The Gospel is about the Voice of Christ’s Love in the Conviction of Sin
By Jay Wegter
After sinning, our first parents immediately experienced, fear, shame, guilt, and alienation from God. Their mortifying sense of nakedness was not solely due to a sudden awareness that they were unclothed, but rather that their standing before God was gone. They were appalled that they were spiritually naked so to speak, their sin exposed before the holy, omniscient gaze of their Creator.
It’s easy for us to see the absurdity of thinking that fig leaves could cover the guilt and shame due to sinful rebellion. But actually, there is a very revealing lesson about the fallen human condition in this fig leaf attire. Why? Because our religious instincts argue that through moral exertion and religious devotion, we have the ability to cover ourselves, or reverse whatever defects we have in God’s sight. Listen to what the Scriptures say regarding this optimism that we can provide our own covering before God:
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:1-4).
Can’t you hear that conversation these religionists are having in their own heads: “With enough effort, personal reform, and religious devotion, I can supply what God requires, and find favor with Him, and be accepted into heaven.” “Given the chance, if I really put my mind to it, I could plant my feet on the bottom of my nature, and walk upstream against the current of my sinful passions.” (EX. A parasitic disease hides its terminal state from its host.)
My friends, Scripture states that our religious instincts are dead wrong. God sees what we do not see; for one of the characteristics of sin is self-deception—we are highly accomplished at fooling ourselves: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds” (Jer 17:9-10).
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb 4:12-13). (EX. Gutted, skinned, disemboweled sacrificial animal is scrutinized—sq. inch. blood vessel, tumor.)
Thus, if we are incapable of an objective diagnosis of our own moral and spiritual state, from whence/where does a true diagnosis originate? You saw the answer in Hebrews chapter four, verses 12-13—an objective diagnosis comes from being examined by Holy Scripture. This so needful because our religious instincts are NOT exempt from the influences of our sin natures. In other words, man’s fallenness assumes that by religious absolutes, he can patch things up with God. Jesus warned that our sin natures are characterized by the love of darkness (that darkness includes the love of religious darkness) (Jn 3:19-21).
Now in this segment, we are examining the great love that Christ has for His sheep (disclosed in John 10). But, what we would not know apart from divine revelation in the Word of God is that Christ’s love first comes to the sinner as a devastating, withering diagnosis of the sinner’s dilemma. (EX. Ernest Kevan, The Grace of Law: 1) divine moral government, ruled by God’s Law, 2) I am a person who has habitually failed to obey those commands, 3) as a convicted sinner I am shocked to discover from the Bible that I cannot offset even one sin, 4) my state is so serious that nothing but divine mercy and pity can avail to deliver him from the wrath of God; left to myself, I am in a kind of legal bondage, awaiting judgment.)
Christ sending His Spirit to achieve this diagnosis in the sinner’s conscience is absolutely essential to the reception of Christ and His gift of saving grace. “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged” (Jn 16:8-11).
This work of the Holy Spirit in obtaining a verdict in the conscience is necessary in order to cancel our bondage to our religious instincts. For, natural religion tends to treat God’s commandments (His moral law) as a ladder to climb to heaven (win divine favor), rather than understanding that the Law of God is a mirror to diagnose the pollution of our hearts. Hear what the Scriptures say about this natural orientation we have to depend upon our works contributing to our salvation:
“Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:19-20) (See Gal 2:16; Phil 3:8-9).
While the sinner is ‘alive to the Law’ (Rom 7:8-11), he still relies on self-righteousness. But, the Law in hands of the Spirit, slays the sinner’s hope in himself. The Law which Saul of Tarsus once trusted in for salvation sure killed him (slew his false hopes): “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful” (Rom 7:9-13).
If you saw a little sheep hopelessly tangled in a barbed wire fence so that its frantic efforts only caused the sharp wire to saw deeper into its legs, you wouldn’t say, “Oh, given enough time, it will be able to free itself.” My friends, God sees our helplessness outside of Christ. He views the sinner like a wayward sheep at the bottom of deep crevice, tangled in wire (Is 53:6). God sees clearly the sinner’s dilemma of bondage to sin, self, rebellion, self-righteousness, spiritual deadness, and love of darkness.
