"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.– Matthew 11:21
Question 151 of the Larger Catechism asks, “What are those aggravations that make some
sins more heinous than others?” The fourth section (the second under point 3) of the
answer says, “Sins receive their aggravations, 3. From the nature and quality of the offence:
if against means, mercies, judgments, light of nature, conviction of consciousness, publick
or private admonition, censures of the church, civil punishments; and our prayers,
purposes, promises, vows, covenants, and engagements to God or men: if done
deliberately, wilfully, presumptuously, impudently, boastingly, maliciously, frequently,
obstinately, with delight, continuance, or relapsing after repentance.”
To sin against “means” is to break God’s law while you have multiple opportunities,
incentives, and reasons to keep it—like Chorazin and Bethsaida in the verse above. These
cities saw the abundant supernatural proof that Jesus was the Son of God. He did many
miracles in their presence, each one of which proved Him to be a teacher come from God,
even as Nicodemus confessed, “"Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God;
for no one can do these signs that You are doing unless God is with him,” (John 3:2). That
was the point of the miracles, they proved Jesus came from God. So Peter preached at
Pentecost, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to
you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you
yourselves also know,” (Act. 2:22). To have seen Jesus give the supernatural proof of His
divine mission, and yet to reject Him, was a far greater sin than to have lived in Pagan
cities, which never had the chance to see miracles.
To sin against mercy and judgments is another great aggravation of sin. David aggravated
his guilt this way when he committed adultery and had Uriah murdered. Thus, God
reminded David how He made him king, delivered him from the hand of Saul, gave him
wives and great possessions, and then even added, “And if that had been too little, I also
would have given you much more!” (2 Sam. 12:17). David’s sin was so great precisely
because God had shown him so much favor through the light of His mercies and
judgments. God gives us light by revealing Himself or His truth to us in His Word or in
nature (the creation itself). The more light we have the more guilty we are when
transgress the truth clearly made apparent by the light.
Sins against the light of nature would include incest, homosexuality (sodomy), and all
other evils which reality itself tells us are wrong. As the Word of God says, homosexuality is
the exchanging of “the natural use for what is against nature” (Rom. 1:26-27). God has
created us male and female with corresponding sex organs that naturally join together:
one male to one female. Though two people of the same gender are able to give each
other pleasure they are not able—as an undeniable scientific reality—to physically join their
bodies together by their sex organs designed for that purpose and become one flesh
biologically. They can make wedding vows to one another, but they cannot consummate
the marriage, nor beget children. Nature itself, in the form of their own bodies teaches
them those facts.
Likewise, to transgress my own conscience is to do what I believe to be wrong, which is
much worse than being deceived. For if I do something evil that I wrongly believe to be
good, I have still sinned, but by mistake as it were. But when I willingly do what I know to
be evil, I sin with culpability, indicating a hard heart and a high hand towards God. To sin
against admonitions, censures, and punishments shows a determination to even be
willing to suffer for the evil we love. So also when I sin against my own promises, vows,
responsibilities or duties, my actions are that much more to be condemned. The final
items in the list are all self-explanatory: it is one thing to do evil, it is another to boast about
it, or to continue in it with frequency or zeal. Everyone gets some initial pleasure out of a
sinful act, but most feel some remorse later on. Therefore, it takes a hard heart indeed to
actually delight in the evilness of a sin. May God give us the grace to fear His holy hatred of
evil so that we would shrink from increasing our already great guilt before Him in any of
these monstrous aggravations of sin.
Hozzászólások