184. 2CO 8:12. THE MEASURE OF THE SINNER’S DUTY
2Co_8:12. The Measure of the Sinner’s Duty
By the Rev. Sylvester Holmes, New Bedford, Mass.
"For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to hat he hath not."’972Co_8:12.
The passage suggests the idea, that.
The Duty of Man can never exceed his Ability to perform.
A man may be criminal for his inability; but he never can be criminal for not doing that which is beyond his present ability. The man who, by prodigality, has wasted his estate, is criminal, and highly so; but when it is gone, he is no more criminal for not giving liberally, than if his estate had been buried in the ruins of an earthquake.
Moral obligation, then, depends on present ability to do the thing required. Acceptable obedience supposes the ability possessed is put forth under the control of a willing mind, in the performance of duty. Disobedience ever implies existing ability which is not used for right purposes, because there is not a willing mind. In further illustration of this sentiment, I remark,
1. Nothing can be the duty of man, for the neglect of which he is totally incapable of being made to feel guilt and self-condemnation.
There cannot be a neglect of duty without sin; but there is no sin in not doing that for which we have not requisite natural ability. Then, that which we cannot perform, and consequently neglect with impunity, cannot be our duty.
2. Man cannot create natural ability.
He ought indeed, to cultivate and strengthen the talents God has given him; but it never was, and never can be his duty to create powers which God has in a sovereign manner withheld.
3. The reasonableness of the divine law offers further evidence of the truth suggested by the text.
The justice of a law always supposes the power of obedience in him to whom such law is given. It is perfectly clear, then, that a reasonable law measures out the duty of man in exact proportion to his ability; never requiring any more, nor any less, than he is able to perform.
4. The sanctions of the law, and the threatenings of God’s word, all speak in vindication of the doctrine before us.
The Bible never condemns men, nor threatens condemnation, except for neglecting that which might have been done, or doing that which might have been avoided The prospect of heaven is held out to men, not in connection with impossibilities, but in connection with those things which they can do with a willing mind.
5. The joys of the righteous in heaven, and the sorrows of the impenitent in hell, go to prove the truth of our doctrine.
Let the conviction be removed from the redeemed, that justice without mercy would have assigned them to a different place, and their loudest notes of praise would be silenced. On the other hand, the keenest, if not the only pains of the lost in hell, are created by the inwrought and never-yielding conviction, that they perish for doing that which they were not compelled to do, and neglecting that which they had the power of doing. Our subject suggests the following inferences:
(1) The entire free agency of man is acknowledged by God in all his dealings with him.
(2) That he is able to perform every thing God has required of him.
(3) The seat of human depravity. The difficulty does not lie so much in a darkened understanding, and dimness of moral perception, but in a "will not" in relation to all God has required.
(4) That no new powers and faculties are given or needed in regeneration.
(5) The justice of man’s condemnation is demonstrated.
Autor: JABEZ BURNS