Arthur W. Pink

We may take a survey of everything in and on the earth, and we cannot find anything so vile as sin. The basest and most contemptible thing in this world has some degree of worth in it, as being the workmanship of God. But sin and its foul streams have not the least part of worth in them. Sin is wholly evil, without the least mixture of good—vileness in the abstract. Its heinousness¹ appears in its author: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning” (1Jo 3:8). Sin is his trade, and he practices it incessantly.² Sin’s enormity is seen in what it has done to man: it has completely ruined his nature and brought him under the curse of God. Sin is the source of all our miseries; all unrighteousness and wretchedness are its fruits. There is no distress of the mind, no anguish of the heart, no pain of the body, but is due to sin. All the miseries that mankind groans under are to be ascribed to sin. It is the cause of all penalty: “Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart” (Jer 4:18). Had there been no sin, there would have been no wars, no national calamities, no prisons, no hospitals, no insane asylums, no cemeteries! Yet who lays these things to heart?

Sin assumes many garbs; but when it appears in its nakedness, it is seen as a black and misshapen monster. How God Himself views it may be learned from the various similitudes³ used by the Holy Spirit to set forth its ugliness and loathsomeness. He has compared it with the greatest deformities and the most filthy and repulsive objects to be met with in this world. Sin is likened to (1) the scum of a seething pot in which is a detestable carcass (Eze 24:12); (2) the blood and pollution of a newborn child, before it is washed and clothed (Eze 16:4, 6); (3) a dead and rotting body (Rom 7:24); (4) the noisome⁴ stench and poisonous fumes that issue from the mouth of an open sepulcher (Rom 3:13); (5) the lusts of the devil (Joh 8:44); (6) putrefying sores (Isa 1:5–6); (7) a menstruous cloth (Isa 3:22; Lam 1:17); (8) a canker or gangrene⁵ (2Ti 2:17); (9) the dung of filthy creatures (Phi 3:8); (10) the vomit of a dog and the wallowing of a sow in the stinking mire (2Pe 2:22).

Such comparisons show us something of the vileness and horribleness of sin; yet in reality, it is beyond all comparison. There is a far greater malignity⁶ in sin than is commonly supposed even by the majority of church members. Men regard it as an infirmity and term it a human frailty or hereditary weakness. But Scripture calls it “an evil thing and bitter” (Jer 2:19), an abominable thing that God hates (Jer 44:4). Few people think of it thus; rather, the majority regard it as a mere trifle, a matter of so little moment that all they have to do is cry in the hour of death, “Lord, pardon me; Lord, bless me,” and all will be eternally well with them. They judge sin by the opinion of the world. But what can a world that “lieth in wickedness” (1Jo 5:19) know about God’s hatred of sin? It does not matter what the world thinks, but it matters a great deal what God says about it. Others measure the guilt of sin by what conscience tells them—or fails to! But conscience needs informing by the Bible. Many uncivilized tribes have put their girl babies and old people to death, and conscience did not chide⁷ them. A deadened conscience has accompanied multitudes to hell without any voice of warning. Tens of thousands of religionists see so little filth in sin that they imagine a few tears will wash away its stain. They perceive so little criminality in it that they persuade themselves that a few good works will make full reparation for it.

All comparisons fail to set forth the horrible malignity in that abominable thing that God hates. We can say nothing more evil of sin than to term it what it is: “Sin, that it might appear sin” (Rom 7:13). “Who is like unto thee, O LORD?” (Exo 15:11). When we say of God that He is God, we say all that can be said of Him. “Who is a God like unto thee?” (Mic 7:18). We cannot say more good of Him than to call Him God. We cannot say more evil of sin than to say it is sin. When we have called it that, we have said all that can be said of it. When the apostle wanted a descriptive epithet⁸ for sin, he invested it with its own name: “that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (Rom 7:13). That was the worst he could say of it, the ugliest name he could give it—just as when Hosea denounced the Ephraimites for their idolatry: “So shall Bethel do unto you because of the evil of your evil” (10:15, literal translation). The prophet could not paint their wickedness any blacker than to double the expression.

