"The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us
the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57.
Pause, my soul, over this solemn, but yet sweet verse. "The strength of
sin is the law." Doth sin derive strength from the law? Yes, for the
motions of sin, which is in our members, gather strength from the
precepts in God's holy law, just as pent-up waters, that are increasing
from various sources, will swell and rage the more because they are
restrained. And this is what the apostle means, when he saith, "Sin,
taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence." For the mass of indwelling corruption is stirred up,
and excited into action by the law. The Lord, in rich mercy, teaching
us by this very process; that so totally corrupt is our nature, that we
do not know the whole workings of sin, until, by the holiness of his
commandment, we are led to see, and feel a disposition to break it;
like the first transgressors in the garden of Eden, who lusted to eat
of the forbidden fruit, because it was forbidden, so that the very
precepts of God, by the sin of our nature, become the means of giving
strength to that sin of our nature. The law of God, in this instance,
acts upon the heart, as when the gardener's spade uncovers the surface
of the earth, and the worms, which before lay concealed, appear. The
worms were there before; but. they did not appear before. In like
manner, the law turns up the heart, and then appears the sin which,
though there before, lay undiscovered. Is this thy case, my soul? And
dost thou still carry, about with thee such a body of sin and death-!
Well might Paul call it the mystery of iniquity; and well might Paul,
from his deeper knowledge in the anatomy of the heart, cry out so
greatly under the burden of it. Oh precious, precious, precious Lamb of
God! how little understood, and less regarded, even by those that know
somewhat of thee in the riches and greatness of thy salvation, is it
considered, in ten thousand instances which pass away in the gulf of
forgetfulness over our unthinking minds. Lord, give me to see and feel,
yet more and more, that in myself I am virtually all sin. And, Oh Lord,
give me to see and feel, yet more and more, that thou, and thou alone,
art my righteousness. And let the apostle's hymn of praise be
henceforth daily and hourly mine" Thanks be to God which giveth us the
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ"
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