Sin is any want of a conformity to the law of God. Man was created free
from sin. He was placed under the government of laws adapted to his
condition. But a want of conformity to any item of such law necessarily
disorganized and deranged some portion of his original condition. Let us
cast a hasty view at the operation of these laws. It is contrary to the
law of God that a man should put his hand in the fire; when he does so,
his condition is somewhat physically changed, and he is in trouble.
It is contrary to the law of God that a man should bear false testimony;
he having done so, his condition is changed mentally, and his troubles
increase.
It is contrary to the law of God that a man should remain ignorant; he
doing so, is not in the condition of him who has multiplied and
replenished his mental and physical capabilities: he is less capable, he
has less power.
The law of God is all powerful, and will be executed. The punishment of
its breach is certain. It is effect following cause. The whole of God’s
creation is planned by this principle.
A want of conformity to the law operates as a poison, that spreads
through the moral and physical man, sinking, forcing him down to
trouble, pain, misery, ruin, and death.
The boy, intending to appropriate to himself, takes a pin. If there is
naught that checks him, petty thefts push him on to deeper crimes, that
end in death. The young gentleman drinks the social glass, nor thinks
harm to himself; he feels strong, he fears nothing: but habit becomes
excess; his physical appearance becomes sickly; his mind obtuse, his
pleasures gross; his condition is changed; he is evidently tending
downwards to the grave. And such are the course and progress of every
other sin; for, whatever has a tendency to injure the character, health,
mind, and body, is sin.
Speculators upon the holy writ may say what they will; yet it is
certain, that act, called the eating the apple, was an act, whatever it
may have been, that necessarily injured the character, health, mind, and
body of man. It is certain, because it did so. It was the very birth of
death itself. The wages of sin are death—the Lord God Almighty hath
spoken it!! Another law of God, till then unknown to man, was brought
instantly into operation. His wants were changed; the earth no longer
produced spontaneously to them. In the emphatic language of that day, it
was cursed, that he might have less leisure time and opportunity to
continue in the downward course of sin to sudden destruction and death.
He was in great mercy condemned to labour for the supply of his daily
wants; he was made the slave to the necessities of animal life. Is it
necessary to quote Scripture to show that it abounds with the doctrine
that idleness is a wonderful promoter of sin? God in great mercy
contrived that his hungry body and naked back should in some measure
keep him from it.
“Therefore, the Lord sent him forth from the garden of Eden _to till_
the ground from which he was taken.” _Gen._ iii. 23, “To till” is
translated from לַֽעֲבֹד֙ _la avod, to slave_. It is the very word that
means a slave; but is here used as a verb, and literally means _to slave
the ground_. In this early instance of its use in holy writ, in relation
to man, it is used as a verb, to show us, not that he had become the
property of any other person, but a slave to his own necessities, and
that the labour required was the labour of a slave.
Until man had become poisoned by sin there was no want of a law, of an
institution to interpose between him and his sudden destruction and
death.
This is the first degree of slavery among poor, fallen men, and upon
which now depend their health, happiness, and continuance of life.
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