My friends, the Word of God destroys our rosy optimism about man’s potential goodness and righteousness. Unfallen man, was once like a stately ship on the sea, but after the fall, there is not a recognizable profile, only a debris field on the surface of the water. If the truth be known, the first normal man to walk the earth since the fall in Eden was Jesus of Nazareth.
You may be tempted to say, “Pastor Wegter, aren’t you being pessimistic? Look at the noble heroes of human charity down through the ages.” My answer must come from Scripture; for it is God doing the evaluating. If says that there is no one good in His sight, then it is true. “We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one” (Rom 3:9-12).
Now why is this crushing diagnosis of our sinful state so essential to the gospel, to salvation? The answer is that an inaccurate diagnosis will result in an insufficient cure. For if it were possible for man to repair his breach with God through works of religion, then the key to his salvation would rest in his own hand. Poor diagnosis results in woefully inadequate cure. But, remember, our religious instincts will push for a diagnosis heavily biased in favor of what a sinner can do to help himself. (EX. Historic errant diagnosis: false cure. Horoscope then bloodletting. Joseph Lister and death rates from invasive surgery.)
As a result of this self-deception and satanic trust in the religious self, it is needful that Jesus warn us in no uncertain terms about God’s judgment of unrepentant sinners. His warnings give us a clear image of the horror of sin—the seriousness of the sin disease:
- The final form of unforgiven sin is the fragmentation of the soul in hell under the endless wrath of God; the worm that does not die (Mk 9:44, 46). What aspects are in agreement in the final condemnation of the impenitent sinner? God’s record in heaven, the judgment of God’s Law, the verdict of a man’s conscience, God’s pronouncement of damnation. The conscience will rise up and take its eternal revenge against its ungrateful host (Rom 2).
- In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ does a thorough cross-examination of the sinner by means of God’s Law (Mt 5-7). Our depravity in light of God’s holy nature is revealed by the Law of God.
- Nothing can affect a cure of the sin disease but Christ and His finished work on Calvary’s cross. Nothing but nothing could avail but the Son of God appearing in human flesh to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice (Heb 2).
I want us to see that faulty diagnosis always results in faulty cure; only a proper diagnosis can point us to the true cure. This is why the former divines counseled those who were inquiring about the welfare of their souls to labor to gain a biblical view of their sin. My friends, God is known by how He saves sinners. Those who subscribe to a works-based religious system do not know God because God does not save by means of works. (EX. The devil’s gospel undermines the sufficiency of Christ’s work with the soul-damning notion: “Do your best and God will do the rest.)
WHAT are the consequences of offending God? The law stops every mouth that all may become guilty before God (Rom 3:19). Man’s uneducated conscience cannot be trusted to assess the seriousness of sin and its verdict of death and separation from God. Only by proclaiming the character of God and the immutability of His law will sinners conclude that they are lawbreakers in God’s sight who deserve eternal condemnation (1 Jn 3:4).
The First Commandment: Have no other gods before Me. We haven’t loved God supremely—we haven’t treasured Him and valued Him; and pressed on to know Him. We have chosen things in place of God and disregarded Him—despising His ownership of us. We have regarded His loving rule over us to be an intrusion. We have made other gods out of our own will, our own way, and our own cravings.
The Second Commandment: You shall not make for yourself an idol. We have set our affections on the world—we have worshipped and served the creature and creation instead of God. We have made idols of our lusts and desires. We have refused to love God by a life of continual thanksgiving to Him.
The Third Commandment: Do not take the Name of the Lord God in vain. We have not sanctified and set apart the Name of the Lord—we have used God’s Name casually and irreverently. We have dragged His Name into our conversations without reverence and fear; with no thought of His holiness. We have had no passion for His honor and glory. We have been too cowardly to defend His character when others have dishonored His Name in our presence.
The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Though not a N.T. ordinance; the principle of setting aside time to draw near to God is timeless. We have failed in this by not leaving our pursuits and pastimes to actively seek God. We have not made it a priority to worship God; to serve Him; and make Him known to our fellow creatures. We have not come away from our schedules to give Him the best of our thoughts and conversation. We are by nature Sabbath-breakers.
The Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and mother. We have disobeyed by dishonoring our parents countless times. We have deemed them unworthy of our obedience and respect. We have talked back to them and undermined their authority. We have promised obedience and withheld it. We have been ungrateful and have disregarded their God-appointed authority in our lives.
