There is No Distinction (Quotes from Fleming Rutledge)

Romans chapter 5:12 reads, Sin came into the world through one man (Adam) and Death through Sin, and so Death spread to all men because all men sinned.

Notice the connection between Death and Sin. Paul declares that "the wages of Sin is Death" (6:23). Death, the ultimate separation from God and from all whom we love, is the punishment that has come upon the human race because of the original sin, the disobedience of Adam. Do not make the mistake of thinking that individual persons are stricken for individual sins in sudden catastrophic ways, as though a child who was hit by a truck were being punished for stealing a pack of gum. That would be mixing up sins with Sin again. God's righteous sentence of death lies upon us all, Jew and Greek alike, religious and irreligious, moral and immoral, godly and ungodly -- "there is no distinction ...... all have sinned, all full short of the glory of God..... There is no one righteous, no, not one".

"All human beings are under the Power of Sin" (3:9).

God hates sin; "the Wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men" (1:18).

Now perhaps you do not feel that you are a sinner. If you do not, then you can join the great majority of 20th century people. Dr Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, published a book 5 years ago called Whatever Became of Sin? One of his chapters is entitled "the disappearance of sin: an eyewitness account." Today (he says) we have crime, we have neurosis, we have symptoms, we have errors in judgement and self-destructive behaviour and antisocial tendencies but we do not have sin. His book, written from his point of view as a practical psychiatrist, is an impassioned plea for the return of the word "sin" to the vocabulary of doctors and clergyman alike.

It is very important to notice what Dr Menninger has in mind when he speaks of sin. A theologian he is not, he comes very close to the mark when he says that "Sin traditionally implies guilt, answerability, and..... responsibility." "My proposal," he says, "is for the revival or reassertion of personal responsibility in all human acts...... ".

That is what St Paul says to:

The whole world is accountable to God. (3:19)

Do you suppose, O man, that you will escape the judgement of God? (2:2)

You can see for yourself that Paul is right; we are in a terrible mess. We are in bondage to the Power of Sin. Noticed Paul's conception of this Power  (3:9). We're not talking about a combination of little individual sins added up together to make one big sin. We are talking about an actual Power, an alien and hostile force that deals death to the human race and acts in implacable enmity to God and his purposes.

Sin works death in me...... I am the purchased slave of sin...... I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate....... it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me...... I can will what is right, but I cannot do it...... the evil I do not want is what I do...... I am captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (7:13-24)

Let us be quite clear about what Sin is. Let us not trivialise it or domesticate it. Sin is not a matter of a few sins here and a few sins there. What is sin? Sin is the basic condition of man, the condition of rebellion against God, in his place. Sin is "mankind's essential illness," it is a condition we are all heir to, it is a demonic Power that enslaves us and binds us and prevents us from being either free or good. We are responsible before God for Sin, and yet we are unable to liberate ourselves from its grip. We are in a desperate situation, deserving God's Wrath and marked out for his judgement, each of us individually and all of us collectively.

Let us therefore say together the words of the general confession:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those who confess their faults. Restore those who are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.