What is Sin?

FROM “THE BODY OF DIVINITY” BY THOMAS WATSON

Question 14. What is Sin?

Answer: Sin is any lack of conformity to the law of God, or transgression of it.

“Sin is the transgression of the law.” Of sin in general:

Sin is a violation or transgression. The Latin word, to transgress, signifies to go beyond one’s bounds. The moral law is to keep us within the bounds of duty. Sin is going beyond our bounds.

The law of God is not the law of an inferior prince—but of Jehovah, who gives laws as well to angels as men; it is a law that is just, and holy, and good. Rom 7:12. It is just, there is nothing in it unequal. It is holy, nothing in it impure. It is good, nothing in it harmful. So that there is no reason to break this law, no more than for a beast, that is in a fat pasture, to break over the hedge, or to leap into a barren heath or quagmire.

I shall show what a heinous and execrable thing sin is. Sin is the distillation of all evil. The Scripture calls it the “accursed thing.” It is compared to the venom of serpents, and the stench of sepulchers. The apostle uses this expression, “sin might become utterly sinful,” Rom 7:13, or, as it is in the Greek, “Hyperbolically sinful.” The devil would paint sin with the pleasing color of pleasure and profit, that he may make it look fair; but I shall pull off the paint that you may see its ugly face. We are apt to have slight thoughts of sin, and say to it, as Lot of Zoar, “Is it not a little one?” But that you may see how great an evil sin is, consider these four things:

I. The origin of sin, from whence it comes. It fetches its pedigree from hell; sin is of the devil. “He who commits sin is of the devil.” Satan was the first actor of sin, and the first tempter to sin. Sin is the devil’s first-born.

II. The evil nature of sin.

[1] It is a defiling thing. Sin is not only a defection—but a pollution. It is to the soul as rust is to gold, as a stain to beauty. It makes the soul red with guilt, and black with filth. Sin in Scripture is compared to a “menstruous cloth,” and to a “plague-sore.” Joshua’s filthy garments, in which he stood before the angel, were nothing but a type and hieroglyphic of sin. Sin has blotted God’s image, and stained the orient brightness of the soul. Sin makes God loathe a sinner; and when a sinner sees his sin, he loathes himself!

Sin drops poison on our holy things, it infects our prayers. The high priest was to make atonement for sin on the altar, to typify that our holiest services need Christ to make an atonement for them. Duties of religion are in themselves are good—but sin corrupts them, as the purest water is polluted by running through muddy ground. If the leper, under the law, had touched the altar—the altar would not have cleansed him—but he would have defiled the altar. The apostle calls sin, “Filthiness of flesh and spirit.” 2 Cor 7:1. Sin stamps the devil’s image on a man. Malice is the devil’s eye, hypocrisy his cloven foot. Sin turns a man into a devil. “One of you is a devil!” John 6:70.

[2] Sin is grieving God’s Spirit. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” To grieve is more than to anger.

How can the Spirit be said to be grieved? For, seeing he is God, he cannot be subject to any passion.

This is spoken metaphorically. Sin is said to grieve the Spirit; because it is an injury offered to the Spirit, and he takes it unkindly, and, as it were, lays it to heart. And is it not much thus to grieve the Spirit? The Holy Spirit descended in the likeness of a dove; and sin makes this blessed dove mourn! Were it only an angel, we should not grieve him, much less the Spirit of God. Is it not sad—to grieve our Comforter?

[3] Sin is an act of rebellion against God; a walking direct opposite to heaven. “If you will walk contrary to me.” A sinner tramples upon God’s law, crosses his will, and does all he can to affront, yes, to spite God. The Hebrew word for sin, Pasha, signifies rebellion; there is the heart of a rebel, in every sin. “We will do whatever proceeds out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven.” Sin strikes at the very Deity. Sin is God’s would-be murderer. Sin would not only unthrone God—but un-God him. If the sinner could help it, God would no longer be God.

