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Casting Out Sin

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 22, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 44.

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Casting Out Sin

By C. M. S.

THE final destruction of this earth, with the destruction of all that has dishonored it and opposed God, is the full fruitage of sin. Says James: "Sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death." That will be true of the world and of every individual in the world who permits sin to have its way in his soul; in other words, who permits sin to take root and grow and come to maturity.
By the power of God sin may be plucked out of the soul just as God will finally pluck sin out of the world. Satan planted sin in this world; God uproots it and burns it out; but in the process this old world must pass through the furnace of affliction and be purged by fire. Every soul that is finally triumphant will pass through the purging fires of affliction in this world.
God declares of this earth itself that it shall "melt with fervent heat," and yet, "according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." When the fires of affliction have dissolved self and burned sin out of us, righteousness will dwell in us also. Righteousness will dwell in the world because it dwells in those who are accounted worthy to inhabit that renovated world.
The psalmist says:—
"Jehovah hath chastened me sore; but he hath not given me over unto death. Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will enter into them, I will give thanks unto Jehovah. This is the gate of Jehovah; the righteous shall enter into it." Ps. 118: 18-20.
A purified and righteous people dwelling in a purified and righteous world, is God's answer to Satan's conspiracy against the government of heaven and the eternal welfare of man.
The psalmist declares that "righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne;" and when God has finished with Satan and his works, righteousness will be the habitation of his footstool also. It can be so only as the law of righteousness completely dominates the lives of those who inhabit this earth when the curse has been wiped away. In the lives of his righteous saints will then be seen the vindication of God's dealings with his children. In harmony with that thought, God caused his ancient prophet to say:—
"I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. . . . As the earth bringeth forth its bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." Isa. 61: 10, 11.
The strength of Jehovah's purpose to establish righteousness in this world is seen in what he was willing to sacrifice in order to bring it about. "He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." We shall never have more than a slight conception of what that sacrifice meant until we are able to look upon salvation as a completed work, viewing it from the other side of probation.
The Son of God placed his very existence in the balances in his purpose to bring this world back under the rule of righteousness. The sacrifice which that involved no one who has not been an occupant of heaven can comprehend. There is no contrast in this world which can be used as an illustration of the mighty contrast between the position he left in heaven and that which he assumed in this world. Only one illustration has ever been given us of such meekness, and that illustration is the one which he furnished. God promises this earth, when it has been purified, to the everlasting possession of the meek; but at their head in meekness, as well as in love and leadership, stands the Redeemer of the race. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth;" and their example to all eternity will be the One who redeemed the world and those who shall possess it, out of the hand of the adversary of souls.
Meekness and righteousness walk hand in hand into the glorious inheritance of the saints. Says the prophet Zephaniah:—
"Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, that have kept his ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah's anger." Zeph. 2: 3.
Who are they "that have kept his ordinances"?—They who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus." And "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." And they who do this are the ones who are to be "hid in the day of Jehovah's anger." There can be no question, then, that this admonition in Zephaniah is an admonition to the commandment-keeping remnant who will be living on the earth at the time of our Lord's second advent.
Meekness and righteousness were the characteristics of our Saviour. Righteousness is the seal of law keeping, and meekness is the seal of service; and law keeping and service are the rule of Christ's kingdom. When, therefore, he commands us to seek meekness, he is virtually telling us to render up our lives a sacrifice in the service of others, even as he rendered up his life a sacrifice in service for us. When, therefore, he commands us to seek righteousness, he is virtually telling us to bring every deed and emotion of our lives into harmony with the law of God, and to exalt that law in our lives as he did in his.
Such a purpose on our part puts us at once in open opposition to the "god of this world;" but what is the outcome?—"It may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah's anger." The uncertainty, evidently, is not on the part of Jehovah, as if it were a question as to whether he would do his part. The only uncertainty about it is on the part of man, whether he will continue faithful to the end, or whether he will yield at the last to the temptations of the adversary. In that case, he will not be hid. Sin will go on doing its work, will come to its fruitage in him, and that is death.
In view of what God's purpose is, and in view of the certainty of its accomplishment, they who range themselves on the side of God may know beyond doubt or questioning that God will one day open to them the gates of eternal life and give them an inheritance in this same earth when it has been purged from sin and made beautiful again under the hand of our Saviour. Of the class who do that the prophet Malachi says:—
"They shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." Mal. 3: 17, 18.
This is Jehovah's unconditional assurance to his faithful servants: "They shall be mine, . . . even mine own possession." Service is the key that either unlocks eternity to us or locks it against us, and it depends entirely upon whether that service is the service of God or the service of something else. What will be the test that will show which it has been? It is this:—
"Behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts." Mal. 4: 1-3.
Wickedness cannot stand that test of fire. Sin, and they who have let it take root and come to maturity in them, will come to ashes. They who, through the power of God, have uprooted sin from their souls, will stand unscathed in the midst of the burnings of that day, even as the three Hebrews stood unscathed in the midst of Nebuchadnezzar's sevenfold-heated furnace; and as it was in that case, so in this, the Son of God will be with them.
It will be a wonderful experience that will come to the children of God in that time, to stand unharmed while the elements are on fire and the earth is a molten sea from the heat of Jehovah's wrath. But it is possible for such to be our experience if we have made sin an outcast from our souls and have taken Christ for our all and in all. Out of that fire of testing we shall pass into the restored Eden, into the paradise of God where sin and sorrow can never enter, into the life eternal over which death can throw no shadow, into the society of our blessed Redeemer where love and joy and peace shall reign as long as God shall live. That may be our experience if we permit Christ to uproot sin from our souls and cover us with the robe of his righteousness. C. M. S.