Chapter 5. The Fact and Nature of Sin

Part Two. Man's Need

Chapter 5. The Fact and Nature of Sin

We have given considerable space to an examination of the evidence for the unique deity of Jesus of Nazareth; and we may be convinced that he is the Lord, the Son of God. Yet the preoccupation of the New Testament is not just with who he was but with what he came to do. He is presented not simply as the Lord from heaven but also as the Savior of sinners. Indeed, the two cannot be separated, for the validity of his work depends on the divinity of his person.

But in order to appreciate the work which Jesus accomplished, we must understand who we are as well as who he was. His work was done for us. It was the work of a person for persons, a mission undertaken for needy persons by the only person competent to meet their need. His competence lies in his deity; our need lies in our sin. We have tested his competence; we must now expose our need.

So we turn from Christ to man, from the sinlessness and glory that are in him to the sin and shame that are in us. Only then, after we have clearly grasped what we are, shall we be in a position to perceive the wonder of what he has done for us and offers to us. Only when we have had our malady accurately diagnosed shall we be willing to take the medicine prescribed.

Sin is an unpopular subject, and Christians are often criticized for harping on it too much. But it is only because Christians are realists that they do so. Sin is not a convenient invention of parsons to keep them in their job; it is a fact of human experience.

The history of the last hundred years or so has convinced many people that the problem of evil is located in man himself, not merely in his society. In the nineteenth century a liberal optimism flourished. It was then widely believed that human nature was fundamentally good, that evil was largely caused by ignorance and bad housing, and that education and social reform would enable men to live together in happiness and goodwill. But this illusion has been shattered by the hard facts of history. Educational opportunities have spread rapidly in the Western world, and many welfare states have been created. Yet the atrocities which accompanied both world wars, the subsequent international conflicts, the continuance of political oppression and racial discrimination, and the general increase of violence and crime have forced thoughtful people to acknowledge the existence in every man of a hard core of selfishness.

Much that we take for granted in a "civilized" society is based upon the assumption of human sin. Nearly all legislation has grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice and without self-interest. A promise is not enough; we need a contract. Doors are not enough; we have to lock and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough; tickets have to be issued, inspected and collected. Law and order are not enough; we need the police to enforce them. All this is due to man's sin. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one another. It is a terrible indictment of human nature.

The Universality of Sin

The biblical writers are quite clear that sin is universal. "There is no man who does not sin," says Solomon in an aside during his great prayer at the dedication of the temple. "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins," adds the Preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes. Several of the psalms lament the universality of human sin. Psalm 14, which describes the godless "fool," gives a very pessimistic description of human wickedness:

"They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after God. They have all gone astray they are all alike corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one."

The psalmists' consciences tells them that if God were to rise up in judgment against man, none could escape his condemnation. "If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?" Hence the prayer, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for no man living is righteous before thee." The prophets are as insistent as the psalmists on the fact that all men are sinners, and no statements are more definite than the two which are to be found in the second half of the book of Isaiah. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way," and "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment."

Nor is this a fancy of Old Testament writers. Paul opens his epistle to the Romans with a closely reasoned argument, which extends over the first three chapters, that all men indiscriminately, Jews and Gentiles, are sinners in God's sight. He depicts the degraded morals of the pagan world and then adds that the Jew is no better, since, possessing God's holy law himself and teaching it to others, he is yet guilty of breaking it. The apostle then quotes from the psalms and the prophet Isaiah to illustrate his theme, and concludes, "there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." John is, if anything, even more explicit when he declares that "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves," and "if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar."^[1] Romans 3:22-23; 1 John 1:8, 10.

But what is sin? Its universal extent is clear; what is its nature? Several words are used in the Bible to describe it. They group themselves into two categories, according to whether wrongdoing is regarded negatively or positively. Negatively, it is shortcoming. One word represents it as a lapse, a slip, a blunder. Another pictures it as the failure to hit a mark, as when shooting at a target. Yet another shows it to be an inward badness, a disposition which falls short of what is good. Positively, sin is transgression. One word makes sin the trespass of a boundary. Another reveals it as lawlessness, and another as an act which violates justice. Both these groups of words imply the existence of a moral standard. It is either an ideal which we fail to reach, or a law which we break. "Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin," says James. That is the negative aspect. "Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness," says John. That is the positive aspect.