[4] Sin is an act of ingratitude and unkindness. God feeds the sinner, keeps off evils from him, be-miracles him with mercy; but the sinner not only forgets God’s mercies—but abuses them. He is the worse for mercy; like Absalom, who, as soon as David had kissed him, and taken him into favor, plotted treason against him. Like the mule, who kicks the mother after she has given it milk. “Is this your kindness to your friend?” God may upbraid the sinner. “I have given you,” he may say, “your health, strength, and estate; but you requite me evil for good, you wound me with my own mercies! Is this your kindness to your friend? Did I give you life to sin against me? Did I give you wages to serve the devil?”

[5] Sin is a disease. “The whole head is sick;” Isa 1:1. Some are sick with pride, others with lust, others with envy. Sin has distempered the intellectual part, it is a leprosy in the head, it has poisoned the vitals. “Their conscience is defiled.” Tit 1:15. It is with a sinner as with a sick patient, his palate is distempered, the sweetest things taste bitter to him. The word which is ‘sweeter than the honey-comb,” tastes bitter to him; he puts ‘sweet for bitter.” This is a disease, and nothing can cure this disease but the blood of the Physician!

[6] Sin is an irrational thing. It makes a man act not only wickedly—but foolishly. It is absurd and irrational to prefer the less before the greater. The sinner prefers the pleasures of life, before the rivers of pleasures at God’s right-hand for evermore. Is it not irrational to lose heaven—for the satisfying or indulging of a lust? As Lysimachus, who, for a draught of water, lost a kingdom. Is it not irrational to gratify an enemy? In sin we do so. When lust or rash anger burns in the soul, Satan warms himself at this fire. Men’s sins feast the devil.

[7] Sin is a painful thing. It costs men much labor to pursue their sins. How do they tire themselves in doing the devil’s drudgery! “They weary themselves to commit iniquity.” What pains did Judas take to bring about his damnation! He goes to the high priest, and then after to the band of soldiers, and then back again to the garden. Chrysostom says, “Virtue is easier than vice.” It is more pains to some to follow their sins, than to others to worship their God. While the sinner travails with his sin, in sorrow he brings forth; which is called ‘serving divers lusts.” Not enjoy their lusts—but serve their lusts. Why so? Because not only of the slavery in sin—but the hard labor; it is ‘serving divers lusts.” Many a man goes to hell in the sweat of his brow.

[8] Sin is the only thing God has an antipathy against. God does not hate a man because he is poor, or despised in the world; as you do not hate your friend because he is sick. The only thing which which draws forth the keenness of God’s hatred, is sin. “Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate.” And sure, if the sinner dies under God’s hatred, he cannot be admitted into the celestial mansions. Will God let the man live with him, whom he hates? God will never lay such a viper in his bosom! Until sin is removed, there is no coming where God is.

III. See the evil of sin, in the price paid for it. It cost the blood of God to expiate it. “O man,” says Augustine, “consider the greatness of your sin, by the greatness of the price paid for sin.” All the princes on earth, or angels in heaven, could not satisfy for sin; only Christ. Nay, Christ’s active obedience was not enough to make atonement for sin—but he must suffer upon the cross; for, without blood is no remission of sin. Oh what an accursed thing is sin, that Christ should die for it! The evil of sin is not so much seen in the multitude who are damned for it, as that Christ died for lt.

IV. Sin is evil in its EFFECTS.

[1] Sin has degraded us of our honor. Reuben by incest lost his dignity; and though he was the first-born, he could not excel. Gen 49:4. God made us in his own image, a little lower than the angels; but sin has debased us. Before Adam sinned, he was like a herald that has his coat of arms upon him: all reverence him, because he carries the king’s coat of arms; but let this coat be pulled off, and he is despised, no man regards him. Sin has done this, it has plucked off our coat of innocence, and now it has debased us, and turned our glory into shame. “And there shall stand up a vile person.” Dan 11:21. This was spoken of Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a king, and his name signifies illustrious; yet sin degraded him, he was a vile person.

[2] Sin disquiets the peace of the soul. “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” Isaiah 57:20-21. Whatever defiles, disturbs. As poison corrupts the blood, so sin corrupts the soul. Sin breeds a trembling at the heart; it creates fears, and there is “torment in fear.” Sin makes sad convulsions in the conscience. Judas was so terrified with guilt and horror, that he hanged himself to quiet his conscience. In order to ease his conscience—he threw himself into hell.

