The guilt of our sin; the “pre-gospel”

Owen begins chapter 10 with these words: “It is one of the deceits of a prevailing lust to extenuate its own guilt. ‘Is it not a little one?’ ‘When I go and bow myself in the house of Rimmon, God be merciful to me in this thing’ [2 Kgs 5:18]. ‘Though this be bad, yet it is not so bad as such and such an evil; others of the people of God have had such a frame; yea, what dreadful actual sins have some of them fallen into!’ Innumerable ways there are whereby sin diverts the mind from a right and due apprehension of its guilt. (Owen, p. 97)

And to help us comprehend the sheer weight of our sin and the magnitude with which we must continually view it, we considered Sufjan Steven’s song lyrics about comparing ourselves to John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (the serial killer who raped and murdered 33 young boys):

““In my best behavior, I am really just like him.
Look beneath the floor boards for the secrets I have hid.”

The more we believe this (and especially the scripture it accompanies; e.g. Romans 3:9-18, Matthew 5:27-28) the more we’ll be driven to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and cleansing, which in turn will be the very thing that will enable us to kill sin! Conversely, the less we think of our sin, the less we’ll continue to rely on Jesus Christ, which—if not addressed—will eventually lead us away from the gospel.

Kill sin by meditating on your sin—even trembling at its guilt, danger, and present evils—so that you’ll all the more worship, celebrate, be thankful for, and rely on Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Chris