ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
had taken a relative to the clinic for diagnosis. Looking at ' him, however, my friend saw that he, too, needed to be examined. "Oh, no," the man said; 'Tm all right." But he did agree to the examination, assured in his own mind that it was not at all necessary. My friend placed him before the fluoroscope; the light was turned on; and we saw what could never be seen except for the instrument. We could even see the heart beating. But my medical friend saw more; and turning to me, he said: "Do you see that shadow there? It is a cancer. And it has developed to such an extent that an operation would only hasten death. That man is doomed to die." While that man was doomed to die of cancer, yet he was blissfully unconscious of his state. For months, possibly for years, the dr~adful disease had been fastening its grip upon him; still he thought he was all right. So it is with sin, that awful cancer of the soul. It is deeply rooted in the human heart; but "the heart is deceitful," Jeremiah tells us; and it takes God's holy law, like the fluoroscope, to reveal to the sinner his true condition. The law is the great detector of sin. And Paul is telling us here something like this: "Once I was blissfully unconscious of my helpless condition; but when I got before God's fluoroscope, I saw my need for redemption from sin." . This is the purpose of the law, my friend. A man does not recognize the enormity of sin until he knows the law. The desire to do wrong is sin, even though that desire is not put into execution. Law gives recognition. Paul says that he was blissfully unconscious of his state before God as a sinner until he learned the law. He did not realize that his evil desires were sinful. This is what law was intended to do. The law was given to show transgression; it gave to sin the specific character of transgression against God's righteous standard. Again, Paul raises the question, "Does the law sentence men to death?" Note the words in verse 13, immediately following his statement that "the law is holy ... and just, and [Page 121
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