THE CONTRAST.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans, vi. 23.

It appears, at first view, rather extraordinary, that there should be any opponents of the doctrine of original sin; since, not to say, that it has a voucher for its existence in the heart of every individual son of Adam, and is corroborated by the testimony of melancholy matter of fact; upon the acknowledgment of this doctrine depends every truth of revelation; and more especially that, which relates to the redemption of sinners by the obedience and sufferings of the Son of God. Indeed, the entire system of the gospel stands or falls with it. The truth of man’s apostacy from original righteousness forms a grand and necessary link in the golden chain of evangelical doctrines. Take that away, and the coherence between the rest is broken of course; and, by the fatal disruption, the fairest hopes of a sinner are torn up by the root, and all his bright prospects into eternity clouded and obscured. For, it is upon a pre-supposition of man’s depravity, helplessness, and guilt, that a propitiatory sacrifice hath been offered up, and a foundation for peace and pardon laid in the cross of Jesus; that a remedy hath been offered, proportionate to the depth of our malady, and a proclamation of mercy issued out, from the throne of God. Blot out these inestimable benefits, then, and what is man?—an inheritor of sorrow and sin, borne rapidly along by time’s impetuous tide, and, like a ship without a rudder or sails, at the mercy of every storm; liable to be shipwrecked in death, and to sustain an irreparable, an eternal loss; without one cheerful beam of hope to guide him through the gloom of adverse dispensations, or to light his footsteps in the valley of the shadow of death.

A denial of the fall is an absurd effort to dispute a fact the most incontrovertible, to subvert the foundations of Christianity, to bereave sinners of their choicest hope, and virtually to supersede one of the most necessary, and most glorious works of God. For, what is redemption, if we are not “by nature the children of wrath?” Ephes. ii. 3. Would it not, in that case, be an unmeaning and superfluous undertaking? Why did the co-equal Son of the Most High leave the bosom of his Father, to pay a ransom of infinite value, if there were no captives to be redeemed? Or why did he, in unparalleled mercy, quit his throne “to seek and save those that were lost,” if mankind were not in that unhappy predicament? What is it that places the love of God, and the philanthropy of the Friend of sinners, in the most captivating and admirable point of view? It is the helpless and guilty condition of the race of man. This is the foil, that sets off redemption to infinite advantage, and that reflects such unrivalled honor on the gracious Author of it. But deny the fall, and redemption shines no more; and all the glory of him, who contrived and executed the plan, is destroyed at once. Whereas admit that humiliating fact, and you hear all the harps of heaven tuned to the praises of Jesus, and see him adorned with the crown of salvation; while men and angels join their loudest and most grateful tribute of thanksgiving to that condescending Saviour of sinners. The most variegated and lively teints that form the rainbow, are painted by the reflection of the sun’s rays on the body of the darkest cloud. So, it is on the gloom of our apostate nature that the rays of the Sun of Righteousness are reflected with the most conspicuous lustre; and it is even by that dark medium that all the perfections and attributes of Deity shine out with the greatest harmony, and the most wonderful irradiation. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The text exhibits a surprising contrast; and the design of my improvement upon it, is to consider separately, and oppose to each other, the constituent parts of that contrast; to the end that we may enjoy an opportunity of seeing, how low human nature hath been sunk by sin, and to what a height of exaltation it hath been raised by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one view will help to inspire gratitude into the breast of a saved sinner; the other will give him cause for self-humiliation, and afford him an inexhaustible topic for praise and wonder, through everlasting ages. This contrasted representation, like a happy mixture of light and shade in a well-executed piece of painting, will place the great doctrines I am to insist upon, in such an advantageous point of view, as to display the consistency, connexion, wisdom, and beauty, of the whole. From whence we shall see, of course, that, though the text presents a dark side, in which the principal and awful figures in the back ground are “sin and death;” yet, like the pillar of a cloud and fire that followed the camp of Israel, it has a bright side too, sufficiently luminous to guide the Christian pilgrim through the wilderness of this world, and to light him to glory, with safety and triumph.