The Bible accepts the fact that men have different standards. The Jews have the law of Moses. The Gentiles have the law of conscience. But all men have broken the law they know and fallen short of their own standard. What is our ethical code? It may be the law of Moses or the law of Jesus. It may be the decent thing, or the done thing or the conventions of society. It may be the Buddhist's noble eightfold path or the Muslim's five pillars of conduct. But whatever it is, we have not succeeded in observing it. We all stand self-condemned.

To some good-living people this comes as a genuine surprise. They have their ideals and think they attain them, more or less. They do not indulge in much introspection. They are not unduly self-critical. They know they have had occasional lapses. They are aware of certain character deficiencies. But they are not particularly alarmed by them, and they consider themselves no worse than other men. All this is understandable enough, until we remember two things. First, our sense of failure depends on how high our standards are. It is quite easy to consider oneself

good at high jumping if the bar is never raised more than waist-high. Second, God concerns himself with the thought behind the deed and with the motive behind the action. Jesus clearly taught this in the Sermon on the Mount.

With these two principles in mind, it should prove a healthy exercise to take the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 as our standard and see how very far short of it every man falls.

The Ten Commandments

1. You shall have no other gods before me. This is God's demand for man's exclusive worship. It is not necessary to worship the sun, the moon and the stars to break this law. We break it whenever we give to something or someone other than God himself the first place in our thoughts or our affections. It may be some engrossing sport, absorbing hobby or selfish ambition. Or it may be someone whom we idolize. We may worship a god of gold and silver in the form of safe investments and a healthy bank balance, or a god of wood and stone in the form of property and possessions. None of these things is necessarily wrong in itself. It only becomes wrong when we give to it the place in our lives which belongs only to God. Sin is fundamentally the exaltation of self at the expense of God. What someone wrote of the Englishman is true of everyman: he is "a self-made man who worships his creator." For us to keep this first commandment would be, as Jesus said, to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind; to make his will our guide and his glory our goal; to put him first in thought, word and deed; in business and leisure; in friendships and career; in the use of our money, time and talents; at work and at home. No man has ever kept this commandment except Jesus of Nazareth.

2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image. If the first commandment concerns the object of our worship, the second concerns its manner. In the first God demands our exclusive worship, and in the second our sincere and spiritual worship. For "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."^[2] John 4:24. We may never have manufactured some gruesome metal image with our hands, but what hideous mental image do we hold in our minds? Further, although this commandment does not forbid the use of all external forms in worship, it implies that they are useless unless there is inward reality as well. We may have attended church; have we ever really worshiped God? We may have said prayers; have we ever really prayed? We may have read the Bible; have we ever let God speak to us through it and done what he said? It is no good approaching God with our lips if our hearts are far from him.^[3] Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:6. To do so is sheer humbug.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The name of God represents the nature of God. There is much in the Bible which commands us to reverence his name, and in the Lord's Prayer we are taught to pray that his name may be hallowed. His holy name can be profaned by our loose language, and most of us could do worse than revise our vocabulary from time to time. But to take God's name in vain is not just a matter of words, but also of thoughts and deeds. Whenever our behavior is inconsistent with our belief, or our practice contradicts our preaching, we take God's name in vain. To call God "Lord" and disobey him is to take his name in vain. To call God "Father" and be filled with anxiety and doubts is to deny his name. To take God's name in vain is to talk one way and act another. This is hypocrisy.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. The Jews' sabbath and the Christians' Sunday are a divine institution. To set one day in seven apart is not just a human arrangement or a social convenience. It is God's plan. He made the sabbath for man, Jesus emphasized,^[4] Mark 2:27. and since he also made the man for whom he made the sabbath, he adapted it to man's need. Man's body and mind need rest, and man's spirit needs the opportunity for worship. The sabbath is therefore a day of rest and a day of worship. Not only are we to keep it as such ourselves, for our own good, but we are to do all we can for the common good to ensure that others do not have to work unnecessarily on this day.

So Sunday is a "holy" day, set apart for God. It is the Lord's day, not our day. It is therefore to be spent in his way, not in ours, for his worship and service and not just for our selfish pleasure.

5. Honor your father and your mother. This fifth commandment still belongs to the first half of the law, which concerns our duty to God. For our parents, at least while we are children, stand toward us in loco Dei: they represent God's authority. Yet often it is in their own homes that people, young people especially, are at their most selfish and inconsiderate. It is all too easy to be ungrateful and neglectful, and to fail to show our parents due respect and affection. How often do we write to them or visit them? Or do they need financial support, which we could give but deny them?