[3] Sin produces all temporal evil. “Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she is removed.” It is the Trojan horse, which has sword, and famine and pestilence, in its belly. Sin is a coal, which not only blackens–but burns. Sin creates all our troubles; it puts gravel into our bread, and wormwood in our cup. Sin rots the name, consumes the estate, buries loved ones. Sin shoots the flying scroll of God’s curses into a family and kingdom. It is reported of Phocas, that having built a wall of mighty strength about his city, there was a voice heard, “Sin is within the city, and that will throw down the wall.”

[4] Sin unrepented of, brings final damnation. The canker which breeds in the rose is the cause of its perishing; just so—the corruptions which breed in men’s souls are the cause of their damning. Sin, without repentance, brings the ‘second death,” that is “a death always dying,” Rev 20:14. Sin’s pleasure will turn to sorrow at last; like the book the prophet ate, sweet in the mouth—but bitter in the belly. Sin brings the wrath of God, and what tears can quench that fire? “It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell—the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:45-46

Use one: See how deadly an evil sin is, and how strange is it that anyone should love it! “How long will you love vanity?” Psalm 4:2. “The people have turned to other gods, and love flagons of wine.” Hos 3:1: Sin is a dish which men cannot refrain from, though it makes them sick. Who would pour rose-water into a filthy kennel? What pity it is, that so sweet an affection as love should be poured upon so filthy a thing as sin! Sin brings a sting in the conscience, a curse in the estate; yet men love it. A sinner is the greatest self-denier; for his sin he will deny himself a part in heaven.

Use two: Do anything rather than sin. Oh, hate sin! There is more evil in the least sin—than in the greatest bodily evils which can befall us. The ermine rather chooses to die than defile her beautiful skin. There is more evil in a drop of sin—than in a sea of affliction. Affliction is but like a rip in a coat—but sin a stab at the heart. In affliction there is some good—in this lion there is some honey to be found. “It is good for me that I was afflicted.” Psalm 119:71. Augustine, “Affliction is God’s flail to thresh off our husks. Affliction does not consume—but refines.” There is no good in sin; it is the quintessence of evil. Sin is worse than hell; for the pains of hell are a burden to the creature only; but sin is a burden to God. “I am pressed under your iniquities, as a cart is pressed under the sheaves.”

Use three: Is sin so great an evil? Then how thankful should you be to God, if he has taken away your sin! “I have taken away your sins.” Zech 3:4. If you had a disease on your body—how thankful would you be to have it taken away! Much more to have sin taken away. God takes away the guilt of sin by pardoning grace, and the power of sin by mortifying grace. Oh be thankful that this sickness is “not unto death;” that God has changed your nature, and, by grafting you into Christ, made you partake of the sweetness of that olive tree; that sin, though it live, does not reign—but the elder serves the younger; sin the elder—serves grace the younger.

The best of saints are sinners

A child of God may slip into a sin—as a sheep may slip
into the mire. But he does not, and cannot wallow in
sin—as the swine wallows in the mire.

The best of saints are sinners, though the worst
and weakest of saints do not indulge sin or cherish it;
or make daily provision for it; or take daily pleasure
and delight in sin; or habitually yield a willing and
total subjection to the authority and commands of sin.

There is as much difference between sin in a regenerate
person—and sin in an unregenerate person, as there is
between poison in a man—and poison in a serpent.
Poison in a man is most offensive and burdensome, and
he readily uses all remedies and antidotes to expel it
and get rid of it. But poison in a serpent, is in its
natural place, and is most pleasing and delightful.

Just so, sin in a regenerate man is most offensive and
burdensome, and he readily uses all holy means and
antidotes to expel it and to get rid of it. But sin in an
unregenerate man is most pleasing and delightful, it
being in its natural place.

A godly man may have many sins—yet he has not
one beloved sin, one bosom sin, one darling sin.
His sins are his greatest grief and torment.

Every godly man . . .
hates all known sin,
would sincerely have his sins not only pardoned, but destroyed,
groans under the burden of sin,
combats and conflicts with all known sin,
has fixed purposes and designs not to sin,
has a sincere willingness to be rid of all sin.