The first thing to be considered is, that “the wages of sin is death.” But, as death is an event so humiliating and so formidable, let us attend a little to the nature of that great evil that produces it.—According to the definition given by an inspired apostle, “sin is the transgression of the law”—of that moral law, or rule of rectitude, which had been originally written on the heart of man, and which, when the characters of it were obliterated there, by the first act of disobedience, was afterwards inscribed on two tables of stone. A circumstance that wisely suggested the propriety of placing the decalogue in the most conspicuous part of our churches; to the end, that whenever we cast our eyes on these two sacred tables, and reflect on the sanctions and purity of their precepts, we might see our transgressions, and implore that mercy which God hath revealed through that Saviour, who is the “end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The law is “holy” in its precepts, “just” in its requisitions, and “good” in the end, for which it was originally given. It delineates, as it were, and transcribes the moral image of the Deity. And such is the rigor and extensiveness of its demands, that it not only condemns every the least deviation from the letter of its commandments, but it also takes cognizance of the thoughts of the heart, as well, as the actions of the life. “The law is spiritual.” Rom. vii. 14. And its spirituality extends to the most latent recesses of the mind. Its penetrating light breaks in upon the desires and inclinations of the heart, in their darkest retreat, and condemns sin in embryo, as well as when it “is brought forth” into actual commission. Having originated in the wisdom of the supreme Legislator, and having been appointed as a rule of life and a test of obedience, to protect the interests of the divine government in the world, it stands as unchangeably pure in its nature, and as unalterable in its requirements, as the God, who gave it, is in his own immutable essence.

Behold sin, then, in this pure mirror. How is its deformity exposed, and its malignity enhanced by the purity of that law of which it is the transgression! Every sin, in a greater or less degree, aims at destroying the very existence of the divine law; and at subverting the dominion which Jehovah claims as his own indisputable prerogative amongst his own creatures. Sin implies an effort to set up another in direct opposition to the supremacy of Heaven. It is a direct and gross insult upon the Majesty of God. It pours contempt on his legislative authority to make laws, and virtually impeaches his wisdom and justice in requiring obedience to them. Sin is rebellion against the Most High; and its dreadful concomitants are anarchy and confusion. In its hideous deformity, it bears the impress of hell; and, like that malign spirit that attempted to usurp the sovereignty of the skies, it carries the features of that black apostacy, that would have pushed from his throne the Holy One of Israel.

Such is the nature of sin. But trace it, in its origin, its consequences, and its effects, and you will perceive its aggravations swell in every view. See its fatal effects even in heaven itself. What disorder did it occasion among the armies of the skies! When, after having lifted up an innumerable company of angels with proud rebellion against the throne of God, it plunged them, with Lucifer at their head, from the summit of bliss and honor, down to the inextinguishable flames and bottomless abyss of tophet. Or, go to Eden, and mark there the sad catastrophe of our fall. See our first parents arrested by the hand of justice, and, like a pair of criminals, compeers in guilt and partners in woe, turned out of that delectable spot, where all the rich spontaneous gifts of nature concurred with the light of God’s countenance, to make it a representation, in miniature, of the celestial paradise. See the angry cherub brandishing his flaming sword, placed as a vengeful guardian of the tree of life. Behold shame, sorrow, disease, and death, the melancholy attendants on the unhappy culprits! the earth under their feet, cursed with briers and thorns! and elements around them, armed with the thunder of their Creator’s frown! Ask, what is the cause of this sad reverse of their former state of rest, peace, and fertility? The answer is, this hath sin done.

