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Messages From |
What Gives Quality to Intent
The child desires to do things and does them and knows no reason why he should not do so. The enlightened person desires to do and does even though he knows a good reason why he should not so do. The one is innocent, the other guilty. Both transgress, but only one is imputed guilty. It is knowledge that gives quality to intent. The acts of a child can possess no moral quality, for there is no knowledge, which alone supplies the data for choice. His relation with God is passive and his acts, no matter what they are, do not affect it. The relation of the adult is active so far only as his knowledge goes, but thus far it is affected wholly by the acts or choices of his will, and every act into which choice enters affects that relation; but accident, things done in delirium or sleep, or through misapprehension, cannot affect him morally, since they do not involve the will or choice in a morally wrong way.
These truths are clearly set forth in the New testament. Paul says, "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). Again, he says, "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (chapter 7:7). In verse 13 it is clearly shown that knowledge brings guilt. He says, "That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." In chapter 4:15 he says, "Where no law is, there is no transgression," and in chapter 5:13 he says, "But sin is not imputed when there is no law." In other words, a person can be responsible for his acts and become guilty thereby only as he has knowledge of the quality of those acts. It is knowledge of the righteous principles involved that brings him to the place where he can intelligently set as a moral being, where he can choose between right and wrong in a manner to make him responsible for that choice. Paul says that "without the law sin was dead," that is powerless. He continues, "For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:9). The coming of the commandment means the coming of it to his understanding. He became enlightened by the commandment, and that changed his relations entirely. Through the coming of the commandment, sin, which had been dead, or powerless, revived, and the "I," who had been "alive without the law," died because of the knowledge that the law brought him. He says elsewhere, "The strength of sin is the law" (I Corinthians 15:56). The law gave a knowledge of the moral quality of acts and of purposes; gave a standard of right and wrong. Responsibility to that standard became immediate. This responsibility gave sin its opportunity. The child chooses to do many things in his unenlightened state that are in themselves violations of the moral law, but sin is not imputed to him, since he is not in a position to choose from moral considerations. He considers only his desires. He can consider nothing else, for he knows nothing else. Until he is enlightened, there can be no quality in choice; but as soon as he becomes enlightened, choice at once has quality, and his purposes then become either good or bad.
When Sin Is Imputed
Sin is imputed only when there is involved the active or passive consent of the will to do wrong. In the last analysis, sin is always rebellion against God. It is choosing and willing that which we believe to be wrong, to be contrary to God's will or law. Nothing else is sin or can be sin under the New Testament definition. Sin always involves intentionality. It is always a choice of that which is believed to be wrong, and always discloses a wrong attitude of the heart toward the right. The choosing of the evil may be done without consideration, or it may be done after consideration, but in either case the act is the result of choosing evil. Sometimes we do things with a good intent, and they do not turn out as we expect them to do. Sometimes we feel bad over the outcome, but we should not condemn ourselves as having sinned. God does not look at the outcome; he looks at the purpose. It is only when choice rebels against what we believe to be the will of God that we become sinners.
Sometimes there is a twofold intent in action - an immediate intent and one more remote. We may desire to see something accomplished that would be very good, and we purpose to do that good thing, but in choosing means to the end, we may choose that which is evil. This involves two choices - the choice of the end(remote choice) and the choice of the means by which that end is to be attained (immediate choice). Sometimes it is held that the end justifies the use of wrong means, or that it is lawful to attain the end by the use of any means. This is untrue. Both the immediate and the remote choice must be good, or sin is involved. Speaking on this point, Paul says, "For if the truth of God hath abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner, and not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil that good may come?" (Romans 5:7,8). Here he plainly teaches that even though the object aimed at is good, if the means used are improper, a person is judged as a sinner. To do evil that good may come is evil in the sight of the Lord. All intent, therefore, that enters into action must be pure.
Effects of Sin
Sin affects moral relation and conscience, both or either. When moral relations are affected, these relations must be restored; and when conscience is affected, it must be satisfied. Acts sometimes involve the conscience when they do not change the moral relation nor violate any principle of righteousness; that is, a person may do certain things in good faith, not questioning their moral quality, either before or at the time of acting, but supposing them to be right, and afterward may come to consider them wrong. In such a case God does not impute the acts as sin, though the person may sometimes feel as though he had sinned. To restore the spiritual repose under such circumstances, it is necessary only to satisfy the conscience. When moral relations are disturbed by transgressions, there must be such repentance and reconciliation as will fully restore these relations, at least so far as the transgressor and God are concerned. If fellow men are involved, they may refuse to be reconciled, but in such a case the sinner is clear when he has done his part to effect such reconciliation.
