The Power of Sin and God’s Pardoning Love

Rev. J.B. Zippro, Grand Rapids, MI

Sin is a debt that must be paid for; it is a debt rising up to heaven. By transgressing God’s holy law we increase our debt before His countenance. These transgressions are made with words, thoughts, and deeds. Since our deep fall in Adam and the breaking of the covenant of works, man is never able to satisfy God with his own payments. On the contrary we daily increase our debt (Lord’s Day 5). It is an immense debt that we can never pay off by ourselves, but sin is not only a debt; it is also a deadly power from whidh we must be delivered—a power so great that a sinner can never deliver himself in his own strength. As impossible as it was that the children of Israel could ever be delivered from the house of bondage in Egypt is how impossible it is for a sinner to set himself free from the bonds of sin.

David speaks of both aspects of sin in Psalm 65. First he says in verse 3, “Iniquities prevail against me....’’ We don’t know in what condition David was when he wrote these words, but it must have been a time in his life that he struggled with the power of sin. To prevail means having the upper hand in strife; that is the strife between the old and the new man. David knew something of this strife in his own heart. In this warfare he had no power to overcome sin and iniquities because it was an overwhelming power.

Sin is as an ever-flowing fountain. It is like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It keeps on flowing and gushing with devastating consequences for nature and for man. Thousands of barrels of oil flow into the sea day after day. Desperately, man is trying to put a cap upon it in order to stop this disaster but, thus far, without success. Isn’t this the picture of the power of sin in our lives? It is a stream of iniquities that flows nonstop. We can try to put a cap on it but to no avail.

By nature sin does not bother us. We can live day in, day out, without the least concern. Even if John the Baptist would stand before us with his sharp and discovering preaching, we could just live on and maintain ourselves. Many talk only about the sins of others but never become acquainted with the fountain within themselves. Natural man knows nothing experimentally of the guilt of sin or of the power of sin.

It is only by the discovering grace of the Holy Spirit that we become aware of our sins before a holy and righteous God. In true conversion sin truly becomes sin, and guilt becomes guilt. When God opens our eyes, a cry is born out of the depths, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13b). As a heavy burden sin lies upon the awakened soul and causes it to cry out to God day and night, “Woe is me!” Do we know something of this in our life? Christ will never become precious unless we have learned to know ourself as a lost and wretched sinner who cannot help himself anymore.

What a wonder it becomes if such a concerned and heavily burdened sinner may hear for the first time in his life that there is a way of salvation and that God has provided a way of escape outside of himself. What a wonder if it pleases God to shed abroad divine love in his heart. For the first time it seems that sin is covered before the sight of heaven. He can sing with the psalmist, “Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Sion.” Vows are made to fight and overcome sin. Sin seems to be under control as long as that love is experimentally felt in the heart.

There is a great difference, however, between the first discoveries and the further discoveries in spiritual life. In the beginning the sinner will try to cleanse himself from all iniquities. Sometimes he thinks he has succeeded; other times he totally fails. However, in his foolishness he will keep on trying to root out all sin. When he feels God’s justice which requires satisfaction, he will also try to make some payments to get rid of his debts which he saw in his first conversion. In the meantime the fountain of sin keeps on flowing and gushing. That causes the sinner to groan and sigh. The sinner almost ends up in despair, but blessed are they who may come to an end with all their own attempts at self-improvement and may lose the battle before God.

What a wonder when the eye of such a sinner may be opened to see that other fountain, which is the fountain of Jesus’ blood. We read that it is opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). That is the fountain opened on the hill of Calvary when Christ laid down his life for His church. That fountain also never stops flowing. It is that ever-flowing fountain by which a guilty, filthy sinner can be washed and cleansed from all his sin and guilt.

When David experienced something of this pardoning love, he cried out, “...as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away.” Then David was thinking not only of his own sins but also of the transgressions of all God’s people. God will purge them all away. The word used for purge literally means to cover, as the mercy seat covered the ark. It points to the blood of Christ as the only way by which a holy and righteous God can meet a sinful creature. What an eternal wonder if we also may personally experience something of the cleansing power of that biood for our souls. Oh, sinner, that fountain is still open! Flee for refuge to that fountain of life to find forgiveness of sins and peace with God.

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