Consult the history of mankind since the fall, especially those faithful records given us in the inspired writings, and you will see one continued chain of successive dispensations, loudly declarative of the evil of sin. Why were the windows of heaven opened, and the fountains of the great deep broken up, to form that immense inundation of waters, that covered every part of the globe, and topped its highest hills; and, the little family in the ark only excepted, swept away all the inhabitants of the earth at a stroke? It was because “God saw, that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. vi. 5. Why was Sodom consumed by fire from heaven, and that sink of sin converted into a lake of the most putrid and pestilential quality? Why did the earth open, and swallow up Korah and his company? or a succession of plagues depopulate and deluge with blood the Land of Egypt? How came Israel to fall by thousands in the wilderness? and in great numbers to be carried away into an enemy’s country, and to wear the galling yoke of long, grievous, and reiterated captivities? What was the cause of their final dispersion? It was SIN that lay at the root of all these visitations. And the same evil that laid Babylon or Jerusalem in ashes, and annihilated the proudest empires of Greece and Rome, is to this day proclaiming its existence in the judgments that are abroad in the earth. If the pestilence walketh in darkness, or sickness destroyeth at noon-day; if war rages, or famine stalks through the land; if earthquakes make whole continents tremble, and spread devastation and death; it is SIN, that hath awakened these awful visitants of incensed justice, which will, all at once, be let loose upon a guilty world, in the great and terrible day of the Lord, to complete its ruin, and give one final demonstration of the malignity of sin, by the conflagration of heaven and earth.

We have visited the Garden of Eden, to view there the melancholy origin and fatal effects of sin. Let us now go to another garden, where we shall see this great evil still more conspicuously displayed. I mean the garden of Gethsemane. Behold! who lies there prostrate on the ground! drowned in tears! and bathed in blood! What means that agony, which tortures his immaculate soul, and makes him “sorrowful even unto death?” What was the heavy load under which an angel is despatched from heaven to support him? Hark! how he entreats his Father, that, if possible, “the bitter cup might pass from him.” Follow him to Calvary. See him fainting under the load of his cross, as he ascends the hill. Now begins the tragical scene. Behold him extended on the accursed tree! Why, thou blessed Jesus, wert thou brought so low, and covered with such foul ignominy? Why didst thou suffer thy sacred head to be crowned, and lacerated with thorns? and thy hand to be disgraced with a symbol of mock royalty, when it might have been extended to the destruction of thine enemies? Was thy death, with all the circumstances of horror and shame that attended it, the just wages of any personal iniquity? No. Thy nature was immaculate, and thy life unblemished. But it was sin imputed, that constituted the bitter ingredient in thy cup of sorrow; and our guilt transferred, that brought thee down to the chamber of death. They were our transgressions that pointed the thorns, and sharpened the nails that pierced thy bleeding head, and hands, and feet, and opened the current that flowed from thy heart. Thou wast “wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.” Isa. liii. 5. O teach us to see the bitterness of sin in the depth of thy sufferings, and to stand amazed at the unexampled love that shines through them all! This will embitter sin to our hearts, and endear to us that blessed cross from whence the remedy for it flows, with the current of thy blood.

There is but one leading point of view more, in which the evil of sin is discoverable by the melancholy effects which it produceth; and that is, by the consideration immediately suggested in the text; which is,

That death is the wages of sin. This is a truth so obvious, that it hardly requires any argument, either to illustrate, or confirm it. The fact is, at least, incontrovertible. The notoriety of it hath been established by an intermitted series of mortality, through all the successive generations of men, from the beginning of the world to the present day. “The fathers, where are they? the prophets, do they live for ever?”