No sincere Christian indulges himself in any
trade, course, or way of sin. “Oh,” says the
gracious soul, “that I could be rid of . . .
this proud heart,
this hard heart,
this unbelieving heart,
this unclean heart,
this earthly heart,
this froward heart of mine!”

O sirs, this is most certain—whoever gives up himself
freely, willingly, cheerfully, habitually—to the service
of any one particular lust or sin—he is in the state of
nature, under wrath, and in the way to eternal ruin!

– Thomas Brooks

HT: Grace Gems

John Piper on exulting in tribulation

Now he says in Romans 5:3 the astonishing thing: “Exult in them.” This is what he does. This is what he calls us to do. How can this be? The answer from verse 2 is that we are standing in grace. This is God’s omnipotent power to help us though we don’t deserve it. You don’t hold the key to this wonderful, supernatural way of life that should set Christians off from the world, God does. The power to rejoice and exult in tribulation comes from omnipotent grace that we receive by trusting in God’s promises.

Here’s an illustration of it from 2 Corinthians 8:1-2. Paul is talking about the way the Macedonian Christians rejoiced in their afflictions even in great poverty. Notice the key: “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.” Do you see the key: “the grace of God” was given to them. And that produced an indomitable joy in a great ordeal (or test) of affliction. And that joy in affliction overflowed in love. So omnipotent power of grace is the key. We stand in this grace, Paul says in verse 2.

But grace does not work like magic. It works through truth. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32) – from complaining and from paralyzing frustration and from a critical spirit. Grace opens the eyes of the heart to truth and inclines the heart to embrace it and live by it.

Ray Stedman on suffering

“Rejoicing in suffering is not simply stoicism. It is not simply a

‘Grin and bear it’ attitude, or

‘Tough it out’ and see how much you can take, or

‘Just hang in there until it’s over’ and ‘don’t let anything get you down,’ or

‘Keep a stiff upper lip.’

Many people feel that if they do that, they are fulfilling the Word and “rejoicing in suffering.” But that is not it. There are non-Christians who can do that. Many people pride themselves on how much they can take. Sometimes people who are not Christians will put us to shame by the things that they can take without complaining.

We are not merely expected to enjoy the pain. There are some people who think “rejoicing in suffering” means that you are to enjoy your pain and hurt, that somehow Christians ought to be glad when terrible tragedy occurs and their hearts are hurting. That is not what Paul is saying. But there are people who feel that way — they are called masochists — they like to torture themselves. You have met people like that, who aren’t happy unless they’re miserable. If you take their misery away from them, they are really wretched, because it is their misery that gives them a sense of contentment. That is a twisted, distorted view of life. That is not what Paul is saying.

Nor is he saying that we merely are to pretend that we are happy. Some think this passage is saying that when you are out in public, you should put on an artificial smile and act happy, when inside your heart is hurting like crazy. Now that is not it. Christianity is never phony. Phoniness of any kind is a false Christianity.

I heard a man some years ago put this very clearly. Some of you may remember this man. He was going through great physical trouble, and one of his legs was amputated. That did not arrest the course of his disease, and he ultimately died because of it. Just a few days before his death I visited him in the hospital and he said something to me that I never forgot because it so perfectly expresses what Christian rejoicing in suffering means. He said,

“I never would have chosen one of the trials that I’ve gone through, but I wouldn’t have missed any of them for the world!”

Now that is saying it. There is an awareness that this suffering has done something of supreme value; therefore, you wouldn’t have missed it. But you wouldn’t have chosen it, either! Watch a woman in labor; watch the expression on her face. If you have any empathy in you, you can’t help but feel deeply hurt with her because she is going through such pain. And yet, there usually is joy in the midst of it because she knows that childbirth produces children. It is the child that makes it all worthwhile. There are probably women here this morning who will gladly go through childbirth again because they want a child. Suffering produces something worthwhile.” (See the complete message: Rejoicing in Suffering)  (Bolding added)

 

