Chapter 6. The Consequences of Sin

We have seen something of the nature and the universality of human sin. We should like to leave this distasteful subject and pass on immediately to the good news of Christ's salvation, but we are not yet ready to do so. We need to grasp what the results of sin are before we can appreciate what God has done for us and is offering to us in Christ.

Is sin really so very serious? Its evil consequences can best be understood when its effects are seen upon God, upon ourselves and upon our fellow men.

Alienation from God

Even if we do not realize the fact now, the most terrible result of sin is that it cuts us off from God. Man's highest destiny is to know God, to be in personal relationship with him. Our chief claim to nobility as human beings is that we were made in the image of God and are therefore capable of knowing him. But this God whom we are meant to know and whom we ought to know is a righteous Being, infinite in his moral perfection. Scripture lays much stress on this truth:

"For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place.'" "The King of kings and Lord of lords, who... dwells in unapproachable light." "God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth." "Our God is a consuming fire". "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" "Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong."[1] Isaiah 57:15; 1 Timothy 6:15-16; 1 John 1:5-6; Hebrews 12:29 (Deuteronomy 4:24); Isaiah 33:14; Habakkuk 1:13.

All those men of God in the Bible who have caught a glimpse of God's glory have shrunk from the sight in an overwhelming consciousness of their own sins. Moses, to whom God appeared in the bush that burned but was not consumed, "hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God." Job, to whom God spoke "out of the whirlwind" in words which exalted his transcendent majesty, cried out, "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Isaiah, a young man at the threshold of his career, had a vision of God as the King of Israel "sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up," surrounded by worshiping angels who sang of his holiness and glory, and said, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" When Ezekiel received his strange vision of living winged creatures and whirring wheels, and above them a throne, and on the throne One like a man, enveloped in the brightness of fire and of the rainbow, he recognized it as "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord," and he added, "When I saw it, I fell upon my face." Saul of Tarsus, traveling to Damascus, mad with rage against the Christians, was struck to the ground and blinded by a brilliant light which flashed from heaven more brightly than the noonday sun, and wrote later of his vision of the risen Christ, "He appeared also to me." The aged John, exiled on the island of Patmos, describes in detail his vision of the risen and glorified Jesus, whose "eyes were like a flame of fire" and whose "face was like the sun shining in full strength," and he tells us, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead."[2] Exodus 3:1-6; Job 42:5-6; Isaiah 6:1-5; Ezekiel 1:26-28; Acts 9:1-9; 1 Corinthians 15:8; Revelation 1:9-17. If the curtain which veils the unspeakable majesty of God could be drawn aside but for a

moment, we too should not be able to bear the sight. As it is, we only dimly perceive how pure and brilliant must be the glory of almighty God. However, we know enough to realize that sinful man while still in his sins can never approach this holy God. A great chasm yawns between God in his righteousness and man in his sin. "What partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" asks Paul.

That sin cuts us off from God was brought home dramatically in the Old Testament in the construction of the tabernacle and the temple. Both were made in two compartments, the first and larger being called the Holy Place, while the further and smaller was known as the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. In this inner sanctuary was the Shekinah glory, the visible symbol of God's presence. Between the two was the "veil," a thick curtain which barred access into the Holy of Holies. No one was allowed to pass through into God's presence except the high priest, and he only on the annual Day of Atonement and then only if he took with him the blood of a sacrifice for sins. What was thus visibly demonstrated to the Israelites is taught by Old and New Testament writers. Sin brings inevitable separation, and this separation is "death," spiritual death, the severance of a person from God, the only source of true life. "The wages of sin is death."

Further, if in this world we deliberately reject Jesus Christ through whom alone we may find eternal life, we will die eternally in the next world. Hell is a grim and dreadful reality. Let no man deceive you. Jesus himself spoke of it. He called it "outer darkness" because it is an infinite separation from God who is light. It is also called in the Bible "the second death" and "the lake of fire," terms which describe symbolically the forfeiture of eternal life and the ghastly thirst of the soul, which are involved in irrevocable banishment from God's presence.[3] See, for instance, Matthew 25:30; Revelation 20:14-15; Luke 16:19-31. This separation from God which is caused by sin is not only taught in the Bible; it is confirmed by human experience. I can still remember my own perplexity when as a boy I said my prayers and tried to penetrate into God's presence. I could not understand why God seemed shrouded in mists and I could not get near him. He seemed remote and aloof. I know the reason now. Isaiah has given me the answer:

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear.[4] Isaiah 59:1-2. We are tempted to say to God, as in the Book of Lamentations, "Thou hast wrapped thyself with a cloud / so that no prayer can pass through." But in fact God is not responsible for the cloud. We are. Our sins blot out God's face from us as effectively as the clouds do the sun.