But, though the event itself is indisputable, the cause of it, as well as the nature of that cause, are subjects of sharp controversy, with those, who, when unable to stand against the evidence of facts, transfer their contentious disposition to the revelation of God; and so wrest the scriptures to their destruction. All admit, that death is the inevitable lot of human nature, because the truth addresses our very senses. But some, with strange inconsistency, insinuate, and not only insinuate, but even attempt to give it the form of an argument, that, though all must submit to death, yet the event is not to be considered as the effect of the first transgression; or, at least, that death is no penal evil, or the consequence of any entail of original guilt: since, as they argue, it would be inconsistent with the divine justice to punish a whole race for the sin of an individual; and that, since so many good men die, death ought rather to be accounted a blessing, than a penalty. All this is reason as full of fallacy, as it is of danger, and is overturned to the very foundation, by the express authority of the word of God. St. Paul asserts, that “by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. v. 12. Death was announced as the threatened penalty to Adam before his transgression, and it was inflicted after it, agreeably to the decree of God. Why should it be penal to him and not to his descendants? The text says, that death is the wages of sin. The cause is evil, and so must the effect produced by it. This is penal because that is criminal; unless it can be proved that there is no moral evil in the violation of the divine law, and no natural evil in an event, that tears in sunder, and reduces to dust and ashes, that frame which bears the impress of divine workmanship, and was originally the seat of health, honor, and immortality. If ever death turns out a blessing, it is over-ruled to that end by the grace and providence of God. The cause and nature of it are not, however, altered. And in every instance, it is the wages of sin, and the desert of sinners unexceptionably and universally; even of those “who did not sin after the similitude of Adam’s transgression;” that is, by actual sin. For though all infants are undoubtedly saved, who die in infancy, yet their death evinces previous transgression, though not actually, yet originally and inherently. It is a scripture maxim, that “the body is dead because of sin.” The inherency and imputation of that great moral evil makes the body obnoxious to death. And the seeds of both have an existence together in the nature of every son of Adam; which, in due time, spring up in that vicious soil, and bring forth actual transgression, and actual death.

If this doctrine, equally corroborated by scripture and facts, be not admitted, the divine justice would stand impeachable for taking off infants, whose death is often the instant successor of their birth, and is accompanied with a train of diseases, and agonizing pains. And, though in the case of them, as of adult believers, death proves a blessing, through the redemption that is by Christ Jesus; yet to those who continue in the practice of sin, and die under the guilt of it, their dissolution is the commencement of eternal woe. For, the wages of sin is death, eternal as well as temporal. The eternal duration of the penalty is, in that respect, proportioned to the infinite demerit of the offence, as being committed against the sacred law of an infinite God, and rising in aggravation according to the dignity and majesty of the Being offended. The perverse reasoning of men of corrupt minds may controvert this awful truth, too, as unjust. But their quarrel is with scripture. For that declares, that the wicked shall “go into everlasting punishment,” Mat., xxv. 46, and shall “suffer the vengeance of eternal fire,” never to be extinguished through ages more numerous than the drops of the ocean, or the countless sands upon the sea-shore.Here imagination might paint a scene sufficient to harrow up the soul, and make the blood of every mortal run cold; were we to dwell upon the sufferings of those who are lost for ever; and to consummate and perpetuate which, the wrath of God unites with the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never quenched. I might lead you, in order to behold an exemplification of the truth in our text, not only to beds of sickness, where the pallid countenance, the cold sweat, and throbbing breast, indicate death’s near approach—to the haunts of the debauched, or the chambers of the luxurious, where sin reigns, and death triumphs with a long train of diseases both of body and mind, the sad recompense of a life spent in sin and vanity—to the dungeon’s doleful cells, where criminals drag the galling chain, and expect, with horror and remorse, the hour that is to fix them to the gibbet, and make an ignominious death the wages of their iniquity—to the church-yard, that repository of the promiscuous dead, where the crumbled bodies of the rich and great are not distinguishable from the dust of the earth; or to the charnel-house, crowded with the dry and ghastly relics of thousands, who were once flushed with health, and bloomed with beauty, like their present gay survivors, who hardly ever spend a serious thought on death, and live as if they had made a covenant with the grave—to the historic pages of the annalist and the poet, recounting the horrors of the tented field, and telling over the tens of thousands that have been cut off in the midst of their sanguinary and ambitious schemes—I say, I might not only lead you to these several scenes, as declarative of the truth before us; but I might urge, as its most tremendous completion, the state of those, who are now receiving the final wages of sin in that lake, which burns, and shall to all eternity burn, with inextinguishable flames. But I would rather wave the description, or rather an attempt to describe, what it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive. Let us throw a veil upon this awful scene, and pass to the consideration of one that is as bright and glorious, as the other is gloomy and terrible; which is, that

“The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We had occasion to observe, in the outset of this discourse, that the text places, in a contrasted view, some of the principal truths of revealed religion; that the one might serve as a foil to the other; and that the love of God to a sinful world might appear the more stupendous, by a consideration of the very abject condition to which sin reduced us, and from which no hand was able to extricate us, but that which made the world.

