Those, who live in
sin, sin all the time. It is their trade, and they work hard at it.
They love it, and are greedy of iniquity. They "love death."
They "dig up evil." They "fill up their sin always."
They "do always resist the Holy Ghost." Never for an hour
do they love God supremely. They sin with out cessation.
Two things are
required to make an action right. One is that it be lawful in itself.
The other is that it be done with a right motive. If the thing done
be itself wrong, no motives can make it right. To steal, or curse, or
murder, or despise the poor, or hate the just, can never under any
circumstances be right. To do evil that good may come is the doctrine
of none but devils, and the worst of men. On the other hand the thing
done may be right in itself, but the motive, which governs us, may be
wrong, and so the act may be sinful because the motive is sinful. Bad
motives in good actions are like dead flies in sweet ointments. They
corrupt the whole. The heart is everything. Most men of the world in
Christian countries do many things, which are very proper, but not
from love to God. No man, who has not been born again, ever does
anything with holy motives. His life is better than his heart. Indeed
his heart is the worst part of him. It is all wrong. It is hard, and
proud, and selfish, and unbelieving, and without any love to God. So
far from pleasing God, all the unregenerate are continually offending
him. Their very best works are but "splendid sins."
There are reasons
found in human nature, which render it certain that unrenewed men
will do nothing but sin. They are blind and see no beauty in
holiness. They have no spiritual discernment. "They have eyes
but they see not." "They know not what they do." If
they do not see the beauty of holiness, how can they love it? No
being can love that, which does not seem to him good or comely.
The man, who is
without the grace of God, never fully approves the law of God, as
holy, just and good, nor adopts it as the rule of his life. He does
some things which it requires, and abstains from some things which it
forbids, not because he loves God or his law, but because it promotes
his health, or wealth, or honour, or quiet, to do so. God is not in
all his thoughts. He would live very much as he does if the law of
God were not known to him. Ask him, and he will tell you that he does
not aim with a single eye to honour God in everything. He does not
frame his doings to that end at all. All the lines of his conduct
meet and end in himself. He is without God in the world. He serves
the creature more than the Creator. Nor is his heart without objects
of love. He loves the world and the things of the world. When he
prospers in the things that perish, he counts himself happy. He is
greatly pleased with gold and silver, and objects of sense, and works
of art. These are his gods, because he sets his heart on them.
He thinks of them ten times as much and a thousand times as eagerly as
he thinks of God.
What makes his case
worse is that he is commonly much at ease. He is well pleased with
himself. He is not sighing over his failures, and lamenting his sins.
He thinks he is nearly good enough. Rivers of water never run down
his eyes for his own sins or the sins of others. He seldom cries,
"God, be merciful to me a sinner," and when he does, it is
rather a form than a hearty prayer. His real belief is that God could
not righteously and for ever condemn him; at least he says, "If
I am lost, I know not what will become of many others." Would it
not be strange that one, who cares not to serve God, should do it?
that he, who tries to please himself and wicked men, should as by
accident please God? that he, who seeks the honour that comes from
man, should find the honour that comes from God only? Surely there is
no such con fusion where God reigns. He does not put darkness for
light, bitter for sweet, sin for holiness, and vice for virtue.
Nor should men be
offended at this doctrine. It is not new. It is not of human
invention. It is not the doctrine held by a few only. It is not a
mere theory. It is very practical, very important. No truth concerns
any man more than this. It is the very doctrine of the Bible in many
places. Paul says: "They that are after the flesh [who are
unrenewed by God's Spirit] do mind the things of the flesh... To be
carnally-minded is death...The carnal [or unregenerate] mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Rom. viii. 5-8. Could words be plainer or stronger? Until God shall
be pleased with a heart that is enmity against him, and with a mind
that "cannot be subject" to his law, until he shall cease
to be a holy God, he cannot be pleased with anything done by a man
who has not the Spirit of God, and whose heart has not been mightily
changed.
Ploughing is itself a
lawful act. If there be no ploughing, there can be no bread. Yet God
says: "The ploughing of the wicked is sin." Yea, he puts it
down with other sins, that greatly offend him. The whole verse reads
thus: "An high look, and a proud heart, and the ploughing of the
wicked is sin." Prov. xxi. 4. If God had intended to teach that
everything, even the most common and necessary thing done by wicked
men, was sinful, could he have chosen more fit words?
But, here is a
passage, which shows that all the religious services of sinners are
defiled with sin. "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination
to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight."