Many people have confessed to me that they have had the same desolate experience. Sometimes, in emergencies, in danger, in joy or in the contemplation of beauty, God seems to them to be near, but more often than not they are aware of an inexplicable awayness from God, and they feel abandoned. This is not just a feeling; it is a fact. Until our sins are forgiven, we are exiles, far from our true home. We have no communion with God. In biblical terms we are "lost," or "dead through the trespasses and sins" which we have committed.

It is this that accounts for the restlessness of men and women today. There is a hunger in the heart of man which none but God can satisfy, a vacuum which only God can fill. The demand for sensational news in the press and for extravagant love or crime stories at the pictures; pools and pubs; the dirt track and the dog track; the current epidemic of drugs, sex and violence—all these things are symptoms of man's search for satisfaction. They betray his thirst for and separation from God. Augustine was right in the oft-quoted words which come near the beginning of his

Confessions: "Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in thee." This situation is tragic beyond words. Man is missing the destiny for which God made him.

Bondage to Self

Sin does not only estrange; it enslaves. If it alienates us from God, it also brings us into captivity. We need now to consider the "inwardness" of sin. It is more than an unfortunate outward act or habit; it is a deep-seated inward corruption. In fact, the sins we commit are merely outward and visible manifestations of this inward and invisible malady, the symptoms of a moral disease. The metaphor Jesus used, however, is that of the tree and its fruit. The kind of fruit a tree bears, he said (whether figs or grapes, for example) and their condition (whether good or bad) depend on the nature and health of the tree itself. Just so "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."

In this respect Jesus Christ is at issue with many modern social reformers and revolutionaries. Certainly we are all influenced for good or ill by our education and environment, and by the political and economic system under which we live. Certainly too we should seek justice, freedom and well-being for all men. Yet it was not to a lack of these that Jesus attributed the evils of human society, but to man's very nature, what he called our "heart." Here are his exact words: For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.[5] Mark 7:21-23.

The old Testament had already taught this truth. As Jeremiah put it, "The heart is deceitful above all things,  and desperately corrupt; / who can understand it?" Indeed, the Bible is full of references to this infection of human nature or "original sin." It is a tendency or bias of self-centeredness, which we inherit, which is rooted deeply in our human personality, and which manifests itself in a thousand ugly ways. Paul called it "the flesh," and gives an inventory of its "works," or products.

Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.[6] Galatians 5:19-21.

Because sin is an inward corruption of human nature we are in bondage. It is not so much certain acts or habits which enslave us, but rather the evil infection from which these spring. So many times in the New Testament we are described as "slaves." We resent it but it is true. Jesus aroused the indignation of certain Pharisees when he said to them, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

They retorted, "We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will be made free?"

Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

Paul several times in his epistles describes the humiliating servitude into which sin brings us.

"You... were once slaves of sin."

"We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind."

"We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures."[7] Romans 6:17; Ephesians 2:3; Titus 3:3.

The example of our lack of self-mastery which James gives is the difficulty we have in controlling our tongue. In a well-known chapter full of graphic metaphor he says that if a man "makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also." He

points out that "the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things." Its influence spreads like fire; it "is a restless evil" and is "full of deadly poison." We can tame all kinds of beasts and birds, he adds, "but no human being can tame the tongue."[8] James 3:1-12. We know this only too well. We have high ideals but weak wills. We want to live a good life, but we are chained in the prison of our self-centeredness. However much we may boast of being free, we are in reality but slaves. We need to come in tears to God and say: It is not finished, Lord, There is not one thing done, There is no battle of my life That I have really won. And now I come to tell thee How I fought to fail, My human, all too human, tale Of weakness and futility.[9] Studdert Kennedy. It is no use giving us rules of conduct; we cannot keep them. Let God go on saying "Thou shalt not," yet we shall to the end of time. A lecture will not solve our problem; we need a Savior. The education of the mind is not enough without a change of heart. Man has found the secret of physical power, the power of nuclear reaction. Now he needs spiritual power, to set him free from himself, to conquer and control himself, the power to give him moral character to match his scientific achievement.