In this contrasted scene, the things set in opposition to each other—are eternal life, and eternal death—the wages of sin, and the gift of God—the disobedience of Adam, and the righteousness of Christ—with all the calamities springing out of sin and death, and all the rich blessings flowing from that tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Sin is opposed to obedience; death, to life; the eternal duration of the one, to that of the other; the malignity of sin and the demerit of sinners, to the undeserved and gratuitous mercy of God, and the infinite merit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that our hearts may overflow with gratitude, when we reflect, that we have the bright side of our text to contemplate with rapture! when, had Jehovah entered into judgment with us, the sad subject of our meditations for ever might have been like the superscription on Ezekiel’s roll—mourning, lamentation, and woe. But now the voice of the Lord cheers the wilderness of our nature with that reviving word, “Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded.” Which, to a burdened sinner, is like clear sun-shining after rain, or the return of a serene and a bright morning after a dark tempestuous night; or like a pardon, unexpectedly brought, to a criminal under sentence of death. This we shall see in what follows.

In Paradise, the test of man’s obedience was the commandment of God; the reward would have been eternal life. But he sinned, and forfeited that reward in behalf of himself and all his descendants; and the penalty incurred was as infinite as the recompense would have been great, in case of perfect obedience. To take off this forfeiture of life eternal, and recover the inheritance that had been lost, Jesus undertook to become the sinner’s substitute, and to take the penalty upon himself. As sin was the fatal cause of all the misery and disorder introduced into the world, he suffered it to be laid upon himself, and “was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” The awful penalty of a violated law fell upon him, in the day that he was “made a curse for us,” Gal. iii. 13, and bled to death as a propitiatory sacrifice on the cross. It was exacted of him, and he made full payment. Perfect obedience to the law, and full satisfaction to the justice of God, were the two great branches of that righteousness, which constitutes the matter of our justification before him. Death was the consequence of Adam’s transgression; but Jesus died, and by his blood drew the monster’s deadly sting, and “destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Heb. ii. 14. And, as he was God manifest in the flesh, his divinity communicated an infinite sufficiency to his atonement and righteousness, to deliver from sin and hell, and to render valid and secure the believer’s title to eternal life.

In the business of salvation, as it is God’s most glorious work, he is studious and jealous of having all the glory of it. Accordingly, eternal life is held out in the text as his “gift,” free on his part, and altogether unmerited by those to whom this blessing is communicated. We have no claim upon him even for the crumbs that fall from his table; much less for the glory of his everlasting kingdom; between which, and the obedience of the best, there is an infinite disproportion. All in earth or heaven, necessary to complete our happiness, is a gift. Christ himself, with all his unsearchable riches, is called the gift of God. The knowledge of him by faith, and the grace that calls, justifies, and sanctifies, come under the same denomination. He gives grace and glory. When the apostle takes a view of death, he calls it the wages of sin. But he wisely and designedly alters his language when he speaks of eternal life. He does not say that that is the wages of human works, or to be earned by the merit of human obedience. No. It is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord,—through him, because he is the medium of all Jehovah’s gifts, and the purchaser of all the blessings of the new covenant. His atoning blood is the great channel of conveyance for every benefit on earth, and his righteousness the meritorious title to life eternal. The crown of salvation is the unrivalled claim of that adorable Saviour; and well doth he deserve, that it should be placed on his royal head, since

There’s not a gift his hand bestows
But cost his heart a groan.