Spurgeon on tribulation

Paul “tells us of another joy of which worldlings certainly never taste. “Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.” There is a secret sweetness in the gall and wormwood of our daily trials, a sort of ineffable, unutterable, indescribable, but plainly-experienced joy in sorrow, and bliss in woe. O friends, I think that the happiest moments I have ever known have been just after the sharpest pains I have ever felt. As the blue gentian flower grows just upon the edge of the Alpine glacier, so, too, extraordinary joys, azure-tinted with the light of heaven, grow hard by the severest of our troubles, the very sweetest and best of our delights……Let no man’s heart fail him when he hears the experience of the tried people of God. It is true that we do have troubles peculiar to the Christian state; there are some sorrows which are not known outside the family of God. They are very blessed, health-giving, purifying sorrows, and we would not wish to be without them; but, still, sometimes they are very keen, and cut the heart even to its very center. Yet though that; is the case, — and we admit that it is, — we also have some peculiar joys which no others realize. There are fruits in God’s storehouse which no mouth has ever tasted till it has been washed clean by the Word and by the Spirit of God. There are secret things which are not seen by the human eye, however much enlightened by knowledge, until that eye has been touched with heaven’s own eye-salve that it may look and still may live, — look into the glory, and not be blinded by the wondrous sight. Come, then, ye who are tempted by the world’s joys, and see where true joy is to be found. Turn away from that painted Jezebel; she will but mock and deceive you.  (Romans 5:11 Joy in God)

Solid joys and lasting treasure, 
None but Zion’s children know.

Afflictions quicken us to pray

Afflictions quicken us to prayer. It is a pity it should be so; but experience testifies, that a long course of ease and prosperity, without painful changes—has an unhappy tendency to make us cold and formal in our secret worship. But troubles rouse our spirits, and constrain us to call upon the Lord in good earnest—when we feel a need of that help which we only can have from his almighty arm. Afflictions are useful, and in a degree necessary, to keep alive in us—a conviction of the vanity and unsatisfying nature of the present world, and all its enjoyments; to remind us that this world is not our rest, and to call our thoughts upwards, where our true treasure is, and where our heart ought to be. When things go on much to our wish, our hearts are too prone to say, “It is good to be here!”
― John Newton, The Letters of John Newton

Salvation, not by merit

Is the carnal mind at enmity against God? Then salvation cannot be by merit; it must be by grace. If we are at enmity with God, what merit can we have? How can we deserve anything from the being we hate? Even if we were pure as Adam, we could not have any merit; for I do not think Adam had any desert before his Creator. When he had kept all his Master’s law he was but an unprofitable servant; he had done no more than he ought to have done; he had no surplus, no balance. But since we have become enemies, how much less can we hope to be saved by works! Oh! no; but the whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salvation is not by the works of the law, but by the deeds of grace. Martin Luther declared that he constantly preached justification by faith alone, “because,” said he, “the people would forget it; so that I was obliged almost to knock my Bible against their heads, to send it into their hearts.” So it is true; we constantly forget that salvation is by grace alone. We always want to be putting in some little scrap of our own virtue; we want to be doing something. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: “Saved by your works! you might as well try to go to America in a paper boat!” Saved by your works! It is impossible! Oh! no, the poor legalist is like a blind horse going round and round the mill, or like the prisoner going up the treadwheel, and finding himself no higher after all he has done; he has no solid confidence, no firm ground to rest upon. He has not done enough—”never enough;” conscience always says, “this is not perfection; it ought to have been better,” Salvation for enemies must be by an ambassador,—by an atonement,—yea, by Christ.

– Charles Spurgeon

The Abundant Mercy of God

No other Attribute could have helped us had Mercy refused; as we are by nature, Justice condemns us, Holiness frowns upon us, Power crushes us, Truth confirms the threat of the Law, and Wrath fulfills it. It is from the Mercy of our God that all our hopes begin. Mercy is needed for the miserable, and yet more for the sinful; misery and sin are fully united in the human race, and Mercy, here, performs her noble deeds. My Brothers and Sisters, God has vouchsafed His Mercy to us, and we must thankfully acknowledge that in our case His Mercy has been abundant Mercy! We were defiled with abundant sin,
and only the multitude of His Loving Kindnesses could have put those sins away; we were infected with an abundance of evil, and only overflowing Mercy can ever cure us of all our natural disease, and make us meet for Heaven. We have received abundant Grace up till now; we have made great drafts upon the Exchequer of God, and of His fullness have we all received Grace for Grace; where sin has abounded, Grace has much more abounded. Will you, my fellow Debtor, stand still awhile and contemplate the abundant Mercy of our blessed God?

