1429. Who Have Sinned?

Who Have Sinned?

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us" (1Jn_1:8,1Jn_1:10).

In answer to the question, there is but one thing that we can say, and that is, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom_3:23). If any one says they have not sinned, they make God a liar; if any one denies the fact of their sin, they deceive themselves. All men are sinners born because Adam sinned. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." It is because of Adam's sin that David said, "In sin did my mother conceive me." What was true of David, has been true of every son of Adam's race. A bitter fountain could not bring forth sweet water.

Men vainly talk of evolution, but could man live countless millenniums upon the earth, apart from redeeming grace, there would never be found a sinless man among them. Again, not only are all men constituted sinners, born as sinners, but all have sinned. "As by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." It is useless for the unsaved to condemn Adam for the fact of their sin. They are sinners by nature, but they are also sinners by deed. They have "turned every one to his own way;" there is not a just man on the face of the earth "who doeth good and sinneth not."

All men are sinners through and through. We mean by this that man is totally depraved. "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, either bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isa_1:6). We do not mean by this that there is nothing good in a man, so far as his attitude to his fellow-men is concerned. The Word of God plainly says, for instance, concerning Naaman that he was "a great man with his master," and that he was also "a mighty man of valor," but the Word of God also says, "but he was a leper" (see 2 Kings 5). Man in his attitude to God is altogether sinful. The 3d chapter of Romans is God's photograph of the heart of man. There we read some statements that are worth our while:

"We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin."

"There is none righteous, no, not one."

"There is none that seeketh after God."

"They are all gone out of the way."

"They are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good."

"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

After these statements are read, which are inclusive of every one of Adam's race, then it is well to note some of the fruitage of the sins of man in the same passage:

"Their throat is an open sepulchre;

With their tongues they have used deceit;

The poison of asps is under their lips:

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Destruction and misery are in their ways:

There is no fear of God before their eyes."

The picture which we have drawn above is not complimentary to the natural man, but it is God's X-ray, and it tells the truth. People usually do not like their photographs unless the photographer "touches them up" a little. God's picture is plain, unvarnished and true.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR