Sin and death are both intruders in God’s fair creation. Both came in by man, whom God had made upright, and created in His own image. “By man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” “By man came death.” (Rom. 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12); 1 Cor. 15:2121For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:21).) How sorrowful to think what man has done! We are familiar with sin and death. They come before us every day. Sin, in its direful results of crime, sickness, and opposition to the will of God, abounds on every hand; and death in its variety of ghastly forms, and distressing associations, is of constant occurrence. Sin, like a canker, eats out the vital energies of multitudes, and, by its manifold workings, hospitals are crowded, workhouses filled, lunatic asylums thronged, prisons, and other establishments for penal servitude, occupied by thousands. Sin and its consequences abound in sighs and groans, and tears; and are rapidly breaking up all the divinely-ordered activities of social life, as well as corrupting the god-fearing principles of commercial and political institutions. Sin debases as well as ruins; it carries its scars in time, as well as hurries its victims headlong into eternity. What a beauteous world this must have been before sin entered into it! How unlike the original it is now, after sin has been reigning unto death for well-nigh six thousand years!
Death claims its unbending authority on account of sin. No class of Adam’s progeny are exempt. Death accepts no excuse. Nothing excludes its presence. Its cold grasp makes no exception; and it lays so many low, that the world is busy in putting its victims out of sight. Graveyards are filling with incredible rapidity. Cemeteries are multiplying. Vast numbers are being annually swallowed up in the sea. All the living around us are dying. Men know it, and act accordingly. They make their wills, assure their lives, and provide for their successors, because they are mortal; and, though most think all others mortal but themselves, yet no one doubts the fact that death works quietly, but surely, on every hand. No sooner is a babe born into the world than the relatives become anxious as to its living. Hence one of our own poets has written—
“The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh,
To live’s scarcely distinguished from to die.”
But death shall be utterly put out of the world. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Jesus has abolished death, and will destroy the works of the devil, and subdue everything to Himself. Death and hades will be cast into the lake of fire. So that in the new heaven and the new earth, “there shall be no more curse, no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” Happy and glorious prospect!
Now we painfully know that sin reigns unto death, and that sin is the master of the sinner. But death keeps in the reward of sin; it is its wages. “The wages of sin is death.” What wages! And as death follows sin, so judgment follows death. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27).) Solemn realities! Men cannot keep sin and death out of sight, though many of its writhing victims are so secluded, that a stranger passing through a populous city might well ask if there are any sick and dying there? And, if he had a true answer to his question, he would most likely be told, that, in almost every street, there are those languishing on beds of pain and suffering, and some are passing from time into eternity.
But men try to put judgment from their thoughts, because they cannot see it; though nothing can be plainer than the inspired and irrevocable statement of divine truth— “After this [death] the judgment.” The fact is that men excuse “sin,” try to nerve themselves for “death,” and endeavor to banish “judgment” from their minds; notwithstanding it is said, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” and that “every one of you shall give account of himself to God.” (Num. 33:3232And they removed from Bene-jaakan, and encamped at Hor-hagidgad. (Numbers 33:32); Rom. 14:1212So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12).)
Men deceive themselves as to death. The chief desire of many is that they may have “an easy death.” The soldier flatters himself, that if he falls in the battle field, he will have done his duty, and have had an honorable death; entirely unmindful of the appalling fact that after death is judgment. The liberal benefactor, who has bestowed his rapidly accumulating wealth in alleviating present distress, tries to console himself with the false idea that his works are so meritorious that it must be well with him hereafter; as if God had not again and again declared, that salvation is not of works lest any man should boast. The prudent, self-denying moralist is sometimes so completely deceived that he is bold enough to say, “I do not shrink from death, for I have always been an upright and honest person; I have done my duty through life to my people, and my Maker;” notwithstanding the scriptures prove that all are “under sin,” and that “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” The truth is, that many rush headlong into eternity with as little concern as if they were “sinless” instead of being “ sinners” against a holy, sin-hating God.
But death has its sting—“The sting of death is sin.” It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Men must give an account to God. Sin stings the conscience. They cannot die as they like. There is that in the human heart which nothing short of what is eternal can meet. “He hath set the world [or eternity] in their heart.” (Eccles. 3:1111He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11).) The many appliances by which kindly hands may try to smooth a dying pillow, and sometimes a variety of deceptive influences, combine to surprise souls into eternity. But many a person on a death-bed knows that all is not right, for death has its dreadful sting. The thought of having to appear before God, and giving an account is often terrible to bear. Conscience accuses. The black, dark pleasures of sin stare him in the face, while he shivers under deaths chilling grasp. Like another, when he saw the handwriting on the wall, the joints of his loins are loosed, his knees smite one against another, and his anguish becomes intolerable. Death, judgment, heaven, the lake of fire, sin, and guilt, rise up rapidly before the mind’s eye of the sinking frame. It is indeed a reality, that death has its sting, and that sting is sin.
