Making Sin Abhorrent (part three)
By Jay Wegter
When I lived in San Diego, I would often take my prayer walk in the cemetery on Point Loma, a peninsula with ocean views on three sides, and, one of the largest military cemeteries in the world. I found wisdom in the advice of the Puritans who counseled their parishioners to frequently meditate upon what the Scriptures say about death and dying in order to strengthen their eternal perspective. The subject of death reminds us of the brevity of life and the impending judgment to come (Heb 9:27). What modern sinners find astonishing is the subject of the intensity of God’s wrath. The severity of divine retribution is a concept foreign to us because we fail to think clearly about the divinely ordained principle of sowing and reaping. Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” “God is not mocked”—The Greek verb is, literally, to sneer with the nostrils drawn up in contempt. God does not suffer Himself to be imposed on by empty words: He will judge according to works, which like seeds are sown for eternity for either joy or woe. Excuses for intolerance of God’s cause (His justice) seem valid before men, but are not so before God (Ps 50:21). “Sows”—refers especially to a man’s resources—what has consumed his time, talent, and affection? What actions and habits have revealed his true priorities? (2 Cor 9:6). “Reap”—at the harvest, the end of the world (Matt 13:39). 8. “He that sows unto his own flesh,” does so with a view to fulfilling its desires. He does not say, “His spirit,” but says, “His flesh.” For in ourselves we are not spiritual, but carnal. The flesh is devoted to selfishness. “Corruption**” is what a man shall reap—that is, destruction (Phil 3:19). The use of the term “corruption” implies that destruction is not an arbitrary punishment of fleshly-mindedness, but is its natural fruit; the corrupt flesh producing corruption, which is another word for destruction—corruption is the fault, and corruption the punishment (see 1 Cor 3:17; 2 Pet 2:12). We need to hear from our pulpits the truth that because man is the very moral image of God, sin is its own punishment. Future life only expands the seed sown here—it multiplies and accentuates geometrically what we really are. Those who sow thorns cannot reap wheat— it is an unbreakable law. They alone reap life eternal who sow to the Spirit (Ps 126:6; Prov 11:18; 22:8; Hos 8:7; 10:12; Luke 16:25; Rom 8:11; Jam 5:7). Retribution (reaping judgment) is the response of a just and holy God to evil. The idea of God’s repayment for evil is prominent in at least three ways. First, the law of sowing and reaping is part of God’s economy (Gal 6:7–8). In the O.T. this takes the form of blessings and cursings. When Israel entered Canaan, half stood on Mount Ebal and half on Mount Gerizim and acknowledged that certain kinds of behavior bring consequences either for good or evil (Deut 27:1–26). In the N.T. the certainty of reaping what one sows is plain (Rom 6:21–22). Second, the coming judgment at the end of history includes repayment from God for rebellion. In the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11–15), two criteria of judgment seem to be involved. Unbelievers are said to be judged from both the books (plural) and the book (singular). Specifically, the “books” are examined to demonstrate that the deeds of the condemned have demonstrated God’s justice in judgment. A search of the “book” confirms that those being turned into hell are not named in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and hence divine retribution falls upon them because they failed to respond to God’s gracious offer of salvation. Eternal retribution seems unbelievable to modern sinners because they not only suppress the knowledge of God (Rom 1:18-23); but also the awareness of their own creaturehood. Man’s faculties of sight, hearing, thought, and speech were planted by God for His glory (Ps 94:9). When the sinless One meets sinners in judgment, it will be a holocaust of unbelievable proportions. A lifetime of rebellion has utilized these faculties for the service of sin and self—man has sold himself to do evil (1 Ki 21:20, 25). Spiritually, he has played the harlot (Num 15:39-41). The members of his body have been utilized as instruments of unrighteousness (Rom 6:13, 21). Is it any wonder then that God in fury will ‘reclaim’ the faculties of man (of the senses and reasoning) He created and ‘loaned’ to man? Yes, He will reclaim them and, without apology, will turn them back into dust (Ps 90:3), and then raise them only to be eternally consumed in perdition (Ps 49:14). Against this backdrop of divine retribution, God’s grace appears infinitely precious. For, the justice of God’s condemnation of sinners gives rise to the necessity of the grace of God in salvation and the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross. In the O.T. Isaiah noted this pointedly (Isa 53:6), “All of us like sheep have gone astray … but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” In the N.T. Peter declares Christ suffered for us since He “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:24). An eternal principle of justice exists. God in His grace extends to sinners an offer of pardon rather than the retribution they deserve, because Jesus paid the price for human sin in His vicarious death, making it possible for the Father to be both “just” and still the “justifier” of the sinner who places his faith in Jesus (Rom 3:26).