We’ve been looking at the foundational truths of biblical Christianity in our current sermon series, and many of us have found this really interesting and enlightening.
It’s been particularly good to examine the ‘Historical Contenders’ – the Christians through history who have stood boldly in the face of opposition to defend these truths. I think they are braver than we are. There’s lots about biblical Christianity that is (and always has been) terribly unpopular in the eyes of the rest of society – not least the doctrine of ‘total depravity’ that we learned about 2 Sundays ago. Sin and the global, all-pervading presence of sin in every human is not nice to think about. But it’s a very necessary starting point isn’t it, if we’re going to even begin to consider the person and work of Jesus Christ and decide that he’s not just ‘a good man for you‘, but ‘the Saviour for me too’.
So all this is by way of preface to typing out some of Spurgeon’s blunt remarks about sin which I read this morning. They struck me as incredibly un-PC, and so I thought all the more I could take the time to share them with you readers here, by way of ‘contending for the faith once for all delivered’ (Jude 3). Even if you’ve never been before, may you too be convicted of your sin and your need for a great Saviour.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Sin is that evil power that is in the world in rebellion against the good and gracious power of righteousness that sits upon the throne of God. This evil power of unholiness, untruth, sin and contrariety to the mind of God, holds the great mass of our fellow men beneath its sway at this hour. The rations with which it rewards the most desperate valor of its champions is death.
Death is the natural result of all sin. When man acts according to God’s order, he lives; but when he breaks his Maker’s laws, he wrecks himself and does that which causes death. When any man commits sin, he dies to holiness and purity. The further a man goes in lust and iniquity, the more dead he becomes to purity and holiness: he loses the power to appreciate the beauties of virtue or to be disgusted with the abominations of vice. Our nature at the very outset has lost that delicacy of perception that comes of healthy life; and as men proceed in unchastity, or injustice, or unbelief, or sin of any kind, they enter deeper and deeper into that awful moral death which is the sure wage of sin. You can sin yourself into an utter deadness of conscience, and that is the first wage of your service of sin.
CH Spurgeon, At the Master’s Feet, March 1
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