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I. WHAT IS THAT LAW WHEREOF SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION? It is the law of God, even any law of His whereby He lays any duty upon any of the children of men.

1. There is a law engraven upon the hearts of men by nature, which was in force long before the promulgation of the law from Mount Sinai. This is the light of reason, and the dictates of natural conscience concerning those moral principles of good and evil, which have an essential equity in them, and show man his duty to God, to his neighbour, and to himself.

2. There is another law which was given to the Jewish nation by the ministry of Moses (John 17:19). By this we are to understand the whole system of Divine precepts concerning ceremonial rites, judicial processes, and moral duties.

3. There is the moral law.

II. WHEREIN THE NATURE OF SIN CONSISTS. It consists in a want of conformity to the law of God, or a disconformity thereto. The law of God is the rule; whatsoever is over this rule is sin.

1. Sin is no positive being, but a want of due perfection, a defect, an imperfection in the creature; and therefore it is(1) Not from God, but from the creature itself.

(2) It is not a thing to glory in more than the want of all things.

(3) It is a thing we have reason to be humbled for, and have great need to have removed.

(4) It is not a thing to be desired, but fled from and abhorred as the abominable thing which God hateth.

2. Original sin is truly and properly sin.

3. The first motions of sin, and the risings of that natural corruption in us, before it be completed with the consent of the will to the evil motion, are truly and properly sin.

4. All consent of the heart to and delight in motions towards things forbidden by the law of God are sins, though these never break forth into action, but die where they were born, in the inmost corners of our hearts (Matthew 5:28).

5. All omissions of the internal duties we owe to God and our neighbours are sins, as want of love to God or our neighbours.

6. Hence a man sins by undue silence and undue speaking, when the cause of God and truth require it; seeing the law bids us speak in some cases, but never speak what is not good.

7. Hence also a man's sins, when he omits outward duties that are incumbent on him to perform, as well as when he commits sin of whatever kind in his life.

8. The least failure in any duty is sin; and whatever comes not up in perfection to the law is sinful.

III. WHEREIN THE EVIL OF SIN LIES.

1. In the wrong done to God, and its contrariety.

(1) To His nature, which is altogether holy.

(2) In its contrariety to God's will and law, which is a sort of a copy of His nature. And God being all good, and the chief good, sin must needs be a sort of infinite evil.

2. In the wrong it doth to ourselves (Proverbs 8:36).

(1) It leaves a stain and spiritual pollution on the soul, whereby it becomes filthy and vile (Isaiah 1:15), and shame and Confusion on the sinner himself (Genesis 3:7).

(2) It brings on guilt, whereby the sinner is bound over to punishment, according to the state in which he is, until his sin be pardoned. This ariseth from the justice of God and the threatening of His law, which brings on all miseries whatsoever.

1. It is high rebellion against the sovereign Majesty of God, that gives the life of authority to the law.

2. It is an extreme aggravation of this evil, that sin, as it is a disclaiming our homage to God, so it is in true account a yielding subjection to the devil; for sin is in the strictest propriety his work. More particularly, sin strikes at the root of all the Divine attributes.

(1) It is contrary to the unspotted holiness of God, which is the peculiar glory of the Deity.

(2) Sin vilifies the wisdom of God, which prescribed the law to men as the rule of their duty.

(3) Sin is a high contempt and horrid abuse of the Divine goodness, which should have a powerful influence in binding man to his duty.

(4) The sinner disparages the Divine justice, in promising himself peace and safety, notwithstanding the wrath and vengeance that is denounced against him by the Lord.

(5) Sin strikes against the omniscience of God, and at least denies it implicitly. Many who would blush and tremble if they were surprised in their sinful actings by a child or a stranger are not at all afraid of the eye of God, though He narrowly notices all their sins in order to judge them, and will judge them in order to punish them.

(6) Sin bids a defiance to the Divine power. He can with one stroke dispatch the body to the grave, and the soul to the pit of hell, and make men as miserable as they are sinful: and yet sinners as boldly provoke Him as if there were no danger.Conclusion:

1. If ye would see your sins, look to the law of God. That is the glass wherein we may see our ugly face.

2. See here what presumption it is in men to make that duty which God has not made so, and that sin which God has not made so in religion.

3. Flee to Jesus Christ for the pardon of sin, for His blood and Spirit to remove the same. All the waters of the sea will not wash it out, but that blood alone. And repent and forsake your sin, or it will be your ruin.

(T. Boston, D. D.)

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KJV: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

WEB: Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.