Geerhardus Vos says in his Biblical Theology that “every sin offers to God what ought not to be offered, an offence, and at the same time, it withholds from God what ought to have been given to Him, obedience.”
(Biblical Theology, p. 171)
Reformed Baptist Congregation Exaltation | Edification | Evangelism
Geerhardus Vos says in his Biblical Theology that “every sin offers to God what ought not to be offered, an offence, and at the same time, it withholds from God what ought to have been given to Him, obedience.”
(Biblical Theology, p. 171)
John Owen makes this great statement about temptation:
“All sin is from temptation. Sin is a fruit that comes only from that root.”
(Works, Vol. 6, p. 117)
Calvin says (Inst. I.2.3) that “if religion is absent from the life of men, they are then in no wise superior to brute beasts, but are in many respects far more miserable. Subject, then, to so many forms of wickedness, they drag out their lives in ceaseless tumult and disquiet. Therefore, it is worship of God alone that renders men higher than the brutes, and through it alone they aspire to immortality.”
Ought we not to pity the unbeliever then all the more and beg God to save sinners (such as we once were)?
We distinguish between our sufferings in general and evil or wickedness. The persecution of the believer is constituted ‘sufferings.’ The killing of many people in Las Vegas is evil. It is the evil of man . It has always been so. We recognize the difficulty in saying that God knew of such an evil and did nothing to prevent it. We do not know, first of all, how much God did actually prevent, so it is pointless to speculate. We must acknowledge that God is on control of all things, even the evil of man. If God did not then he is not God. To say that God does not care or God did nothing is to seriously misrepresent all that Scripture reveals about God. [Read more…]
Calvin points out that “a good conscience is nothing but inward integrity of heart, and that the fulfillment of the law is love from a clear conscience and sincere faith.” He further says that his conscience was subject to the observance of God’s law even if no one else lived on earth. (Inst. III. 14.16). A guilty conscience comes then, from violating God’s law – sin is lawlessness.