Can a Good Act Cover a Sin?
"SIN is the transgression of the law;" for, "where there is no law there is no transgression." Most of mankind admit that there is law, and that transgression of the law is sin; yet many attempt to cover transgression by good works, and claim that they can accomplish more good by violating certain laws, for in so doing they place themselves in a situation to do good, and so that they can make more money, and enable themselves to do more for the cause of God and his benevolent institutions. This argument is often used by persons brought up to know the law of God, and to observe his Sabbath. They acknowledge that there is no Sabbath mentioned in the Bible but the seventh day as a weekly rest; but they say, "as the majority of the world observe Sunday, it is quite inconvenient to do business. I think the Lord will not condemn me for that one act if I am benevolent in all other respects," and so decide to violate this one command and take their chances with the world on this one point. . . Is not one command as binding as another? Did Christ admit of one jot or tittle to be taken from the law? Did he not obey the law of God himself, and command his children to keep his commandments as he had kept the commandments of his Father? Did he not say that he was Lord of the Sabbath day? and did he not observe it by meeting with the people on it? Did Christ ever give any license to do work but for charity and mercy on the Sabbath day? These are questions of fact, and men must answer and abide them. "God is not mocked." Christ says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." But men say that others have "violated the law of God, and yet they have been prospered." Very true. God causes the "rain to fall upon the just and the unjust," and never compels men to obey his law; yet when we read the history of men and nations, we discover that God has suffered them to go off after idol gods, and while they seemed to prosper for a time, their departure from the true God has finally brought death and destruction upon them. God suffered the Israelites to break the law of the Sabbath, and to marry the heathen wives; but it only brought destruction to themselves, and a disgrace to the cause of God. While God allows men to transgress his law, he also allows leanness of soul and losses in this world to come upon the transgressor. . . . Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Christ says, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." "That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Therefore, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is." "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."—Sabbath Recorder.