God, Man, and Sin
Just as certain diseases may paralyze the physical body, so sin may cause weakness and/or paralysis of the conscience, of man’s will to do good. The primary need of man is spiritual—the forgiveness of his sins and coming into fellowship with God. All needs of the physical body are secondary to this.
Sin is widespread. It would be difficult, if indeed not impossible, to overestimate the importance of forgiveness. This is the case because the Bible plainly teaches that each accountable person is guilty of sin (Romans 3:9-18, 23). Men living today are in basically the same kind of world as that described by Paul in Romans 1:18-32. Three times in that section Paul says, “God gave them up.” One time he says, “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves!” (Romans 1:24). Again, Paul says, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions” (Romans 1:26). And, finally, Paul said, “And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:28).
“. . . [T]he wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23, emp. added). This passage tells us that what we earn by a life of sin is death—eternal separation from God and everything that is good (Matthew 25:1-13, 14-30, 31-46). One receives eternal life only by a gift from God—salvation cannot be earned! But, if one passes through the door of death out into eternity with sin yet upon his soul, then he will have earned death. From the foregoing it is clear that sin has the power to destroy.
Sin had the power to destroy angels. “For if God spared not angels when they sinned but cast them down to hell and committed them to pits of darkness” (2 Peter 2:4; cf. Jude 6).
Sin has the power to destroy cities. “For if God . . . turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly . . .” (2 Peter 2:6; cf. Genesis 19:24; Jude 4-6).
Sin has the power to destroy nations. “Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not” (Jude 5; 1 Corinthians 10:5-10; Hebrews 3:16-19). Sin not only destroyed Israel, but it also destroyed such a mighty empire as Rome. It can destroy our great nation.
Sin has the power to destroy the people of the world. “For if God . . . spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 22:5; 3:6).
Sin has the power to destroy churches. To the church of Christ in Ephesus, the Lord wrote, “Remember therefore whence you are fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I will come to you, and will move your candlestick out of its place, except you repent” (Revelation 2:5; cf. 2:14-16, 20-23; 3:5).
Sin has the power to destroy individuals. To Saul, king of Israel, Samuel the prophet gave this message from God, “Though you were little in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel?” (2 Samuel 15:17). Thus, Sanuel reminded Saul of the humility which characterized Saul in his early life. But after Saul fell into sin, God (through Samuel) told him, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, He has rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23). God rejects the man who rejects His word (Deuteronomy 11:26; 2 Chronicles 15:1-2). Sin has the power to destroy (in the sense of being separate from God—not annihilation) in hell (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Mark 9:44-49; Revelation 20:10-15).
[Note: Three years following the publication of the material composing this article, Thomas B. Warren and Antony G. N. Flew met in their historic debate on the existence of God (1976). During one of his speeches, Dr. Flew said, “I must confess that this subject of the doctrine of hell is one about which I find it very difficult to maintain my supposed national British calm and reserve. But let me, with what restraint I can muster, say that if anything can be known to be monstrously, inordinately wrong and unjust, it is the conduct of which this God is said to assume. If anything can be known to be just quite monstrously, inordinately, unquestionably unjust and evil, it is the conduct of a Being creating conscious creatures, whether human or animal, in the full knowledge, and with the intention, that these creatures should be maintained by His sustaining power eternally in infinite and unlimited torment. I speak of this with what little restraint I can muster because, if anything seems clear to me about good and evil, just and unjust, it is clear to me that this is monstrous” (85).
Included in his response to the above statements of Flew, Dr Warren said, “Let me suggest, Dr. Flew, in all concern for you as a person, that we can know what sin deserves in only two ways. Not by looking at rocks, not merely by intuition, not merely by some deduction from some concept or from some empirical fact, but only 1) by what it costs to get man out of it—the death of the Son of God—and 2) the punishment that must be meted out for those who live and die in it (sin). But Dr. Flew projects himself, not only outside the physical universe, but outside of God as well, looks down upon the universe and God and judges God to be unfit and unworthy, “monstrous,” even “satanic” (as he put it last evening) and I submit to you that he has no springboard on which to stand to make such a judgment.
He admits that philosophy does not have anything to offer to resolve guilt, so there is nothing more I need to say there. That is simply an admission of fact, and you have admitted, Dr. Flew, real guilt, not merely a feeling of guilt! You have admitted that all men know that they have done what they know they ought not to do. You said you had difficulty in deciding whether you should be an atheist or an agnostic, but Dr. Flew, what we are interested in is not merely the fact that you have had difficulty but whether or not you have decided which one you are going to be! You signed the proposition in this debate that you were going to be an atheist. I suggest that at least until you come straight out and say “I have now decided that I will reject my position of atheism and will become an agnostic,” that you try to stay with atheism” (169-70).]
All persons are born free from sin. However, after one reaches the age of accountability he falls into sin (Romans 3:23) and, as a result, is separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). Then, in order to attain a right relationship with God, the lost person must be “born again”—that is, he must become a son [daughter] of God. Study carefully Galatians 3:26-27; 1 John 4:7; 5:1; 1 Peter 1:22-25.
In the spiritual birth, life is given by the Spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63 “It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.” The spiritual birth occurs when one is baptized into Christ. After a person has heard the truth [the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4], believed it, repented of his sins, and confessed his faith in Christ, he is buried in baptism and is delivered into a new spiritual life. Paul stated, “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:3-5).
Thus, a Christian is resurrected to his new life when he is baptized. It must be remembered that men are not saved by water but by the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:22; 10:4; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 5:8-9). But one is not saved by Christ’s blood until his faith in and love for the Lord leads him to obey the Lord in being baptized. This is the deliverance of the new birth. Paul elsewhere stated, “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). After the deliverance of baptism, man becomes a new creature.
A spiritual life requires a spiritual birth. Man, because of the sins committed in the flesh, cannot hope to save himself. Rather, he must have a spiritual birth made possible by the blood of Christ. He must be saved by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 2:11).
No one can ultimately defeat God. While the ideal will of God (that no one should ever sin) can be, and is, defeated by each one of us when we sin, and even though each one can defeat God’s circumstantial will (that in the circumstance of man’s having sinned, not a single one should be lost but that all should be saved through Christ), no man can defeat the ultimate will of God (to bless eternally every righteous person and to punish eternally every wicked person, Matthew25:46).