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they exact a terrible penalty. Moses
pointed out a timeless truth when he
warned the people of his generation,
" ... be sure your sin wiU find you
out" (Numbers 32:23).
Sin has a way of boomeranging
on people. It comes back to haunt
the sinner.
It
exacts a terrible toll,
subconsciously, and oftentimes con–
sciously.
What millions of people fail to see
is that the law of God is inexorable,
like the law of gravity, the law of
inertia, the law of centrifuga! force,
or any other law of phys ics or chem–
istry. When a person breaks that
law, and commits sin, it snaps back
and exacts a penalty. It must not be
violated imperiously. A person who
breaks the spiritual law of God has
no better chance of escaping the
penalty than a person who defies
the law of gravity and jumps off a
high building.
The Enormity of Sin
Sin is all around, today. The word
itself may not be heard very often,
but sin is sin - recognized or not.
"Now the works of the flesh are
plain: immorality, impurity, licen–
tiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity,
strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness,
dissension, party spirit, envy, drunk–
enness, carousing, and the like,"
stated the apostle Paul. And he gave
a stern warning to those who engage
in such behavior: " .. . 1wafl}. you, as 1
warned you before, that thosewho do
such things shall not inherit the king–
dom of God" (Galatians 5: 19-21).
The apostle James puts it this
way: "If you really fulfil the royal
law, according to the scripture, 'You
shaU love your neighbor as your–
self,' you do weU. But
if
you show
partiality, you commit sin, and are
convicted by the law as trans–
gressors...." He continues: "For he
IS SIN ''IN''?
Does sin really matter any more?
Everywhere you go in the Westero
world, among the bippie subculture,
on the college campuses, to the city
centers, you find that sin abounds as
never before. In suburbia , wife
swapping and infidelity are growing
in popularity. In the business world,
fraud, larceny, and various devious
forms of cheating and swindling are
seemingly the rule rather than the
exception. Even
in
government, re–
cent revelations about the Water–
gate coverup, bribery, income tax
evasion, and similar charges have
led to the demise of high level poli–
ticians.
Seemingly, sin is reaUy
in
like
Flynn.
It
has become a veritable
way of life for millions. The cynic
says, "lt's a rough world. Don't trust
anybody. lt's a dog-eat-dog, let-the–
devil -take -the - hindmost society.
So forget about doing good to the
other guy. Get in there and fight!
Put yourself first! Do unto the other
guy before he has a cbance to do
unto you."
PLAIN TRUTH December 1973
Thus the whole fabric of society
is
filled with corruption, sin in high
and low places. · The underlying
common denominator of our whole
modero world
is
"sin."
But does it really matter any
more? "So what?" a young couple
may be thinking, as they make out
in the back seat of an automobile at
a drive-in movie. Hypocrisy is
rampant; parents are guilty of sex–
ual liaisons, or cheating on each
other, or dishonest business prac–
tices. "Why be good?" many won–
der. " Don't be naive. You'll only get
hurt in the end."
Apparently the prophet I saiah
had our society in mind, or one just
like it. He called us a world of in–
triguers, weaving a spider's web of
deceit and deception - a nation of
vipers, hatching venomous reptiles
-
~
society of criminals, murderers,
adulterers, burgla rs. "Their feet run
fast to crime, they hurry to murder
innocent men; their thoughts are
thoughts of mischief, rapine and
ruin are the track they follow; they
who said, ' Do not commit adultery,'
said also, ' Do not kili.' l f you do not
commit adultery but do kiU, you
have become a transgressor of the
law" (James 2 :8- 11).
And what is the way to peace,
happiness, prosperity? That way is
summed up in two great command–
ments. Jesus Christ expressed it in
this manner: " You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all
your mind. This
is
the great and first
commandment. And a second is like
it, You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. On these two command–
ments depend all the law and the
prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).
Sin involves our very heart and
mind - our innermos t thoughts . It
involve s o ur wh o le attitud e ,
throughout the day, every day of
our lives, toward God and toward
our fellow man. o
care not for what leads to bliss, their
paths are void of justice ..." (lsaiah
59:7-8, Moffatt).
Read the whole chapter. Doesn't
it sound like the prophet had a
spyglass , peering right into our
modem world? Yet , for _all these
abominations, he said, the judgment
of God
is
coming on society. God
will ·not be mocked; every wrong–
doing will be revealed and every of–
fense paid for. Each man will reap
that which he has sown.
Sin, indeed,
is
"in" in our modero
world. Society has lost sight of the
fact that all sin, however, is a viola–
tion of spiritual law and exacts a
penalty.
When a whole society treats sin
lightly, then that society is mired in
profound trouble. The writer of
Proverbs put
it
plainly: "Righteous–
ness exalts a nation, but sin is a
reproach to any people" (Proverbs
14:34,
RSV).
How little society
seems to have learned its lesson
since those words were penned al–
most 3,000 years ago!
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