3 Sermon Illustrations on Punishment of Sin

3 illustrations

The punishment of sin in Christian preaching underscores the serious consequences of disobedience to God's law, often illustrated through images of legal severity and public exposure (Romans 6:23). These portrayals remind believers of sin's gravity and the need for repentance, reflecting divine justice and the cost of transgression (Hebrews 10:26-27).

Crime Exposed

Public shaming is used as a severe punishment to deter crime in some cultures.

Marshall P. Wilder describes a punishment common in China:

The cangue is a large square board that fits about the neck, and besides being very heavy and uncomfortable, is considered a great disgrace, for it has the prisoner’s name and crime pasted on it. In order to make the punishment more severe, the prisoner is often condemned to be taken to the place where the crime was committed and made to stand near the store or house where the nature of his crime, as well as his name, is plainly to be read by every passer-by. This is a terrible punishment, for the Chinese are very sensitive about being publicly shamed.--“Smiling ‘Round the World.”

Law, Severity Of Ancient

Ancient laws were severe, and some resisted reform despite harsh punishments for minor crimes.

On February 9, 1810, Romilly, the great reformer, obtained leave to bring in three bills to repeal the acts which punish with death the crimes of stealing privately in a shop goods of the value of five shillings, and of stealing to the amount of forty shillings in dwelling-houses or on board vessels of navigable rivers. In May that relating to shops was passed, the two others were opposed by the Government. But on May 30 the former bill was rejected by the House of Lords by a majority of 31 to 11. There were no less than seven bishops who voted for the old cruel law. These learned Christian gentlemen devoutly believed that transportation for life was not a sufficiently severe punishment for the offense of pilfering what is of five shillings’ value (dollar and a quarter).--EDWARD GILLIAT, “Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

Punishment, Former Severity Of

Historical severity of capital punishment illustrates the gravity of sin and its consequences.

In the reign of Henry VIII, 72,000 thieves were hanged, being at the rate of 2,000 a year. In the reign of George III, twenty persons were executed on the same morning in London for stealing. In 1785, ninety-seven persons were executed in London for stealing from a shop to the value of five shillings or more. If the amount were less than five shillings the punishment was not capital.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the punishment of death might be inflicted for more than two hundred crimes. These are some of the offenses that were punished with death: Picking a man’s pocket, taking a rabbit from a warren, stealing five shillings or more from a shop, cutting down a tree, catching and stealing a fish, personating a Greenwich pensioner, stealing a sheep or horse, harboring an offender against the revenue acts.

Of the Punishment of Sin.

by John Gill

The punishment of sin is both temporal and eternal, and is due to all the fallen race of Adam.