04. CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER 4.
Indwelling sin is enmity against God —Its power comes from this — It allows no peace or rest — It is against God himself — It acts in aversion to God, with a propensity to evil — It is universal — To all of God — In all of the soul — Constantly.
SECONDLY, its natural properties. We have seen the seat and subject of this law of sin. In the next place we might take a view of its nature in general, which also will manifest its power and efficacy; but I will not enlarge upon this. It is not my business to declare the nature of indwelling sin: it has also been done by others.
Therefore, first, in reference to our special design in hand, I will only consider one property of it that always belongs to its nature, wherever it is. And this is what is expressed by the apostle,
Romans 8:7, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace; Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.”
What is called here carnally minded, or “the wisdom of the flesh,”31 is the same as “the law of sin” which we insist on. And what does he say about it? Why, it is “enmity against God.”32 It is not only an enemy — for then possibly some reconciliation might be made of it to God — but it is enmity itself; and so it is not capable of accepting any terms of peace. Enemies may be reconciled, but enmity cannot; indeed, the only way to reconcile enemies is to destroy the enmity. So the apostle in another case tells us, Romans 5:10, “We, who were enemies, are reconciled to God.” That is, it is a work compassed and brought about by the blood of Christ — the reconciling of the greatest enemies. But when he comes to speak of enmity, there is no way for it, but it must be abolished and destroyed: Ephesians 2:15, “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity.” There is no way to deal with any enmity whatsoever, except by its abolition or destruction. And this also lies in it as it is enmity: that every part and parcel of it, if we may so speak, the least degree of it that can possibly remain in anyone, while and where there is anything of its nature, is still enmity. It may not be so effectual and powerful in operation as it is where it has more life and vigor, but it is enmity still. Just as every drop of poison is poison, and it will infect, and just as every spark of fire is fire, and will burn; so is everything of the law of sin, whether the last or least of it — it is enmity, it will poison, it will burn. That which is anything in the abstract, is still that thing while it has any being at all. Our apostle, who may well be supposed to have made as great a progress in subduing sin as any on earth; yet he cries out for deliverance, as from an irreconcilable enemy, Romans 7:24. “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The meanest acting, the meanest and most imperceptible working of it, is the acting and working of enmity. Mortification abates its force, but it does not change its nature. Grace changes the nature of man, but nothing can change the nature of sin. Whatever effect is wrought on it, there is no effect wrought in it, such that it is not still enmity, still sin. This then is our sinful state and condition: — “God is love,” 1 John 4:8. He is so in himself, eternally excellent, and desirable above all. He is so to us; he is so in the blood of his Son, and in all the inexpressible fruits of that blood, by which we are what we are, and in which all our future hopes and expectations are wrapped. Against this God, we carry about with us an enmity all our days; an enmity that has this from its nature: that it is incapable of cure or reconciliation. It may be destroyed, it shall be; but it cannot be cured. If a man has an enemy to deal with that is too mighty for him, as David had with Saul, he may take the course that David did — he considered what it is that provoked his enemy against him, and so he addressed himself to remove that cause, and make his peace:
1 Samuel 26:19, “If the LORD has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering: but if they are the children of men, may they be cursed before the LORD.”
Whether it comes from God or man, there is yet hope of peace. But when a man has enmity itself to deal with, nothing is to be expected but continual fighting, to the destruction of the one party. If it is not overcome and destroyed, it will overcome and destroy the soul. And in this lies no small part of its power, which we are inquiring after — it can allow no terms of peace, of any composition. There may be a composition where there is no reconciliation — there may be a truce where there is no peace; but with this enemy, we can obtain neither the one nor the other. It is never quiet, conquering nor conquered — which was the only kind of enemy the famous warrior of old complained about.33 It is in vain for a man to have any expectation of rest from his lust except by its death; of absolute freedom except by his own death. Some, in the agitating of their corruptions, seek quietness by laboring to satisfy them, “making provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts,” as the apostle says in Romans 13:14. This is to quench fire by wood and oil. Just as all the fuel in the world, all the fabric of the creation that is combustible, being cast into the fire, it will not at all satisfy it, but increase it; so it is with satisfaction given to sin by sinning — it only inflames and increases. If a man will part with some of his goods to an enemy, it may satisfy him; but enmity will have all his goods, and it is not one whit more satisfied than if he had received nothing at all — like the lean cattle that were never less hungry for having devoured the fat.34 You cannot bargain with fire to take only so much of your houses; you have no other way than to quench it. This case is like the contest between a wise man and a fool: Proverbs 29:9, “Whether he rages or laughs, there is no rest.” Whatever frame or temper he is in, his importunate folly makes him troublesome. It is the same with this indwelling sin. If it violently agitates (as it will at provocations and temptations), then it will be outrageous in the soul; or if it seems to be pleased and contented — to be satisfied — it is all the same: there is no peace, no rest to be had with it or by it. If it had been of any other nature, then, some other way might have been fixed on; but seeing that it consists in enmity, all the relief the soul has, lies in its ruin.