Conflict with Others

Still our list of the terrible consequences of sin is not complete. There is one more to consider, its effect on our relationships with others. We have seen that sin is a deep-seated infection of nature. It lies at the root of our personality. It controls our ego. In fact, sin is self. And all the sins we commit are assertions of the self against either God or man. The Ten Commandments, although a series of negative prohibitions, set forth our duty to God and to others. This is even more clear in the positive summary of the law which Jesus made by joining a verse from Leviticus (19:18) to a verse from Deuteronomy (6:5): "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

It is important to observe that the first commandment concerns our duty to God, and not our duty to our neighbor. We are to love God first; and then we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. So God's order is that we put him first, others next, self last. Sin is the reversal of the order. It is to put ourselves first, our neighbor next and God somewhere in the background. The man who wrote his autobiography and titled it Dear Me was only giving expression to what we all think of ourselves. When the ice cream is brought into the children's party the cry goes up "Me first!" As we grow up we learn not to say that kind of thing; but we still think it. Archbishop William Temple's definition of original sin perfectly describes this truth: I am the centre of the world I see; where the horizon is depends on where I stand.... Education may make my self-centredness less disastrous by widening my horizon of interest; so far it is like climbing a tower, which widens the horizon for physical vision, while leaving me still the centre and standard of reference.[10] Christianity and Social Order, 1942; SCM Press edition, 1950, pp. 36-37.

This basic self-centeredness affects all our behavior. We do not find it easy to adjust to other people. We tend either to despise them or to envy them, to have either superiority or inferiority feelings. For we seldom think of ourselves with that "sober judgment" which Paul urged upon his

readers. Sometimes we are full of self-pity at other times of self-esteem, self-will or self-love.

All the relationships of life are complicated—parents and children, husband and wife, employer and employed. Juvenile delinquency no doubt has many causes, and much is due to lack of security in the home; but the fact is that delinquents are (for whatever reason) asserting themselves against society. Hundreds of divorces could be prevented if people were humble enough to blame themselves more than their partner. Whenever couples have been to see me because their marriage was threatened, I have noticed that each tells a different story—a story sometimes so different that one would not guess they described the same situation unless one knew.

Most quarrels are due to a misunderstanding, and the misunderstanding is due to our failure to appreciate the other man's point of view. It is more natural to us to talk than to listen, to argue than to submit. This is true in industrial disputes as much as in domestic quarrels. Many management-worker conflicts could be resolved if both sides first examined themselves critically and then examined the other side charitably, instead of which we are always charitable to ourselves and critical of others. The same could be said of complex international unrest. The tensions of today are due largely to fear and folly. our outlook is one-sided. We exaggerate our own virtue and the other man's vice.

It is easy to write this condemnation of social relationships today. The only reason for doing so is to show how human sin or self-centeredness is the cause of all our troubles. It brings us into conflict with each other. If only the spirit of self-assertion could be replaced by the spirit of self-sacrifice, our conflicts would cease. And self-sacrifice is what the Bible means by "love." While sin is possessive, love is expansive. Sin's characteristic is the desire to get; love's characteristic is the desire to give.

Love ever gives,

Forgives, outlives,

And ever stands with open hands,

And while it lives it gives.

For this is love's prerogative,

To give—and give—and give.

What man needs is a radical change of nature, what Professor H. M. Gwatkin has called "a change from self to unself." Man cannot work it within himself. He cannot operate on himself. Again, he needs a Savior.

This exposure of our sin has only one purpose. It is to convince us of our need of Jesus Christ and to prepare us for an understanding and an acceptance of what he offers. Faith is born of need. We shall never put our trust in Christ until we have first despaired of ourselves. He said himself, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." only when we have realized and faced up to the seriousness of our illness will we admit our urgent need for a cure.