Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ces: — Some of the hardest burdens which men bear are the consequences of their past weaknesses and sins. There is a certain deep and lasting satisfaction in making expiation for one's offences, and in recognising in one's own soul the evidences of a genuine sorrow; but when the sin, instead of retreating into the background, walks with us day by day in its effects and results, there are times when the bravest spirit grows faint and discouraged in such companionship. One feels in such moments as if the sin ought to be blotted out in its material effects as truly as in its spiritual results. But this cannot be. No such promise is anywhere to be found in the revelation of God's purpose to men. We are delivered from our sins, and that is matter for deep and eternal rejoicing; but we are not and cannot be delivered wholly from the consequences o! our sins. Those offences have become operative causes in the universal order of things, and we must stand by and see results flow from them, no matter how agonising the spectacle may be. But this experience, though often intensely painful, ought not to be crushing; it is from our sins and not from their effects that we care most to be delivered. That deliverance is for eternity; the effects are for time only. But there is in the immutability of the law which preserves the evil that men do in life a sublime and awful vindication of the steadfastness and eternal justice of Him who forgiveth our iniquities — who has, in fact, borne them. Once forgiven for Christ's sake, these iniquities are washed clean from the soul; but there is constant need that he who has gone through this ordeal shall see clearly the awful crime of offending against the laws of life, and that he shall be accompanied perpetually by the witnesses to this great truth. When the consequences of former weaknesses and sins, accompanying us year after year, become to us, not avenging Furies, but angels of Divine justice, this companionship will not dismay us, but will serve as a new inspiration. One may make, even of the consequences of his sins, sources of strength rather than of weakness. He who accepts these things as the inevitable results of his own action, and recognises in them the working of an immutable and righteous law, will be kept humble by them, will be restrained from other departures from rectitude, and will draw from their companionship a deeper and deeper sense of that misery from which he has escaped, and of the permanent joy and peace into which he has entered. Parallel Verses KJV: And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. |
    |