The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venningcan never say, 'It was good that I sinned, no, though it were but in my youth'(Ecclesiastes 11.9; 12.1). All things may be corrected and made to work for ourgood, so that we can say not only that God who afflicted me was good, but that theaffliction worked for good (2 Corinthians 4.17); but we can never justly say that sindid us good. Many can say, 'Perissem nisi perissem' (I would have perished had Inot suffered); but no-one can say, 'Periissem nisi peccassem' (I would haveperished had I not sinned). No! It is by sin that we perish and are undone. Manypeople have thanked God for affliction, but no-one ever thanked him for sin. Someindeed misunderstand the meaning of Romans 6.17, as if the Apostle werethanking God that men were sinners. But this is not the case by any means! Hethanks God that they who once were sinners had become obedient to the Gospel;the proper sense and reading of this text is, 'Thanks be to God, though ye were theservants of sin (in time past), yet (now) ye have obeyed the form of doctrine whichwas delivered to you', or as it is in the margin and the Greek, 'whereunto ye weredelivered'. Sin, in itself, is good neither before nor after its commission; it is notgood to be committed, nor good after it is committed. It does us no good, but hurt,all our days. Other evils, however, though we cannot call them good before, so thatwe might desire them, yet afterwards we can call them good and so we can thankGod for them. I will illustrate this in detail.1. Suffering may be the object of our choice, which sin cannot be.That which is evil and only evil cannot be the object of our volition and choice; it isagainst nature. If men did not call evil good and good evil, they could never lovethe evil nor hate the good. Nor may sin be chosen as a means to a good end; for aswell as being evil and nothing else, it does evil and nothing else. Affliction on thecontrary, though not chosen for itself, may yet be chosen for a good end, andchosen rather than sin. It may be chosen although the only good result were theavoidance of evil. We have examples of this, such as the three young men whosegallantry of spirit was such that though they should not be delivered by their God,yet they would not sin against their God (they were holily wilful), nor even as muchas demur, deliberate or take time to consider whether they should suffer or sin; itwas past dispute with them, brave and noble souls that they were (Daniel 3.17).We find the same of Daniel himself (Daniel 6) and of St. Paul (Acts 20.24). Noticethat when the Apostle speaks of his afflictions, he calls them light (2 Corinthians4.17), but when he speaks of sin, he speaks of it as a burden that pressed himdown and made him cry out, 'Wretch that I am!'; it made him groan, beingburdened (2 Corinthians 5.4). Moses' choice is famous the world over, for it wasnot made when he was a child but when he came to forty years of age; hepreferred suffering, not only before sinning but before honours, riches, andpleasures. He accounted the worst of Christ--namely, reproaches--better than thebest the world could give.There is a further example which is more than all the rest, and it is that of ourblessed Saviour. To him was the greatest offer made that ever was made, butthough he was tempted, and suffered by being tempted, he scorned and abhorredto sin (Matthew 4). He endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12.1-4); he met the cross, shame and pain, and in addition the contradiction of sinners.Yes, all this he endured rather than sin. It is described as a striving against sin(Hebrews 12.4). And when St. Peter wished him to decline suffering, he called him98