– Charles Spurgeon

Knowing God and Ourselves

Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stript of the divine attire our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God. Thus, our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want, weakness, in short, depravity and corruption, reminds us, that in the Lord, and none but He, dwell the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant goodness. We are accordingly urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God; and, indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves. For what man is not disposed to rest in himself? Who, in fact, does not thus rest, so long as he is unknown to himself; that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments, and unconscious or unmindful of his misery? Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him.

On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only, and not to the Lord also —He being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced. For, since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself. And since nothing appears within us or around us that is not tainted with very great impurity, so long as we keep our mind within the confines of human pollution, anything which is in some small degree less defiled delights us as if it were most pure just as an eye, to which nothing but black had been previously presented, deems an object of a whitish, or even of a brownish hue, to be perfectly white. Nay, the bodily sense may furnish a still stronger illustration of the extent to which we are deluded in estimating the powers of the mind. If, at mid-day, we either look down to the ground, or on the surrounding objects which lie open to our view, we think ourselves endued with a very strong and piercing eyesight; but when we look up to the sun, and gaze at it unveiled, the sight which did excellently well for the earth is instantly so dazzled and confounded by the refulgence, as to oblige us to confess that our acuteness in discerning terrestrial objects is mere dimness when applied to the sun. Thus too, it happens in estimating our spiritual qualities. So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods. But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity; what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy will be condemned as the most miserable impotence. So far are those qualities in us, which seem most perfect, from corresponding to the divine purity.

Hence that dread and amazement with which as Scripture uniformly relates, holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence of God. When we see those who previously stood firm and secure so quaking with terror, that the fear of death takes hold of them, nay, they are, in a manner, swallowed up and annihilated, the inference to be drawn is that men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God. Frequent examples of this consternation occur both in the Book of Judges and the Prophetical Writings; so much so, that it was a common expression among the people of God, “We shall die, for we have seen the Lord.” Hence the Book of Job, also, in humbling men under a conviction of their folly, feebleness, and pollution, always derives its chief argument from descriptions of the Divine wisdom, virtue, and purity. Nor without cause: for we see Abraham the readier to acknowledge himself but dust and ashes the nearer he approaches to behold the glory of the Lord, and Elijah unable to wait with unveiled face for His approach; so dreadful is the sight. And what can man do, man who is but rottenness and a worm, when even the Cherubim themselves must veil their faces in very terror? To this, undoubtedly, the Prophet Isaiah refers, when he says (Isaiah 24:23), “The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign;” i.e., when he shall exhibit his refulgence, and give a nearer view of it, the brightest objects will, in comparison, be covered with darkness.

– John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 31-32

Only the Gospel Fills Our Sails

Like a sailboat equipped with the most sophisticated guidance technology, our Christian lives are often decked out with the latest principles for living, with spiritual guidance counselors telling us what will make life really work for us and our families. Oftentimes, brand new Christians sail out of the harbor under full sail, eager to follow the guidance system, making use of all the gadgets, enthusiastically listening to every fellow boater who has some advice to offer. Yet as many long-time believers know, eventually the winds die down and we find ourselves dead in the water. Then when storm clouds gather on the horizon, we discover that all of the guidance technology and good advice in the world cannot fill our sails so that we can return safely to the harbor. The equipment can plot our course, tell us that a storm is coming, and indicate our present location, but it cannot move us one inch toward the safety of the harbor. In other words, if we are looking for motivation in the Christian life, it cannot come from motivational principles; only the gospel fills our sails…While God’s wise directions are necessary, apart from the ever present word of promise that, despite our failures at sea, God is at the helm piloting us to safety, we will eventually give up on sailing altogether. Purposes, laws, principles, suggestions, and good advice can set our course, but only the gospel promise can fill our sails and restore to us the joy of our salvation.

– Michael Horton, The Gospel Driven Life, pg. 143-144

HT: Liberate