There are but two classes of men known in the Bible. They are called
saints and sinners, the just and the unjust, the righteous and the
wicked, men of the way and men of the world. Their end will be
different, because their characters are different.
From the earliest
ages of the Christian church this has been the uniform doctrine, held
and insisted on by God's people. Basil in his treatise on baptism
says expressly that it is not possible, nor a thing pleasing and
acceptable to God, for one that is the servant of sin to perform
righteousness, according to the rule of the saints' piety. In proof
he urges these words of our Saviour: "Let us first make the tree
good, and then the fruit will be good;" and let us "first
make clean the inside of the cup and platter," and then the
outside will be wholly clean. He also refers to 2 Cor. vii. 1. Jerome
says: "Let us pronounce our sentence against those that do not
believe in Christ, and yet think themselves valiant, and wise, and
temperate, and just, that they may know that none can live without
Christ, without whom all virtue is in vice,'' or vicious. Augustine
says: "Be it far from us to think that true virtue should be in
any one, unless he be a righteous man. And let it be as far from us
to think that any one is truly righteous, unless he live by faith."
"All the life of unbelievers is sin, and there is nothing good
without the chief good: for where the knowledge of the eternal and
unchange able truth is wanting, there is but false virtue in the best
manners." Again: "The man is first to be changed, that his
works may be changed; for if a man remain in that state that he is
evil, he cannot have good works."
Gregory says: "
If faith be not first begotten in our hearts, all the other things
cannot be good, though they may seem good."
The Church of England
and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America
do both say of works done before the grace of Christ and the
inspiration of his Spirit, because "they are not done as God
hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have
the nature of sin."
The 5th article of
the Church of Ireland contains the same words without alteration. It
holds also this language: "We have no power to do good works,
grace of God preventing [going before] us, that we may have a good
will, and working with us when we have that good will." It also
incorporates these words from the Lambeth Articles: "The
condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn,
and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to
faith, and calling upon God."
The Reformed Churches
generally fully agree with the above testimonies.
The Synod of Dort
says: "There is indeed remaining in man, since the fall, some
light of nature, by the help of which, he retains certain notions
concerning God and natural things; concerning the difference of
things honourable and shameful, and manifests some desire after
virtue and external discipline: but so far from his being able, by
this light of nature, to attain to the saving knowledge of God, or to
turn himself to him, he does not use it rightly in natural and civil
things: nay, indeed, whatever thing it may at length be, he
contaminates it all in various ways, and holds it in unrighteousness,
which when he does, he is rendered inexcusable before God.”
The French Confession
says: "Although man can somewhat discern between good and evil,
yet we affirm, that whatsoever light he hath, it straightway becometh
darkness, when the question is of seeking God, so that by his
understanding and reason he can never come to God. Also, although he
be endued with will, whereby he is moved to this or that, yet in as
much as it is altogether captivated under sin, it hath no liberty at
all to desire good, but such as it hath received by grace and of the
gift of God."
The Augsburg
Confession, which is the standard of the Lutheran churches in Germany
and America, says: "We condemn the Pelagians and all such as
they are, who teach that by the only powers of nature, without the
Holy Spirit, we may love God above all, and fulfil the law of God, as
touching the substance of our actions. We do freely and necessarily
mislike these dreams; for they do obscure the benefits of Christ. For
therefore is Christ the Mediator set forth, and mercy promised in the
gospel, because that the law cannot be satisfied by man's nature, as
Paul witnesseth when he saith, (Rom. viii.) 'The wisdom of the flesh
is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be.' For albeit that man's nature by itself can
after some sort perform external works (for it can contain the hands
from theft and murder) yet can it not make those inward motions, as
true fear, true faith, patience, and chastity, unless the Holy Ghost
do govern and help our hearts. And yet in this place also do we
teach, that it is also the commandment of God, that the carnal
motions should be restrained by the industry of reason and by civil
discipline, as Paul saith, 'The law is given to the unjust.'” And
again: "Albeit that men by their own strength be able to do
outward honest deeds in some sort, and must also perform this civil
obedience; yet so long as men are void of faith, they are in the
power of the devil, who driveth them to shameful sins, occupieth
their minds with wicked and blasphemous opinions, for that is the
kingdom and tyranny of the devil. Moreover, nature is weak, and
cannot without God's help strengthen itself to any spiritual works.''
