"Sinners"
Now Christianity never despises or degrades man. On the contrary regards his wonderful. dignity: and honour, Jesus spoke of men as "Sons of God." Yet in spite of this, or more strictly speaking, because of this, Christianity ace uses man of sin. It is because of man's high potential dignity, that his failure becomes a tragedy. The higher the possibilities the greater the responsibility The conduct of the animals may be far inferior to that of man, but we do not charge them with ' sin, they have not violated their true nature, But man has seen a Vision: he is enlightened with a strange light; in his best moments) glorious possibilities open up before him. Yet he has not been obedient to the heavenly vision: he turns from the light, finding darkness more congenial: he has not realized the possibilities of his nature.
Sin has been variously defined, Our forefathers spoke much "original sin," the sin of our first ancestors handed down to us: a hereditary taint passed on from generation to generation. And however we vary the language in which we speak of it, that cannot be ignor: ed. But is it correct to speak of alsin any more than of hereditary tuberculosis, which is also a misnomer: for it is not the thing itself that is handed down, but the tendency, and this may be resisted and overcome.
The fault of over emphasis on original sin is that it helps us to take sin for granted, to excuse it. to put the blame elsewhere. And it individual, personal sin with which we have to deal.
Sin may be described in many different ways: as lavilessness, a8 a missing of the mark, as a failure to attain. There are sins of commission and commission; of thought, word and deed. And these are all true descriptions. But perhaps is more in harmony with the thought forms of our day to speak of it as a voluntary choice of the Tower, in the pretence of the higher.
Of course the possibility of a choice implies free will. But Joos all life. What measure of free will we do actually possess is open to question; The controversy between believers in freedom on the one hand, and in determination on the other' has never been settled end it is certain that by a careful selection of the evidence you can prove which of these you like, always remembering that the very act of selecting the evidence implies free will But making allowance for the powerfal influences of hereditary and environment, which unquestionably limit our freedom, the whole of life proceeds on the assumption of a certain measure of freedom, of a possibility of deliberate choice. And who is there who would claim always to have chosen the higher when two courses have presented themselves? And if we argue extenuation that our wills are weak and that such freedom ax we have is a vanishing thing, that fact itself partly recounted for by wrong choices of the past—abuses of the dangerous gift of freedom.
And if we think of sin as a choice the lower in the presence of the higher; it is a choice that we all have made, "And judged by that to save."
We have noticed that the apostle looked around the world and included all mankind in one sweeping statement, saying "All have sinned." To this history has recorded But 20 centaries ago there submitted Himself conditions of human harmless, undefiled, separate from sitters.
If you hold a different opinion from mine and have thought the matter out, I shall respect your view without sharing it, But T Delieve that all temptations the that Jesus met were real: that Hi victory was not guaranteed beforehand: that He could have succumbed. On any other view, it seems to me His victory would not have been a real one. He was iridesd tempted in all points like as we are." Do not rob Him of glory by suggesting that His sinlessness guaranteed beforehand. Hix struggle was real therefore His victory was Full of merit. And that Victory has won for Jesus a title that is unique among the sons of men—Savionr.
Jesus has many titles of glory and honour. Some were given Him Uy His first disciples: some were added by other writers of the New Testament: others were accorded Mim by the Christian Church which ransacked the Old Testament for ities of honour and boldly tran: ferred them to Jesus, irrespective of the people to whom they first belonged: still other titles have been ven to Him by his followers of Jater ages. The sect hymn books headed Titles" is one that cannot fail to inspire the spirit of adoration. But there is one title that transcends all others, the title We are not judges of others. If some young people who share the modern mind feel they prefer to speak of Jesus as Teacher and Example, we welcome them. But we are also fairly sure that those who begin by calling Him Teacher will not end there, but will go no until they call Him Saviour.
And so if Paul's estimate of man is "Sinner," his estimate of Jesus "Saviour.
Paul's Estimate of the Gospel—
"Faithful," "Worthy" the Gospel is a That is his o Fersonal testimony.
He could not have meant by that that being a follower of Jesus was an easy thing—as some preachers would have us suppose. It had not been a matter of getting all he desired on easy terms. Paul had far more than the usual share of sorrow and suffering, disappoint. ment and persecution. If we had had a tenth part of his hardship we should probably consider ourselves thoroughly let down. But according to his view there was no breach of contract here, it was all in the agreement. And his disappointments were not confined to {material matters. Think of his unanswered prayers—unanswered, at least, in the ordimity sense. He says' that about one matter he besought the Lord thrice—all without the result he expected.
What Paul must have meant when he said the Gospel was a faithful saying was that it had
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.