The Sixth Commandment: You shall not murder. In 1 John 3:15 we are told that to hate your brother is murder because it is a spirit of murder. Have you despised and resented those who have mistreated you? Have you held a grudge and wished for their downfall, misfortune; failure; and destruction? Have you entertained violent thoughts against those who have offended you? Have you lashed out in angry words? (Matt 5:22). Do you harbor unforgiveness? Have you sought your own vengeance by gossip and slander?
The Seventh Commandment: You shall not commit adultery. This encompasses all sexual sin. We have allowed lusts to rule us. We have looked upon others as sexual objects of desire in our minds. Jesus said that to do that can be adultery in the heart (Matt 5:28). We have entertained discontent with our marriage partner and allowed imaginary lovers to enter the mind. We have loved our lusts above God’s honor. We have not cared to reflect God’s purity in our thinking; desiring; and looking.
The Eighth Commandment: You shall not steal. We have many times taken what is not ours. We have robbed employers of a full day’s work. We have cheated on tests and homework. We have robbed God by using our resources for our pleasures without a thought of giving to His Kingdom and the spread of the Gospel. We have stolen the reputation of others by gossiping. We have borrowed from others and not returned; and we have cheated others out of fairness by our greed.
The Ninth Commandment: Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. We have lied and covered our sin. We have altered the truth to protect ourselves. We have exaggerated, embellished, and distorted the truth to make ourselves look more favorable. We have misrepresented the character of others. We have not sought the truth in the inward man; but have lied to ourselves about God’s faithfulness. We have allowed dishonesty to enter our speech.
The Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet. We have desired what is not ours but another’s. We have believed it should be ours and not our neighbor’s. We have envied; been jealous of what others have. We have been secretly happy at the misfortune of those around us. We have been secretly saddened by the promotions and prosperity of those around us. We have complained and grumbled—indulging in self-pity and discontentment. We have felt elevated by the moral downfall of others. We have compared ourselves to others instead of living in gratitude to God for grace.
God has born witness to man’s moral and spiritual condition. God is just and fair to shut impenitent sinners out of the enjoyment of His glory forever (Mt 10:28). Sinners who reject God’s authority; who do not fear God or believe God are liable to death and judgment (Mt 12:36). They will experience God’s verdict; the separation of their souls from God forever in eternal punishment (Rom 6:23). Sinners make a ‘wager’ or ‘bet’ that God will not judge. In this they imitate the devil’s presumption in his wager that God makes idle threats and is not as good as His Word.
When the Holy Spirit shows the elect sinner the actual diagnosis of his sin, He prepares the sinner for repentance in that manner. For, true biblical repentance is saying the same thing about your sin that God does: namely that your sin exposes you to divine wrath; that you deserve judgment, that you deserve to be eternally miserable in hell. Is it any wonder that Martin Luther stated that in order of man to receive the grace of Christ, he must ‘damn himself’—that is pronounce himself deserving of damnation.
The repentance I just described is beyond the natural powers of depraved humans. For the natural man (not born again) will conclude that it is NOT in his best interest, or in his religious interest to take God’s side against his sin. He regards such a devastating diagnosis of his spiritual and moral state to be a conflict of interest. This is why Christ sends His Spirit to gain a guilty verdict in the sinner’s conscience. There is no repentance without this work of the Spirit.
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:14-15).
Only those who have had this devastating diagnosis of personal sin fall at the feet of Christ, who is God’s appointed merciful friend of sinners, the only refuge from divine wrath. “. . . so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 6:18-20).
The repentant sinner loves Christ down to the deepest part of his being, for in his Savior, he sees the glory of God in sending Christ—the perfectly fit One. Christ’s fitness and mission to save to the uttermost is the theme of the gospel of God’s grace. For, those who are religious, but do not flee to Christ, bringing their case to Him, the Great Physician, will attempt to be the healers of their own souls—an impossible task.
“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Heb 2:14-15).
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:14-16).
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 6:19-20).
“The Lord has sworn, and He will not change His mind, You are a Priest forever so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever” (Heb 7:21-28).
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance” (Heb 9:11-15).
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:19-25).