Chapter XXIV: Section II: Nature Of Sin (3)

(_a_) _Mat. 22:37-39_—the command of love to God and man; _Rom.
13:8-10_—“_love therefore is the fulfilment of the law_”; _Gal.
5:14_—“_the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself_”; _James 2:8_—“_the royal
law._” (_b_) _John 5:30_—“_my judgment is righteous; because I
seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me_”;
_7:18_—“_He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory: but
he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the same is true,
and no unrighteousness is in him_”; _Rom. 15:3_—“_Christ also
pleased not himself._” (_c_) _Rom. 14:7_—“_none of us liveth to
himself, and none dieth to himself_”; _2 Cor. 5:15_—“_he died for
all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves,
but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again_”; _Gal.
2:20_—“_I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I
that live, but Christ liveth in me._” Contrast _2 Tim.
3:2_—“_lovers of self._” (_d_) _Gen. 3:5_—“_ye shall be as God,
knowing good and evil._” (_e_) _Luke 15:12, 13_—“_give me the
portion of thy substance ... gathered all together and took his
journey into a far country._” (_f_) _2 Thess. 2:3, 4_—“_the man of
sin ... the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth
himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so
that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as
God._”

Contrast “_the man of sin_” who “_exalteth himself_” (_2 Thess.
2:3, 4_) with the Son of God who “_emptied himself_” (_Phil.
2:7_). On “_the man of sin_”, see Wm. Arnold Stevens, in Bap.
Quar. Rev., July, 1889:328-360. Ritchie, Darwin, and Hegel, 24—“We
are conscious of sin, because we know that our true self is God,
from whom we are severed. No ethics is possible unless we
recognize an ideal for all human effort in the presence of the
eternal Self which any account of conduct presupposes.” John
Caird, Fund. Ideas of Christianity, 2:53-73—“Here, as in all
organic life, the individual member or organ has no independent or
exclusive life, and the attempt to attain to it is fatal to
itself.” Milton describes man as “affecting Godhead, and so losing
all.” Of the sinner, we may say with Shakespeare, Coriolanus,
5:4—“He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne
in.... There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male
tiger.” No one of us, then, can sign too early “the declaration of
dependence.” Both Old School and New School theologians agree that
sin is selfishness; see Bellamy, Hopkins, Emmons, the younger
Edwards, Finney, Taylor. See also A. H. Strong, Christ in
Creation, 287-292.

Sin, therefore, is not merely a negative thing, or an absence of love to God. It is a fundamental and positive choice or preference of self instead of God, as the object of affection and the supreme end of being. Instead of making God the centre of his life, surrendering himself unconditionally to God and possessing himself only in subordination to God’s will, the sinner makes self the centre of his life, sets himself directly against God, and constitutes his own interest the supreme motive and his own will the supreme rule.

We may follow Dr. E. G. Robinson in saying that, while sin as a state is unlikeness to God, as a principle is opposition to God, and as an act is transgression of God’s law, the essence of it always and everywhere is selfishness. It is therefore not something external, or the result of compulsion from without; it is a depravity of the affections and a perversion of the will, which constitutes man’s inmost character.

See Harris, in Bib. Sac., 18:148—“Sin is essentially egoism or
selfism, putting self in God’s place. It has four principal
characteristics or manifestations: (1) self-sufficiency, instead
of faith; (2) self-will, instead of submission; (3) self-seeking,
instead of benevolence; (4) self-righteousness, instead of
humility and reverence.” All sin is either explicit or implicit
“_enmity against God_” (_Rom. 8:7_). All true confessions are like
David’s (_Ps. 51:4_)—“_Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And
done that which is evil in thy sight._” Of all sinners it might be
said that they “_Fight neither with small nor great, save only
with the king of Israel_” (_1 K. 22:31_).

Not every sinner is conscious of this enmity. Sin is a principle
in course of development. It is not yet “_full-grown_” (_James
1:15_—“_the sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death_”).
Even now, as James Martineau has said: “If it could be known that
God was dead, the news would cause but little excitement in the
streets of London and Paris.” But this indifference easily grows,
in the presence of threatening and penalty, into violent hatred to
God and positive defiance of his law. If the sin which is now
hidden in the sinner’s heart were but permitted to develop itself
according to its own nature, it would hurl the Almighty from his
throne, and would set up its own kingdom upon the ruins of the
moral universe. Sin is world-destroying, as well as
God-destroying, for it is inconsistent with the conditions which
make being as a whole possible; see Royce, World and Individual,
2:366; Dwight, Works, sermon 80.