they were or not, only God can judge. Thus it is with Sunday laws. It is a crime to violate them, but it is as lawful in God's sight to do any legitimate work on Sunday as it is on any of the five days following, and he who does this does not sin, even though he may be condemned by the courts as a criminal. He who works at any legitimate week-day work on Sunday, one of the six working days; according to God's word and law does not commit sin, and there is no other standard. Human tribunals may condemn as crime, but the approval of God more than offsets all the penalties.

But notice this: The Christian who works Sunday will never do it to defy the law, nor to spite his neighbors; he will do it for the

sake of Him who gave him the right and privilege, and who has made him steward of his time, with instructions to work while the day lasts. He who truly serves God according to God's word will never do wrong nor despite to his neighbors. But if the neighbors count his righteousness to be either sin or crime, he must, like his Master and Example, commit his cause to Him who judgeth righteously.