The Gospel Day; Or, the Light of ChristianityOrr, Charles Ebert
Religion
The Gospel Day; Or, the Light of Christianity
Orr, Charles Ebert
Christianity
The reader will not understand us to favor the teaching that Christians
must of necessity occasionally commit sin and that none live a sinless
life. It is impossible for man to be committing sin and at the same time
be a Christian. A sinning Christian is a phenomenon never known in the
kingdom of grace. The Scriptures plainly teach that when once we enter a
state of grace, we should always, by living a pure, holy life, continue in
the same. But the teaching that when we once enter a state of grace we
always remain in that state, no matter what we do, is certainly very
foreign to the Holy Scriptures and soul deluding. God spoke by the mouth
of an Old Testament prophet nearly six hundred years before the coming of
“grace and truth” by the Savior, saying, “When a righteous man doth turn
from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block
before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he
shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not
be remembered.” Ezek. 3:20. What need be, and what can be, plainer than
this text? Here iniquity and sin are used interchangeably and are
perfectly synonymous. If a righteous man (one in possession of grace)
commits sin his righteousness is no longer remembered. This is as much as
to say he is no longer in grace, but is fallen. In the next verse this
holy seer receives words from the mouth of the Almighty and gives the
righteous man warning that he sin not. If he does not sin he shall live.
It is sin that brings death to the soul. Ezek. 18:4. It is sin that
separates us from God. Isa. 59:2. It is sin that causes our names to be
blotted out of the book of life. Ex. 32:33. It is sin that withholds good
things from us. Jer. 5:25. It is sin that destroys grace. Rom. 6:1, 2.
What is sin? Sin is the transgression of God’s law. 1 John 3:4. Who in all
the earth has become so boldly defiant that he can in the face of clear
and plain Scriptural statements testify that he is in a state of grace
when he is living in known violation of some of God’s commandments? His
boldness will forsake him and he wither like the frail flower beneath the
hoary frost when he comes into the awful majestic presence of a righteous
Creator in that great avenging day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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