The hideousness of sin can be set forth no more impressively than in the terms used by the apostle in Romans 7:13: “That sin … might become exceeding sinful” is a very forcible expression. It reminds us of similar words used by Paul when magnifying the glory that is yet to be revealed in the saints and with which the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared, namely, “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2Co 4:17). No viler name can be found for sin than its own. Andrew Fuller⁹ stated, “If we speak of a treacherous person, we call him a ‘Judas’; if of Judas, we call him a ‘devil’; but if of Satan, we [lack] a comparison because we can find none that is worse than himself. We must therefore say, as Christ did, ‘When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.’ It was thus with the apostle, when speaking of the evil of his own heart, ‘That sin by the commandment might become’—what? He [lacked] a name worse than its own—he could not find one—he therefore unites a strong epithet to the thing itself, calling it, ‘exceeding sinful.’”¹⁰

There are four great evils in sin: the total absence of the moral image of God, the transgression of His just law, obnoxiousness¹¹ to His holiness, and separation from Him—entailing the presence of positive evil, guilt [that] cannot be measured by any human standard, the most repulsive defilement, and misery inexpressible. Sin contains within it an infinite evil, for it is committed against a Being of infinite glory, unto Whom we are under infinite obligations. Its odiousness¹² appears in that fearful description, “filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness¹³” (Jam 1:21), which is an allusion to the brook Kidron into which the garbage of the temple sacrifices and other vile things were cast (2Ch 29:16). Sin’s hatefulness to God is seen in His awful curse upon the workmanship of His own hands, for He would not anathematize¹⁴ man for a trifle. If He does not afflict willingly, then most certainly He would not curse without great provocation. The virulence¹⁵ and vileness of sin can only be gauged at Calvary, where it rose to the terrible commission of Deicide;¹⁶ at the cross it “abounded” to the greatest possible degree. The demerits of sin are seen in the eternal damnation of sinners in hell, for the indescribable sufferings that divine vengeance will then inflict upon them are sin’s rightful wages.

Sin is a species of atheism, for it is the virtual repudiation of God. It seeks to discredit Him, to rebel against Him: “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?” (Exo 5:2). Sin is a malignant spirit of independence. Whether imperceptibly influencing the mind or consciously present, it lies at the root of all evil and depravity. Man desires to be lord of himself; hence his ready reception at the beginning of the devil’s lie, “Ye shall be as gods” (Gen 3:5). Man’s credence¹⁷ of that lie was the dissolution of the tie that bound the creature in willing subjection to the Author of his being. Thus, sin is really the denial of our creaturehood and, in consequence, a rejection of the rights of the Creator. Its language is “I am. I am my own, and therefore I have the right to live unto myself.” Thornwell¹⁸ pointed this out: “Considered as the renunciation of dependence upon God, it may be called unbelief; as the exaltation of itself to the place of God, it may be called pride; as the transferring to another object the homage due to the Supreme, it may be called idolatry; but in all these aspects the central principle is one and the same.”¹⁹

From Studies in the Scriptures.

__________
1 heinousness – monstrous and outrageous wickedness.
2 incessantly – without ceasing.
3 similitudes – comparisons drawn between two things.
4 noisome – extremely offensive smell.
5 canker or gangrene – cancer.
6 malignity – wickedness.
7 chide – express disapproval; rebuke.
8 epithet – offensive or contemptuous word or phrase.
9 Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) – English Particular Baptist minister and theologian.
10 From “Letter XI: Love to Christ” in The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: Controversial Publications, ed. Joseph Belcher, Vol. 2, 194.
11 obnoxiousness – offensiveness.
12 odiousness – repulsiveness.
13 superfluity of naughtiness – excessive or overflowing wickedness.
14 anathematize – curse; threaten with divine punishment.
15 virulence – bitter hostility and hatefulness.
16 Deicide – murder of the God-man, Jesus Christ.
17 credence – acceptance.
18 James Henley Thornwell (1812-1862) – Southern Presbyterian preacher and author.
19 “Lecture XIV: The State and Nature of Sin” in Lectures in Theology, Vol. 1, 362.

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952): Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, author; born in Nottingham, England, UK.

Courtesy of Chapel Library