All Have Sinned

(Article for publication week of 5-30-2012 AD)

       “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The desperate need of our day is to get men lost. Note well, I did not say to get men saved, but rather to get men lost. The only kind of sinners that God saves are thoroughly lost sinners. Until you are convinced of your lost estate, you will never come to the Saviour of sinners for the salvation you so desperately need.

       Now, this is the way God always works. He gets a sinner lost so He can save him. This the dear Saviour Himself said, “I am come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). God kills before He makes alive; He wounds before He heals; He troubles the soul before He gives His peace to the soul.

       And so our text is sent to us to convince us of our lost condition. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Now some of you are very despicable sinners. Many of you are fornicators and adulterers. Many of you are drunkards and dope heads. Many of you are liars and thieves. Others of you are very refined sinners. You are perhaps quite moral in your outward behaviour (so you say), and perhaps are well thought of. Some of you are so good (so you think), you would never need the saving righteousness of Christ. But I say unto you that unless you are worshipping Christ and bowing the knee to Him, you are condemned as a wretched blasphemer. Some of you are members of churches, or religious organizations, but you are as proud as a peacock and have a heart full of covetousness. Some of you are Sunday School teachers and preachers, but you have never been really converted yourself. You have everybody fooled, and perhaps have yourself fooled, but you are not fooling God.

     But whether a despicable sinner, or a more refined sinner, you stand condemned before God. You despicable sinners look at the refined sinners and think they are “self righteous”, and they are, but what good will that do you when you are in Hell. You refined sinners look at the despicable sinners, and look down your nose at them, (which they surely deserve), but you will be no better off on the Day of Judgment unless you are saved God’s way. It will no doubt add to many people’s eternal misery to have to spend eternity with folks they despise.

    Dear reader, do you realise that YOU have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I am labouring for the eternal good of your soul, and you can never be saved until you come to the end of your wretched self.

     Our text tells us in a nutshell what sin is- coming short of the glory of God. If you are not doing everything for the glory of God you are condemned as a hell deserving sinner, whether a most despicable one, or a more refined (as you like to think) one. The “all “ of my text this week includes YOU. 

Under The Curse

(Article for publication week of 5-23-2012 AD)

“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, ‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them’ “ (Galatians 3:10).

We are searching the scriptures to find the answer to Job’s question in the ninth chapter, second verse of the Old Testament book that bears his name- “how shall man be just with God?” Our text this week tells us that no man will ever be just with God by keeping the law, for every one that continueth not in all things of the book of the law to do everything required by the law, is under a curse.

Now we know that the law of God itself is “holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12). If everyone obeyed God’s law, why, it would be heaven on earth. There is nothing wrong with God’s law, but there is something dreadfully wrong with us. Therefore our text says we are cursed by the law if we do not continue in all things contained in the law to do them.

God’s law requires perfect obedience. Notice our text says, “cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things (emphasis mine)” written in the book of God’s law. God’s standard is nothing less than perfection. If you will be saved by keeping the law, then you must keep it in all things outwardly and inwardly. If you are not keeping the law perfectly, then you are cursed by the law. James 2:10 tells us, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” If you have offended God in one point of His law, then you are cursed as a lawbreaker. Cursed is every one that does not obey God’s law in perfection.

Next, see that God’s law requires perpetual obedience. “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things of the book. The law will never give you a moment’s rest, a day off, or a vacation. You are bound to keep the law “24/7“, as folks say nowadays. If you have not kept the law perfectly from the moment of your conception, then you are cursed by the law. If you do not obey God perfectly forever, then you are cursed by the law. For emphasis, let us suppose a man kept the law “24/7” for a hundred years. Then suppose our man failed in one “minor” point on his hundredth birthday. Do you imagine God would justify this man on the basis of a century of supposed righteousness? Not according to our text, for this hundred-year-old man would be cursed for not continuing in the law to do it. But, in reality no one has ever kept the law for one year, much less a century. No one since the Fall of Man has even continued in the law for a minute, much less a year.

Also further notice that our text says that God’s law requires actual and positive obedience. There is a negative and a positive to the moral law of God, that is the Ten Commandments. The commandments forbid their breaking, but they also require their positive duties. For example, the First Commandment prohibits idolatry, but it also positively requires our pure worship of God, and again I say perfectly and perpetually.

Dear reader, do you not feel the very curse of God upon your poor soul? Do you not see that you are under the curse of the law? You will never be justified by the law, only cursed by it.

“How shall man be just with God?” Shall he be justified with God by keeping the moral law of God? A better way of justification must be found. And thank God there is! Christ has redeemed His people from the curse. The curse has been removed from every one that believes in Christ. May His grace rest upon you, all my dear readers.

Ruined in Adam, Recovered in Christ

(Article for publication week of 5-9-2012 AD)

         “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

         The gospel may be briefly comprehended in this text. The gospel is the declaration of how ruined sinners are recovered in Christ.

         First of all we see the ruin of man. God created Adam, the First man and made him the federal head of the human race. The whole race of mankind was in Adam seminally and representatively. God gave Adam the First a perfect law. The whole moral law of God was in the one law that God gave Adam commanding him to do all that God required and forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was the crown of God’s creation, made in the very image of God. God pronounced Adam along with all His creation as “very good.” Adam was a perfect man, but he was a changeable, created man. He was liable to fall and change his state. When Adam reached forth his ungracious hand and partook of the forbidden fruit, his, and our state was forever changed. Having broken the law of God Adam was no longer in a state of innocence but he was in a fallen state. “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” Romans 5:12 plainly tells us that “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.” Adam was the federal head of mankind, and so we were all made (that is constituted) sinners by his first transgression.

         Now, if you will go back and read the fourth chapter of Romans, you will see how Paul laid down the principle of imputation which is fundamental to our text today here in Romans 5:19, and fundamental to the whole doctrine of justification that we are expounding in this series of articles. When Adam sinned, God imputed, or charged his sin to all his posterity. Before you start arguing with that, I want to remind you that we do this all the time. We often charge whole nations for the action of one, or perhaps a few. For example, on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbour. Now we know that every person in Japan did not actively and actually participate in the attack. Yet, we say it that way- “Japan attacked Pearl Harbour.” So the congress of these United States declared war against Japan. (By the way, this was the last legal war the United States has waged, since only congress may legally declare war, but that is another lesson for another time.) Our government declared war against the whole nation of Japan because of the actions of a few. So when Adam rebelled against God (for that is what he did), God declared his whole family in rebellion against His Holy Self. All who are in Adam (and that includes you) are in a state of war against God. A war that God is bound to win.

      Now friend, your only hope is to acknowledge the curse of Adam and your part in it, and flee to Christ, the Other Man in our text. As God imputed the Sin of Adam to all who were in him representatively, so He imputes the righteousness of Christ to all who are in Him. It is by the obedience of One Perfect Man, the God- Man that poor sinners are recovered from their ruin in Adam. May the Holy Spirit give you understanding is my prayer for you my dear readers.