Sin or Righteousness

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 18, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 29.

Sin or Righteousness

Sin or Righteousness.—The Scriptures tell us: "Sin, when it is finished [full grown], bringeth forth death;" "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;" "In the way of righteousness is life." This does not mean that sin and death are two separate things; that death is visited upon man as an arbitrary punishment because he has sinned. No, death is in the sin itself, as truly as the oak is in the acorn. Death is the finished fruit of sin. He who loves sin loves death. He who chooses sin chooses death. So life is in righteousness. God does not give man life because man is righteous. He gives man righteousness, His righteousness, and in that very righteousness is life. We may have which we will. If we choose sin, we choose death. If we choose His righteousness, we choose life forevermore.