Let not pride, therefore, presume to dispute the honor with Jesus, or self-righteous sinners arrogate to themselves a meritorious title to favors, of the least of which they are altogether undeserving. God hath an open hand filled with blessings for those who approach the throne of grace as needy beggars, and supplicate mercy through Christ, as condemned criminals. But the proud he beholdeth afar off, and those that are rich in supposed goodness and personal merit, he sendeth empty away. For, he resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Think not that heaven is to be purchased by human merit, or that the eternal reward is to be earned by human obedience. The purchase hath been made by the death and passion of the Son of God; and it is the merit of his blood alone that can open the kingdom of heaven, or reverse the forfeiture which we have incurred by original and personal transgression. The scripture hath concluded all under sin. And the wages which every transgressor hath earned, is eternal death. This is every man’s desert, and will be the reward of his iniquity, if he is found out of Christ. No future works can make an atonement to God for past transgressions; since, if this were possible, Christ would have died in vain. Gal. ii. 21. Salvation is by grace, “not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephes. ii. 8, 9. And “we are justified freely (d??e?? without a cause on our part) by this grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. iii. 24.

The text speaks an awful language to the gay and the dissolute, who may be said to be earning, by a hard drudgery, the worst wages under the worst master. How many, in the full career of dissipation, are so infatuated by the splendid outside of glittering trifles, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and so deluded by the hope of happiness, that phantom which flies from them as fast as it is pursued; that to the pursuit of sensual pleasure every consideration of honor and virtue is sacrificed. Let those, who are running the same fruitless chase, remember, that though their path should be strewed with rose-buds of delight, yet there lurk under them corroding care, remorse, and shame, and anguish, more to be dreaded than the poison of asps. If their minds are unawed by the threatenings of the Lord, and steeled against the remonstrances of truth, and conscience, Oh that they would but look into the house of mourning! and behold the sad spectacle of a youth cut off in his prime, either by a series of debaucheries, that brought rottenness into his bones, and infamy on his reputation, or that had been hurried to an act of desperation, the effect, often, of frequent intoxication, infidel principles, or of disappointed projects at the gaming table! Or, let them look at yonder pale corpse, that has fallen a martyr to the etiquette of dress and all the parade of fashion; that lived such a life of dissipation, that she hardly ever knew there was a God, till she saw him at his tribunal. Do not such instances, while they declare the folly of mankind, loudly preach to you, ye sons and daughters of dissipation? You, who flutter in gaiety, though on the brink of ruin? O listen to the solemn lecture! Fly from the wages of sin. You have sought happiness in the world, but have been disappointed. Pleasure’s gilded bait hath promised you much, and looked fair; but its promises have been delusive, and its enjoyment a shadow. Come now, and try what the gifts of God in Christ Jesus can do for you. He gives a peace, which the world cannot, and ascertains happiness, of which earth and hell are not able to deprive. “His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace.”

Thus hath the text set before us life and death: the one, the wages and consequence of sin; the other, the unmerited and glorious gift of God through the Son of his love. Ye who believe the record, and see your ruin, bless the Lord for the gift of a Saviour—for pardon through his blood, and acceptance before the throne through his righteousness and intercession. Love the Lord and trust in him at all times: by telling of his salvation from day to day. You owe to Jesus your life, and happiness; your all in earth and heaven. He has given grace, and he will give glory, and will withhold from his people no good thing. Since he hath given himself, what gift can he keep back? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, will he not also with him freely give us all things? Whilst, therefore, ye highly-favored children of the Most High, ye are reviewing the great, the unnumbered blessings, that crowd in upon you from the streams that issue from the upper and the nether springs; whilst you enjoy the gifts of Providence, and are tasting the riches of divine grace; and, whilst gratitude springs up in your hearts for favors as distinguishing as they are undeserved; remember him, to whom you are indebted for them all. And, while you are thanking God, for life, health, food, raiment; the light of yonder sun, and the clouds that drop fatness on the earth; for the joyful sound of the gospel, and hearts to relish its salutary doctrines; then look up to the fountain of all, and say, But, above all things, everlasting praise and honor be ascribed to God for the unspeakable gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, and an interest in his blood and righteousness. Amen.