Secondly, It is not only said to be “enmity,” but it is said to be “enmity against God.” It has chosen a great enemy indeed. It is proposed as our enemy in various places: 1 Peter 2:11, “Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;” they are enemies to the soul, that is, to ourselves. Sometimes they are an enemy to the Spirit that is in us: “The flesh lusts” or fights “against the Spirit,” Galatians 5:17. It fights against the Spirit, or the spiritual principle that is in us, to conquer it; it fights against our souls, to destroy them. It has special ends and designs against our souls, and against the principle of grace that is in us; but its proper and formal object is God: it is “enmity against God.” Its work is to oppose grace; it is a consequent of its work to oppose our souls, which follows upon what it does, more than what it intends to do; but its nature and formal design is to oppose God — God as the lawgiver, God as holy, God as the author of the gospel, a way of salvation by grace, and not by works — this is the direct object of the law of sin. Why does it oppose our duty so that the good we would do, we do not do, either as to its matter or manner? Why does it render the soul carnal, indisposed, unbelieving, unspiritual, weary, and wandering?
It is because of its enmity to God, whom the soul aims to have communion with in its duty. It has, as it were, that command from Satan which the Assyrians had from their king:
1Kng 22:31, “Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the King of Israel.”
It is neither great nor small, but God himself, the King of Israel, that sin sets itself against. There lies the secret and formal reason for all its opposition to good — because it relates to God. If a road, trade, or a way of duties were set up, where communion with God is not the aim, but only the duty itself — which is the way of men in most of their superstitious worship — the opposition that will lie against it from the law of sin will be very weak, easy, and gentle. Or as with the Assyrians, they assaulted Jehoshaphat because he showed that he was a king; but when they found that it was not king Ahab, they turned back from pursuing him.35 So too, because there is a show and an appearance of the worship of God, sin may make headway against it at first; but when duty cries out in the heart that indeed God is not there, sin turns away to seek its proper enemy elsewhere,36 even God himself. Hence many poor creatures spend their days in dismal, tiring superstitions, without any great resistance from within; while others cannot be troubled to freely watch with Christ one hour in a spiritual manner. It is no wonder that men fight with carnal weapons for their superstitious worship without, when they are not fighting against it within. For God is not in it; and the law of sin does not oppose any duty, unless it is to oppose God in every duty. This is our state and condition: All the opposition that arises in us to anything that is spiritually good — whether it arises from darkness in the mind, or aversion in the will, or sloth in the affections — all the secret arguings and reasonings that are in the soul who is in pursuit of what is spiritually good, have God himself as their direct object. The enmity lies against him; this consideration should surely influence us to a perpetual, constant watchfulness over ourselves.
It is this way also in respect to all propensity for sin, as well as aversion from God. It is God himself that is aimed at. It is true, the pleasures, the wages of sin, greatly influence the sensual, carnal affections of men: but it is the holiness and authority of God that sin itself rises up against; it hates the yoke of the Lord. “You have been weary of me,” says God to sinners; and he says that during their performance of an abundance of duties. Every act of sin is a fruit of being weary of God. Thus Job tells us what lies at the bottom in the heart of sinners: “They say to God, Depart from us;” — it is enmity against him and aversion to him. Here lies the formal nature of every sin: — it is an opposition to God, a casting off of his yoke, a breaking off of the dependence which the creature ought to have on the Creator. And the apostle, in Romans 8:7, gives the reason why he affirms that “the carnal mind is enmity against God,” — namely, “because it is not subject to the will of God, nor indeed can it be.” It never is, nor will it be, nor can it be subject to God, because its whole nature consists in opposition to him. The soul in which a carnal mind is found, may be subject to the law of God; but this law of sin sets itself up in contrariety to it, and it will not be in subjection to it. To distinguish a little further the power of this law of sin, from this property of its nature — that it is enmity against God — one or two of its inseparable adjuncts may be considered, which will further evince it: —
1. It is universal. Some contentions are bound to some particular concerns: this is about one thing, that is about another. It is not so here: the enmity is absolute and universal, as are all enmities that are grounded in the nature of the things themselves. Such enmity is against the whole kind of what is its object. And such is this enmity: for, (1.) It is universal to all of God; and, (2.) It is universal in all of the soul.