Three Ways to Sin
Under the New Testament there are three ways, and only three, to commit sin. These include everything that God counts sin. The first way is by the willful transgression of a known divine law. John says, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4). When we give the consent of our will to do that which we know to be wrong, we sin. As already pointed out, things done by accident, under compulsion, or in any way except where the will is involved, where the will chooses to do that which it knows to be wrong, are not now imputed as sin.
The second way to sin is thus expressed by James: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). This implies a refusal to do what we know we ought to do. Such a refusal involves the will. Things left undone through lack of knowledge of duty are not sin; things omitted because there is not power to do them is not sin. It is implied that we could do if we would, but that we refuse to do, that the not doing is because off choosing not to do, and not from any other cause.
The third way of sinning is by violating the conscience or by doing that which we believe to be wrong, outside of the things commanded in the Bible. Paul lays down the principle covering this when he says, "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything unclean, to him it is unclean" (Romans 14:14). Again, he says, "All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense" (verse 20). "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned [condemned] if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (verses 22, 23). According to the principle already laid down, an act is right or wrong according as the choice involved is right or wrong, and not according to the intrinsic value of the act itself. If we believe a thing to be wrong morally, no matter whether the Bible says anything about it or not, and we choose that thing, our choice is involved in a wrong way and becomes evil; and therefore the deed, since it gets its quality from choice, becomes evil.
These are the only three ways in which a person can sin according to the New Testament. In every case where sin is imputed, the act must be willful; that is, a wrong or supposed wrong must be deliberately chosen. Nothing else is sin or can be. All conduct must be judged by this rule; it is the only true standard. It is an accurate and true standard, and never varies in its application.
The testimony of those who say that they are Christians,�but that they sin more or less every day, implies one of two things - either that they are willingly and willfully disobedient, and could obey if they would but do not do so from choice, or that God demands of them what they are unable to do even with the grace that he gives. Either is a serious charge, reflecting severely on man or God. If man can do right and will not, he becomes exceedingly sinful. He is an outright rebel, setting up his will before the will of God. If he says that God demands too much of him and that try as he will, using all the grace that God gives, he is still unable to be obedient, then he charges God foolishly. He charges God with being unjust; for God would be highly unjust if he should require of us that which we could not do. The man who says that he is a Christian and then admits he sins more or less every day, must take one or the other of the horns of this dilemma. Let him look this subject squarely in the face; let him consider it in all its bearings; and then let him look up into the face of God and say whether he can be a Christian and sin in view of these facts, that is, whether he can continue sinning and at the same time continue to be a Christian.
When Christians Sin
The normal Christian life has already been illustrated from the Scriptures. It is not needful to repeat that here. I will, however, call attention to the picture drawn by Paul in the sixth chapter of Romans: "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. But now being made free from sin, and become servants unto God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (verses 11-14, 18, 22). This is positive and explicit, and needs only to be read with care.
It is true that in this world we are surrounded by temptations and may sin at any time; but if we do sin, we are at once brought under condemnation. There is but one way to be absolved, and that is by repentance and confession. If we sin, God will never forget it; the record will not fade out of his book of remembrance; time will neither condone it nor remove its guilt. God's "mercy endureth forever," but mercy ripens into forgiveness only when there is penitence and confession. Impenitence greatly aggravates sin. It causes the heart to be hardened and finally to be set in an attitude of stubbornness and rebellion. Many times people sin and think that they will repent in some revival meeting some time later, and be restored to God. This is utter folly. Repentance should be immediate. Neglect is always a form of rebellion. When a Christian sins, the Spirit immediately tries to bring him to repentance. If he refuses or neglects to repent, he is holding himself in a sinful attitude and may thus greatly increase his sin. God is kind and merciful. He desires a reconciliation as much and even more than is possible for us to desire it. When one has sinned, the thing to do is to come to God in open-hearted confession. Form a habit of being open-hearted with God, of being on familiar terms with him. Treat him as you would your very dearest friend. He will always have mercy on our sins if we will be truly penitent and seek him with all our hearts. He has said, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous: and he it he propitiation for our sins" (I John 2:1, 2).
