SIN, EVIDENCE OF

It is always a somewhat surprising characteristic for believers who have grown in holiness to increasingly feel themselves to be sinners. Why? Consider the air in a room. It looks fresh and clean, but when it is penetrated by the sunlight we see that in reality it is full of dust and other impurities. In a similar way, as we draw nearer to God and are penetrated by his light, we can more clearly see our own impurities and begin to feel something of the same hatred for sin that God feels.1260

An old Chinese proverb declares: “There are two good men—one is dead and the other is not yet born.”1261

“Near our vineyard there was a pear tree, loaded with fruit, though the fruit was not particularly attractive either in color or in taste. I and some other wretched youth conceived the idea of shaking the pears off this tree and carrying them away.

“We set out late that night (having, as we usually did in our depraved way, gone on playing in the streets till that hour) and stole all the fruit that we could carry. And this was not to feed ourselves; we may have tasted a few. But then we threw the rest to the pigs. I had no wish to enjoy what I tried to get by theft; all my enjoyment was in the theft itself and in sin. Our real pleasure was in doing something that was not allowed.” (Cited in The Confessions of St. Augustine [New York: NAL, n.d.], p. 45. Translated by Rex Warner.)1262

In addition to being one of the most successful baseball manager of his day, John J. McGraw may have been responsible for there being a third-base umpire. Long before he became a famous manager of the New York Giants, as a young third baseman with the old Baltimore Orioles the intensely competitive McGraw had a habit of hooking his finger in the belt of a base runner who was tagging up to score after a long fly ball. This trick usually slowed the runner enough so that he was thrown out at home plate.

Despite violent protests, McGraw got away with his ploy for some months—until one base runner secretly unbuckled his belt. When the runner dashed for home, he left his belt dangling from McGraw’s finger. The need for a third-base umpire could hardly have been made clearer.1263

A correspondent of the London Times quite a while back, researching and reporting on many of the same problems we now have, ended every article with this statement: “What’s wrong with the world?” G. K. Chesterton once wrote a famous reply:

Dear editor:

What’s wrong with the world?

I am.

Faithfully yours,

G. K. Chesterton.

At the base of most of the world’s problems is the sinfulness of man.1264

One evening a couple was entertaining some company in their home. After their two young daughters had been put to bed, the older child returned and told her parents that her two-year-old sister was not in bed but was playing with her toys. The parents told the girl to return to her room and to send her sister out to the living room.

The two-year-old girl, knowing full well that she was supposed to be sleeping and that she had been acting contrary to her parents’ wishes, began the slow walk, but with both eyes closed. As she approached some steps at the end of the hall, she raised one eyelid only long enough to see them and to step down. With both eyes quickly shut again, she proceeded a bit further.

At this point, the mother asked the little girl, “Betsy, what are you doing?” In accord with what she was supposed to be doing, the child replied, “I’m sleeping, Mommy.”

Children do not need to be taught to sin; they have sin bound up in their hearts.1265

“Certain it is that, while men are gathering knowledge and power with ever-increasing speed, their virtues and their wisdom have not shown any notable improvement as the centuries have rolled. Under sufficient stress—starvation, terror, war-like passion, or even cold intellectual frenzy—the modern man we know so well will do the most terrible deeds, and his modern woman will back him up” (Attributed to Winston Churchill).1266

Several years ago, there was a massive volcanic explosion in the state of Washington when Mount St. Helens erupted. Sheriff Bill Closner said, “People were in the danger areas around the mountain because they refused to obey roadblocks. The bottom line is that nobody would listen.” As a result, there were needless deaths and injuries.

Even though danger was physically imminent, people still refused to obey the regulations. Sin or disobedience always has consequences. If people refused to listen in the midst of dangerous circumstances like the Mount St. Helens eruption, we should not be so shocked at the depravity and stubbornness of men in spiritual matters.1267