A sufficiency of sin.
I. OBSERVE IN WHAT THE SUFFICIENCY OF SIN CONSISTS. All sin is in excess of what it should be, for no sin is permissible. How, then, can there be such a thing as a sufficiency of it? We may regard this as an ironical idea, or as a thought that is useful in the argumentum ad hominem. It is as though a man had said he must have some sin, and now the question is raised—Has he not had enough? Those who sin greatly may be said to have had more than enough—to have attained what St. James calls "a superfluity of naughtiness" (James 1:21). The sufficiency of sin may be tested in three ways.
1. By its magnitude. What more can the sinner desire? Would he still add to his enormous pile of guilt? Surely no mortal man could crave a heavier account.
2. By its fruits. The pleasures of sin soon cloy, and the foolish slave of vice has to turn from one to another form of evil to whet his jaded appetite. One would have thought that he had got his surfeit. Is there yet more pleasure to be extracted from the rotten root of sin? Certainly the more it is drawn upon the less really enjoyable are its products.
3. By its penalties. All this tin must be paid for, and the time of reckoning is at hand. Is not the sin already committed enough to have to answer for? It will be a heavy account as it is, if no more be added.
II. CONSIDER HOW THE SUFFICIENCY OF SIN IS TO BE TREATED.
1. It should not be increased. It is great enough; let us add no more to it. This awful tale of guilt can never be met; it would be madness to proceed still further in piling up accusations against one's self.
2. It should be regarded with profound penitence. There are not many things of which the sinner is full. In regard to his better nature he seems to be a helpless bankrupt. Indeed, he has but one perfect thing—his sin. He is rich only in one commodity—wickedness. Surely the consciousness of such a state of affairs should overwhelm him with grief and shame.
3. It should be brought to God for pardon. Man cannot undo the past, nor can he compensate for the many misdeeds he has committed. Were his sin but small, it would still be impossible for him to atone for it. With a fullness of sin to account for, there can be no possibility for hope in man alone. But great as man's sin is, the love of God is even greater. Heavy as is his guilt, the merits of Christ outweigh it all. Thanks be to God, the sufficiency of man's sin is met by the sufficiency of Christ's atonement. The sin was great to require the death of the Son of God; but since Christ has died for it, the supreme work of redemption has been accomplished. Even a surfeit of past sin is now no barrier to God's full pardon of his penitent children.