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Wednesday flight 'Bible Lecture by 'ReV. Len G. Broughton, D. D., of Christ Church, London
Reported for The Golden Age by M. P. H. —Copyright Applied For.
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CHRIST CHURCH. LONDON.
Romans 1:18: "For the wrath of God is re
vealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men that hinder (hold
back) the truth in unrighteousness.”
z | * HIS morning we begin the consideration
, °f the Doctrinal Section of the Epistle
to the Romans, and it is perfectly nat
ural that the Apostle begins this sec
tion with the consideration of the subject of
sin. I say perfectly natural, because the Apos
tle in this book is giving to the world a trea
tise on Christian theology. The purpose of the
book is to set forth salvation by grace, as op
posed to salvation by law; and the whole of
the epistle is keyed to the setting forth of that
great truth. Naturally, therefore, the first ques
tion to be considered is God’s attitude to the
great fact of sin, hence we have th ewords of
our text, “The wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unright
eous of men that hinder”—or as you will read
in the margin, “hold back, the truth in un
righteousness.”
Before we proceed now to the consideration
of the text, I want us to stop and consider
briefly the definition of sin What is sin? We
hear a great deal about sin. Not as much
about it as we used, nor as we should, to be
sure, but still we hear a great deal about sin.
The Bible gives two definitions of .sin, and both
these definiitons are comprehended in our text.
The first definiiton we have is in I. John 3:4,
“Sin is the transgression of the law,” or as
the American revised renders it, “Sin is law
lessness,” that is, anarchy, and anarchy is dis
regard of law. In that sense it is disregard of
divine law; it is doing that which divine law
forbids. Then in I. John 5:7 is this definition,
“All unrighteousness is sin.” There are a great
many people who think that so long as they
do nothing that is contrary to the express law
of God, they are free from sin. They are
thinking, to be sure, of overt sin—the resuk
of the known violation of law. But there is
another phase of sin which is far more subtle,
and one with which we need to concern our
selves far more, than the open, overt viola
tion of the law of God, and that is the phase
which is suggested by the second definition:
“All unrighteousness is sin.” Sin is failing
to do what God has commanded us to do. It
THE GOLDEN AGE FOR AUGUST 7, 1913
GOD’S ATTITUDUE TO SIN
is more. It is failing to come up in our lives
to the plain of God’s righteousness. Sin is
under righteousness. It is a righteous life, if
you will, the righteous life that is beneath the
standard of God. Very few men can be per
suaded that if they are living what the world
calls a righteous life, they are nevertheless
perhaps living in sin. Righteousness, so long
as it is below the holy, perfect standard of
God, is sin, though it be righteousness. For
righteousness to be without sin. it must meas
ure up and compare with the righteousness
of God. “Well then,” someone says, “if that
be true about sin, there is no man on earth
free from sin.” Most certainly that is true;
and a man who says “I am living without
either says what he does not believe, or
He he speaks ignorantly of the great, fun
(Bnental fact of sin.
Let me say again, sin is failing to measure
up in our lives to the holiness, to the right
eousness, perfection, of God.
Many of you, perhaps, have seen two chil
dren —I have many a time—l have been one
of the two —playing see-saw with a board that
has been balanced perfectly over some piece
of timber so that there is perfect equilibrium
of both ends of the board, and then you see
two children, of exactly the same weight, get
on that board, one on one end and one on the
other; and then you have seen someone give
them a start, and you have seen them see-saw
up and down, almost with perpetual motion.
It is remarkable to see how long that balance
will continue in spite of no one giving any
assistance to it whatever; each of its ends
must perfectly balance without friction, to con
stitute a see-saw.
Now, my brethren, in the beginning God
and man were perfectly balanced; when God
created man, and put him in the Garden of
Eden, he created him as we are told, in his
own image. Certainly he was not referring
to his physical creation, he was referring to
his inner spiritual creation; he was the image
of God, created for fellowship with God; and
there can be no perfect fellowship with God
unless there is perpetual harmony. Perfect
balancing with God means walking with him.
As we find man in the Garden of Eden, he is
in perfect harmony with God, perfect fellow
ship with him, walking together and living to
gether; there was a perfect see-saw (I speak
reverently) between God and man; there was
no friction in the world; it was all harmony
and peace because it w r as all perfectly and
harmoniously balanced; there was no sin, no
Satan. It was all God, and man, with whom
he was in perfect agreement.
Now in the process of time the devil entered
the heart of men and women, and the moment
he entered, the image of God was blurred, and
man was put out of harmony with him. God
was not put out o f harmony with man, save
as man put him out of harmony by reason of
his own lack of harmony, and this disharmony
was the result of sin—that is what it did. From
that day when the balance was destroyed be
tween God and man, until the present day, the
unregenerate world is still out of balance with
God. And if you ask me today to tell in a
sentence the trouble with this world, I think
I would say it is lack of harmony with God;
the whole world is out of harmony. There is
no balance between God and the rest of man
as a race;; the whole world is out of balance;
God is displeased, and man is suffering his per
petual displeasure all because of sin.
Now t it is very interesting if we proceed at
once from this point to consider God s atti
tude, in the broadest possible sense, to this
great fact of sin, this disharmony that has been
created in the life and heart of man and the
race as a whole. What is his attitude to it?
The text answers the question. It is not that
the wrath of God is revealed against men. God
is not mad with men, as we interpret wrath
to mean, God is not full of wrath toward men,
he has no wrath to him. God only has love for
man to the extent that he gave his only be
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God loves man. God’s heart at this moment
figuratively speaking —is breaking in love in
expressible for man. God’s heart is melting
and pouring itself out at this moment in in
expressive love for this world. But my breth
ren, God is filled with wrath for something;
not for man, but because of sin; sin has enter
ed the race of man, destroyed God’s pet in
the great world of creation, the thing over
which he exercised most care, the highest pro
duction of the creative genius of Almightiness
has been destroyed, anathematized, degraded
to a degree below the brute on account of sin,
and God’s heart breaks because of it as he
looks down upon it today. It is sin, and not
the sinner that God is filled with wrath for.
There is nothing that can arouse the ha red of
God but sin He cannot look upon sin with
any sort of allowance in the least; all sin,
overt sins, sins of negnect, the sin of violat
ing the law, and the s ill greater sin—
the universal sin of failing to measure up to
his holiness —to balance him so that there can
be perfect harmony and fellowship between
man and himself.
Then again, I want us to observe that God
is not only wrathful against the particular kind
of sin in this text, but it is said “The w T rath of
God is revealed from heaven against all un
godliness and unrighteousness of men that hin
der the truth in unrighteousness.” That form
of sin that causes men to hold back the truth,
in unrighteousness. There is no common de
gree of responsibility for failing to apprehend
the truth, nor is there any common degree of
responsibility for sin. No two men are alike
responsible for truth. May I illustrate that?
A child of 6 years is not responsible for be
ing unable to count a million; but it is re
sponsible under normal conditions for not be
ing able to count a hundred.
Again, a boy should never be punished for
not taking something down from a shelf which
is higher than he can reach; but he is responsi
ble for reaching as high as he can.
Again, a blind man should not be blamed
because he does not see; but he is responsible
for not making the best use of his other senses
that he possibly can.
So God holds us responsible only for living
up to the light that we have, provided, how
ever, we live up to that light. To say that
(Continued on page 14.)