April 1929
175
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
The High Cost of Sin B y J. T. L arsen
“The wages of sin is death.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “Be sure your sin will find you out.” “The way of trans gressors is hard.” “But one sinner destroyeth much good” (Rom. 6:23; Ezek. 18:4; Num. 32:23; Prov. 13:15; Eccl. 9:18). HESE texts indicate that the most expensive thing in the world is sin. The great problem is to clearly define sin and find the best method of cutting down the high cost of sinning. S in D efined The late Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas gives
with the babe that is born pure and innocent,-—as it con tinues to grow, the principle of sin in fallen humanity will develop until evil is manifested in thought, word and deed. Sin is like poison in that it is easy to commit the one and to administer the other. There are also different kinds of poison. Some can be taken infrequently and in small doses, where sickness and death will result grad ually though none the less surely. Other kinds of poison may be taken quickly, death following with tragic sud denness. So also with so-called little sins, which by gradual process sap the vital powers and lead to sure destruction, thus bringing about the same result as sins which are more openly manifest. Sin is like leprosy in that it destroys living tissues and brings eventual death. No cure has ever been found for leprosy except the heal ing power of Christ. So no cure for sin may be found except through Christ’s atoning death. As physical disease spreads through contagion, so also sin’s power is extended through influence and example. How E xpensive I s S i n ? Mr. L. F. Barrow, a business man, has estimated that the annual cost of sin in the United States is $13,568,- 588,743! A magazine editor, in commenting on these figures, says: “Sin costs the people of the United States, not $13,000,000,000 a year, but $40,000,000,000.” In this figure he includes money spent for cigarettes, tobacco, joy riding, cosmetics, hair-dyes, and other forms of debauch ery. It is estimated that joy-riding killed 77,000, and injured 432,500, in one yea r! Consider with this the millions of dollars spent on pre venting, correcting, and punishing crime or criminals. With about one million inmates in our penitentiaries, and annually 2,000,000 in the national hospitals, besides 5,000,- 000 persons affected through divorces in the past thirty years, who can deny the awful cost of sin? Consider also the many thousands the world over whose death may be traced directly or indirectly to the liquor traffic; the 35,000,000 who were killed or wounded in the past World War, which cost $250,000,000,000—plus all the grief, agony, and tears! Most nations today are paying taxes on past, present, and future wars. According to a high-ranking officer in the army of the U. S., who spoke at a Chicago memorial some years ago, there have been 3,770 years of war in 4,000 years! Sin is strife and warfare, while righteous ness is peace and victory. Criminals by the thousand are finding that crime does not pay, that “the way of transgressors is hard,” and that “the wages of sin is death.” Surely, “their sin is finding them out,” and in many cases their sins are so grievous that they must die. But this is chiefly the- human side of sin. Israel was punished by God for violation of His laws. They were at war and in trouble with their enemies, until God in mercy delivered them. They were in captivity for seventy years because of their sins. They finally rejected Him who came to deliver them, suffering the loss of a million of their people in A. D. 70, at the destruction of
this brief and concise Bible outline of s in : Sin is failure (Rom. 6:1).
Sin is ungodliness (Rom. 1 :18). Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Sin is unrighteousness (Rom. 1 :18). Sin is heedlessness (Rom. 5:19). Sin is transgression (Rom. 3:23). Sin is lapse (Matt. 6:14). Sin is ignorance (Heb. 9:7). Sin is loss (Rom. 11:12; 1 Cor. 6:7). Sin is debt (Matt. 6:12). Sin is worthlessness (John 3:20). Sin is impurity (Rom. 1 :24; 1 Tim. 1 :9). Sin is depravity (Rom. 1 :29). Sin is weakness (Rom. 6:19). Sin is selfishness (Rom. 1 :29). Sin is deceit (Eph. 4:22). Sin is wandering (Rom. 1 :27). Sin is enmity (Rom. 8:7). Sin is discord (Num. 18:9, Greek). Sin is unbelief (Heb. 3:12).
These short and pithy statements give us the Scrip tural estimate of sin. But the matter does not end here. With a record of six thousand years of sinning, the human race acknowledges the charges made in the indictment. The title of this article has been suggested by the many crimes of modern life, the cost to the individual, to so ciety, to governments, and its cost to God’s Church and to God’s kingdom for time and eternity. Sin is one of the great tragedies of human history. When Adam and Eve listened to the serpent in Eden and disobeyed God’s voice, they fell both spiritually and physically. Their moral, physical, and spiritual nature was from that time debased. After that they begat sons and daughters in their own image, not in God’s image. Hence the fact that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Sin is like fire in that it sears everything it touches until it is put out. Sin is like fire in that it begins in a small way and rises higher and higher. Sin is like fire in that it spreads rapidly. It is like fire in that it has enemies, and God and His people are the enemies of all sin. God seeks to put out the fire of sin through the application of the atoning blood,—the only power that can put out the fires of sin in the human heart and life. Sin is to the heart what leaven is to meal. The latter will swell and increase, and if the meal is originally un leavened, the whole will later become leavened. So also
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