(1.) It is universal to all of God. If there were anything of God which sin did not have enmity against — whether his nature, his properties, his mind or will, his law or gospel, any duty of obedience to him, or duty of communion with him — then the soul might have a constant shelter and retreat within itself, by applying itself to that aspect of God, to that of duty towards him, to that communion with him, for sin would make no opposition against it. But the enmity lies against God, and all of God, and everything in which or by which we deal with him. It is not subject to the law, nor any part or parcel, word or tittle of the law. Whatever is opposite to anything as it is in itself, it is opposite to all of it. Sin is enmity to God as God, and therefore to all of God — not his goodness, not his holiness, not his mercy, not his grace, not his promises. There is nothing of him which sin does not seek to make headway against; nor is there any duty, private or public, in the heart or in external works, which sin does not oppose. And the nearer (if I may say so) anything is to God, the greater is sin’s enmity towards it. The more of spirituality and holiness that is in anything, the greater is sin’s enmity. What has most of God has most of sin opposition. Concerning those in whom this law of sin is most predominant, God says, Proverbs 1:25, “You have ignored all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof.”
It is not this or that part of God’s counsel, his mind, or his will that is opposed, but all of his counsel; whatever he calls for or guides us to, in every particular of it, all is ignored, and none of his reproof is attended to. A man would think that it is not very strange that sin should maintain enmity against God in his law, which comes to judge it, to condemn it; but it raises a greater enmity against him in his gospel, in which he tenders mercy and pardon as a deliverance from sin; and that is merely because more of the glorious properties of God’s nature, more of his excellencies and condescension, are manifested in the gospel than in the reproof.
(2.) It is universal in all of the soul. If this law of sin would have contented itself to subdue any one faculty of the soul — if it would it have left any one faculty at liberty, any one affection free from its yoke and bondage — it might possibly have been opposed or subdued with more ease. But when Christ comes with his spiritual power upon the soul, to conquer it for himself, he has no quiet landing-place. He sets foot on no ground that must not be fought for and conquered. Not the mind, not an affection, not the will — but all is secured against him. And when grace has made its entrance, sin still dwells in all its coasts. If anything in the soul were at perfect freedom and liberty, a stand might be made there to drive sin from the rest of its holds; but sin is universal, and it wars in the whole soul. The mind has its own darkness and vanity to wrestle with; the will has its own stubborness, obstinacy, and perverseness; every affection has its own frowardness and aversion to God, and its sensuality to deal with — so that one cannot yield relief to another as it should; they all have their hands full at home, as it were. Hence it is that our knowledge is imperfect, our obedience is weak, our love is not unmixed, our fear is not pure, our delight is not free and noble. But I must not insist on these particulars, or I could abundantly show how diffused this principle of enmity against God is throughout the soul.
2. To this might be added its constancy. It is constant unto itself; it does not waver; it has no thoughts of yielding or giving up, notwithstanding the powerful opposition that is made to it both by the law and gospel — as will be shown afterward.
This, then, is a third evidence of the power of sin, taken from its nature and properties, in which I fixed on only one instance for its illustration — namely, that it is “enmity against God,” and that is both universal and constant. If we were to enter into a full description of it, it would require more space and time than we have allotted to this whole subject. What has been delivered might give us a little sense of it (if that is the will of God), and stir us up to watchfulness. What can be a more sad consideration than this: that we should constantly carry about with us what is enmity against God. And it is not enmity in this or that particular aspect of him, but in all that he is, and in all in that he has revealed of himself? I cannot say it is good for those who do not find it. It is good for those, indeed, in whom it is weakened, and its power abated. Yet, for those who say sin is not in them, they only deceive themselves, and there is no truth in them.1 John 1:10