Nor does the law of Moses give relief. On the contrary, the more the troubled soul clings to the ten commandments as a remedy, the more intense his misery becomes, for the power of sin is the law. “By the law is the knowledge of sin,” and “the law entered that the offense might abound.” (Rom. 3:20; 5:2020Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)
20Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20).) The law then, though most useful in showing man he is a sinner, instead of removing sin, exposes sin, and condemns the sinner; and, instead of bringing relief to the troubled conscience,—only increases his sense of guilt, and adds to the weight of his heavy burden. Hence we read, not that law-keeping is God’s remedy for sinners, but that “the strength of sin is the law.” The more determined man is to re-double his efforts, and the more conscience is alive, the more miserable the soul must be. Nay, more, the carnal mind being enmity against God, and in subject to His will, whatever God commands he is inclined at once to disobey. So that sin, that it might appear sin, works death in us by that which is good—for the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. While then “the sting of death is sin” it is also equally true that “the strength of sin is the law.”
Though sin, death and judgment are connected with man as a sinner, yet it is most blessed to see that God has, in deepest mercy to us, connected sin, death and judgment with His spotless Son upon the cross. This is not law, but grace. It shows how God hath wrought for the eternal deliverance, blessing, and salvation of him that believeth in Jesus. Sin must be judged, its wages must be paid. Hence Jesus suffered for sins, died for our sins, shed His blood for many for the remission of sins. The unbeliever is going on to the great white throne to be judged for his sins, and therefore to be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. There the unsaved, in that dark eternity, will be forever connected with sin, death, and judgment. But, blessed be God now, in virtue of the atoning work of His Son on the tree, the believer is cleansed from all sin, shall not come into judgment, because his sins have been already judged on the Savior in the death of the cross, and he has passed out of death and into life. So that death and judgment are behind the believer, and the hope of glory at the coming of the Lord immediately before him. All is of God, and to be known and enjoyed now. Hence, praise, praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, becomes us, for His abundant grace, His marvelous gift of “victory.” It is therefore added, “But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Let the reader carefully note, First, That God is the source of all our salvation and blessing; God, who is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works—“thanks be unto God” Secondly, That the victory is His free gift—“who giveth us the victory;” not earned, but given, given now, not by-and-by, but now. The free, unmerited gift of God, because He is love, and has so loved us, even while we were yet sinners, that Christ died for us. Thirdly, What God gives us is victory, not help, not religion, not merely pardon, but victory—“Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory.” Victory over the guilt and dominion of sin, victory over death, the grave, and Satan who has the power of death; a victory, through Him who has borne the judgment due to our sins, and in resurrection triumphed over all our foes. This victory He obtained, and this victory God gives. A victory given, because our sins having been righteously judged for the glory of God; and because He who went down unto death under the full weight of our sins on the cross, has risen again triumphantly from among the dead, and gone back, as man, into the glory of God. We being connected with Him now in life, and by the Holy Ghost, are, before God, accepted in the Beloved, blessed, complete, and preserved in Him. Fourthly, Observe it is all of God, and all through Christ. “Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Oh, the blessedness of finding all our need met as sinners in the death of Christ, and present victory given in, and through, Him who is our life, and is forever on the other side of death! A present victory, given to all who receive Christ as their Savior! Oh! the deep, rich grace of God that all our eternal blessings should be thus founded in righteousness on the atoning work of Jesus, and victory given over the guilt, dominion, and penalty of sin! Victory over death! victory over the grave! for if Jesus comes while we are alive we shall neither die, nor enter a grave, but be changed in a moment and translated; or, if we fall asleep in Jesus before He comes, the sting of death has been removed by the blood of Christ, so that we do not taste death, and, at His coming, our bodies will be raised and changed, so that it is still victory over death, and the grave, and Satan. Header! Can you say this?
It is God who gives us who believe this victory. In faith and hope now to sing “ Victory” If the Lord comes we can shout,” Victory!” It we fall asleep in Jesus, His grace enables us to say, “Ο death, where is thy sting? Ο grave where is thy victory?... Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What a victory!