"There is an impression among some people that a man is a better man after having tasted sin after knowing evil experience, then repenting, being forgiven and restored. This is a mistaken impression. Innocence is far better than penitence. Penitence is infinitely better than despair, but a life is never so beautiful after sin's fires have swept over it as it would have been if it had been kept untarnished and had radioed God's first thought for it."--Dr. J. B. Miller, The Building of Character, 1894.
We reprint the foregoing for two reasons. First, because it corrects a false idea that is all too common, and second, because it contains a grievous error that is also very common, and which is sure to work ruin to every one who does not escape from it.
It is indeed a mistake to suppose that a man is better for having sinned. Many professed Christians, and especially some revivalists, seem to be proud of their previous career of sin, and are constantly advertising it. Now it is necessary for us always to remember that we are sinners, and that we have been brought up out of the horrible pit, and that we are kept from falling only by the power of God.
Nevertheless the tree of knowledge of good and evil is not the tree of life. God never designed that man should eat from the first. To say or to think that a man is a better man, and better able to serve the Lord, because he has sinned grievously, is the same as saying that the fall of man in Eden was really no fall, but was necessary for his more perfect development; and that is to agree with the serpent, in charging God with arbitrarily and selfishly placing the prohibition on man, in order to keep him down.
It is, in fact, equivalent to saying that the penitent thief, who suffered the just reward for his deeds, was a better man than Christ, "Who did no sin;" (1 Peter 2:22) for if it were true that a man is better for having sinned, then the saved sinner would have an advantage over the Saviour. Christ not only did no sin, but "[He] knew no sin," (2 Corinthians 5:21) and for that very reason He is the Saviour of mankind. He knew the power of sin, however, for He met it, and conquered it. The error, and it is a most pernicious one, is that: "A life is never so beautiful after sin's fires have swept over it as it would have been if it had been kept untarnished and had realized God's first thought for it."
This is to belittle and disparage the power of God. It is to say that Satan has to a certain extent gained a victory over the Lord, so that He cannot do with man that which He set out to do. God declares that: "My strength is made perfect in weakness," (2 Corinthians 12:9) and that: "Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds." (Romans 5:20)
It is this error, which cannot be too strongly denounced, that is responsible for much of the discouragement that Christians give way to, and which prevents them from attaining the heights of holiness of character, which God designs they should reach. It cuts the nerve of faith, by which alone the work of righteousness is accomplished.
No man will go farther or rise higher than he believes is possible. Consequently many people rest content with imperfection, because, having been born in sin, and having added to their heritage by long practice of evil, they think it is impossible that they can ever rise above a certain height. That this persuasion comes from the adversary of souls is evident from the fact that we are exhorted: "Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) "And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure." (1 John 3:3) "And you are complete in Him." (Colossians 2:10)
No one can use the language referred to without forgetting or else depreciating or even denying the miracles of Christ. We read that when the man with the withered hand, stretched forth his hand at the command of Jesus, "It was restored whole, like as the other." (Matthew 12:13)
He himself said of the man whom He healed of an infirmity of thirty-eight years' standing, that he had been made "every whit whole." (John 7:23)
Of the impotent man at the temple gate, who leaped and walked by the power of the name of Jesus, Peter said, "The faith which is by Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." (Acts 3:16)
Shall we say that these men were not as strong as they would have been if they had never been ill? If so, we disparage the power of God in Christ, and say that Christ was an imperfect workman.
Then there are the dead that have been and will be raised at the command of the Lord. And here is the final test of the whole matter; for the dead, are the perfect examples of the working of sin.
• Shall we say that they never have so much life as they would have had if they had never died?
• Will those who are raised incorruptible at the sounding of "the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God," (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and who are thus ever with the Lord, follow Him about only half alive?
• Will they always have some of their grave clothes hanging about them?
• Will the musty odor of the tomb always cling to them?
Not by any means. No one believes it when it is put that way, and yet it must be so, if we can never be what we would have been if we had not sinned.
Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
And this superabundance of life in Christ cleanses from all sin, (1 John 1:7) so that we in Him become "perfect and entire, lacking in nothing." (James 1:4) "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, That He might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:25-27)
Is He not able to do that which He purposed? To say that He cannot, is to say that His sacrifice was incomplete, and His work a partial failure. Do not believe it. Do not let anybody shake your faith in Christ to "restore all things." (Matthew 17:11)
God has promised to make all things new; shall we say that the earth will never be as beautiful as it would have been but for the curse of sin? Never! "The Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." (Isaiah 51:3)
His people will be glad and rejoice forever in the new heaven and the new earth which He creates, because "The former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." (Isaiah 65:17-18)
There will be no trace of the curse to remind them of the past. (Revelation 21:4-5; 22:3)But the power of God will be no greater then than it is now. The power by which He will make a new heavens and a new earth for the righteous to dwell in, is the power by which He now makes new men to dwell in them. Our first birth has made us heirs of many infirmities; our second birth makes us "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." (Romans 8:17)
Being born from above, we become sons of God just as fully as Jesus himself is; and therefore since He never sinned, we become as though we had never sinned. "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." (Romans 5:19)
It is His righteousness, His obedience, in us, and nothing that we have done or can do, that makes us righteous. Therefore to say that we cannot be as perfect as we would have been if we had never sinned, is to say that sin handicaps the Lord, and that He cannot live as perfect a life in sinful flesh as He could if the flesh were sinless. Banish the thought. It is despiteful to the Spirit of grace.
What wondrous joy and comfort there is in the knowledge that Jesus is a perfect Saviour! What a firm ground it affords to faith, and what infinite possibilities it opens up! It assures us that we shall renew our youth, even though we have wasted it in dissipation and vice; for God redeems our life from destruction; He brings it completely back. "He is the Saviour of the body," (Ephesians 5:23) for He who forgives all iniquities also heals all diseases. (Psalm 103:3) Every evil habit and tendency may in Christ be replaced by its opposite; and the infirmities of body, that are the result of sin, may, yea, surely will, when the Divine life is fully and understandingly accepted and yielded to, be removed; so that out of weakness we may be made strong. This is "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24)--Present Truth, July 5, 1900.
What a wonderful Saviour!