The Moravian
Confession says: "And since through faith the Holy Spirit is
given, thus also the heart is made fit to do good works. through
faith the Holy Spirit is given, thus also the heart is made fit to do
good works. For before that, as long as it is without the Holy
Spirit, it is too weak; and besides it is in the power of the devil,
who impels the poor human nature to many sins...Without faith and
without Christ, human nature and ability is far too weak to do good
works; as to call upon God, to show patience in suffering, to love
one's neighbour, diligently to discharge offices entrusted to us, to
be obedient, to avoid evil lusts. Such noble and truly good works
cannot be done without the help of Christ, as he himself speaks -
John xv. 'Without me ye can do nothing'"
The Westminster
Confession says: "Works done by unregenerate men, although for
the matter of them they may be things which God commands, and of good
use both to themselves and others; yet because they proceed not from
a heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according
to the word; nor to a right end, the glory of God; they are therefore
sinful, and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace
from God. And yet their neglect of them is more sinful and
displeasing unto God” This article is found without alteration in
the Confessions of all the Presbyterian bodies of Scotland, Ireland,
and Canada, and of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of
America. It was incorporated entire into the Savoy Confession, into
the Saybrook Platform, into the London Baptist Confession, into the
Philadelphia Baptist Confession, as well as into the Confession of
numerous smaller bodies in this and other countries.
The eighth article of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South, and of the Protestant Methodist Church in the United States,
is in these words: "The condition of man after the fall of Adam
is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural
strength and works to faith, and calling upon God: wherefore we have
no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without
the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have that good
will, and working with us, when we have that good will."
The Confession of
Sueveland says: "Good works {which are good indeed) do proceed
from a lively faith, by the Holy Ghost, and are done of the faithful
according to the will or rule of God's word."
The Confession of
Basle says: "The Lord himself saith, 'Without me ye can do
nothing;' John xv. 5; that is, nothing that may please God and be for
your salvation... Faith and love are the fountain and square of all
virtues and good works, according to the testimony of the Apostle:
'The end of the command ment is love, out of a pure heart, and a good
conscience, and faith not feigned.' 1 Tim. i. 5. And again: 'Without
faith it is impossible to please God.' Heb. xi. 6."
The Confession of
Belgia says: "We are justified by faith in Christ, yea, even
before such time as we could bring forth any good work: for our works
before faith can no more be good, than the fruit of a tree can be
good, before the tree itself be good.”
The Confession of
Saxony says: "External discipline, even where it is most honest,
is not a fulfilling of external government, such as it is; like unto
the leaf of the fig-tree, wherewith our first parents, after their
fall, did cover their nakedness: neither doth it any more take away
sin, and the corruption of nature, and death, than those fig-leaves
did."
The Confession of
Wirtemberg says: "We confess and believe that to do and
practise such righteousness as is acceptable to God, these virtues be
necessary - faith, hope, and love: and that man cannot of himself
conceive these virtues, but doth receive them of the favour and grace
of God."
These extracts from
the standards of different bodies of Christians might have been much
more extended. They are, however, sufficient to show that the
doctrine here set forth is not novel; is not the doctrine of a few
extreme writers, but is the common doctrine of the purest and most
zealous churches. The fair arguments used and the texts quoted in
these Confessions do mightily strengthen the arguments and proofs before quoted. It is not too much to say that it has been fairly and
scripturally proven, that unregenerate men do sin always, and that
none of them do anything but sin against God.
Is not the misery of
an unregenerate state indescribable and unfathomable? No wonder that
pious Ezra, having some just sense of the evil of sin, and the
vileness of men, "did eat no bread, nor drink water be cause of
the transgression of them that had been carried away." No
wonder that Jeremiah said of the wicked of his day: "If ye will
not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places." Even Daniel
"was astonied for one hour and his thoughts troubled him,"
when he foresaw the ruin which the king of Babylon was about to bring
on himself by his royal crimes. All the unregenerate do nothing but
sin. If for a while they seem to reform, they soon return to their
wickedness, as the dog to his vomit, or the sow that was washed to
her wallowing in the mire. All their goodness is as the morning
cloud; as the early dew it passeth away. They sometimes return from
outward acts of sin; but they return not unto the Lord. When the
unclean spirit is gone out of a man and returns again, "the last
state of that man is worse than the first” Matt, xii. 45. Neither
mercies, nor judgments, nor promises, nor threatenings, nor hopes,
nor fears, without the grace and spirit of Christ, will or can ever
cure the love, or arrest the practice, of sin.
W.S. Plumer, The
Grace of Christ, Chapter 8 (Without Divine Grace Men Do Nothing But
Sin)