6. You shall not kill. This is not just a prohibition of murder. If looks could kill, many would kill with a look. If murder can be committed by cutting words, many are guilty. Indeed Jesus said that to be angry with someone without a cause, and to be insulting, are just as serious, while John draws the right conclusion when he writes, "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer." Every loss of temper, every outburst of uncontrolled passion, every stirring of sullen rage, every bitter resentment and thirsting for revenge—all these things are murder. We can kill by malicious gossip. We can kill by studied neglect and cruelty. We can kill by spite and jealousy. We have probably all done so.

7. You shall not commit adultery. Again, this commandment has a far wider application than just to unfaithfulness in marriage. It includes any sort of sex outside the marriage relationship for which it was designed. It includes flirting, experimenting and solitary sexual experience. It also includes all sexual perversions, for although men and women are not responsible for a perverted instinct, they are for its indulgence. It includes selfish demands within wedlock, and many, if not all, divorces. It includes the deliberate reading of pornographic literature and giving in to impure fantasies. Jesus made this clear when he said, "everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Just as to entertain murderous thoughts in the heart is to commit murder, so to entertain adulterous thoughts in the heart is to commit adultery. This commandment in fact embraces every abuse of a sacred and beautiful gift of God.

8. You shall not steal. To steal is to rob a person of anything which belongs to him or is due to him. The theft of money or property is not the only infringement of this commandment. Tax evasion is robbery. So is dodging the customs. So is working short hours. What the world calls "scrounging" God calls stealing. To overwork and underpay one's staff is to break this commandment. There must be few of us, if any, who have been consistently and scrupulously honest in personal and business affairs. As Arthur Hugh Clough wrote: "Thou shalt not kill," but need'st not strive Officiously to keep alive; "Thou shalt not steal"—an empty feat When it's more lucrative to cheat. These negative commandments also imply a positive counterpart. In order truly to abstain from killing, one must do all in one's power to foster the health and preserve the life of others. To refrain from the act of adultery is insufficient. The commandment requires the right, healthy and honorable attitude of each sex towards the other. Similarly, to avoid stealing is no particular virtue if one is miserly or mean. Paul was not satisfied that a thief should stop stealing; he had to start working. Indeed, he had to continue in honest labor until he found himself in a position to give to those in need.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The last five commandments express that respect for the rights of others which is implicit in true love. To break these commandments is to rob a man of the things most precious to him, his life ("you shall not kill"), his home or honor ("you shall not commit adultery"), his property ("you shall not

steal"), and now his reputation ("you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor"). This commandment is not only applicable to the courts of law. It does include perjury. But it also includes all forms of scandal, slander, idle talk and tittle-tattle, all lies and deliberate exaggerations or distortions of the truth. We can bear false witness by listening to unkind rumors as well as by passing them on, by making jokes at somebody else's expense, by creating false impressions, by not correcting untrue statements, and by our silence as well as by our speech.

10. You shall not covet. The tenth commandment is in some ways the most revealing of all. It turns the decalogue from an outward legal code into an inward moral standard. The civil law cannot touch us for covetousness but only for theft. For covetousness belongs to the inner life. It lurks in the heart and the mind. What lust is to adultery and temper is to murder, that covetousness is to theft. The particular things which we are not to covet and which are mentioned in the commandment are surprisingly modern. In the housing shortage there is much coveting of our neighbor's house, and the divorce courts would not be so full if men did not covet their neighbor's wife. "Covetousness... is idolatry" wrote Paul, and by contrast, "There is great gain in godliness with contentment." Listing these commandments has brought to light an ugly catalog of sins. So much takes place beneath the surface of our lives, in the secret places of our minds, which other people do not see and which we manage even to conceal from ourselves. But God sees these things. His eye penetrates into the deep recesses of our hearts: "Before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him." He sees us as we really are, and his law shows up our sins for what they really are. Indeed, it was the purpose of the law to expose sin, for "through the law comes knowledge of sin." When C. H. Spurgeon, the famous nineteenth-century preacher, was only fourteen, he experienced a tremendous sense of his own sinfulness. Two truths came home to him as never before: "God's majesty and my sinfulness." He had a crushing sense of his unworthiness. I do not hesitate to say that those who examined my life would not have seen any extraordinary sin, yet as I looked upon myself I saw outrageous sin against God. I was not like other boys, untruthful, dishonest, swearing and so on. But of a sudden, I met Moses carrying the law... God's Ten Words... and as I read them, they all seemed to join in condemning me in the sight of the thrice holy Jehovah. In our case, too, nothing can convince us of our sinfulness like the lofty, righteous law of God.