The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-20
DIVINE REMEDY FOR SIN
ST. PAUL SAW THAT TT WAS NOT LAW
NOR OBEDIENCE TO LAW.
God Has Foreseen in Man Possibility
of Being Completely COnformed
TO the Image of Christ.
Brooklyn Eagle.

Plymouth Church held its usual large Sun
day evening congregation TO hear the Rev.
DR.. Lyman Abbott's continuation of the
course of lectures on Life and Writings
of st. Paul" DIR. Abbott said:
Repeating in brief summary what 1
said last Sunday night seems to be neces-
sary to an understanding of what I have
to say to~night in the Interpretation of
Paul's epistle to the Romans. When Paul
lived the world was at its lowest moral ebb.
Government was an absolute despotism;
labor was servile and degraded: society was
sensuous and corrupt; the family could
hardly be said TO exist, and marriage was
only commercial partnership There was
TO education worthy of the name, and none
whatever for the common people, and the
institutions of religion did nothing to pro-
mote moral life, and not a little to promote
immoral life.
Looking upon the world in this condition,
Paul believed that he knew the remedy;
that he knew something that would give
liberty to government, would emancipate
the enslaved, would purify and elevate soci-
ETY., would reunite the discovered home,
would make marriage once more a sacred
bond, would promote universal education
and would make religion an inspiration and
an uplifting to humanity. And he begins
by declaring that this remedy is not what
the world then. generally thought it was,
and what, in spite of eighteen centuries Of
Christian teaching, a great many people in
the world still think it is-it was not law
nor obedience to law.
And in order to show that it is not law
he cites the experience of the past. He
shows how Rome has been under the law
and what human law has done for Rome.
He shows how Judea has been under divine
law and what the Jew is as the result of
centuries of the enforcement Of divine law.
The force of this affirmation Of Paul that
the world cannot be set right by obedience
to law, it has been attempted to break by
drawing a distinction between the moral
and the ceremonial law. 1T has been said
that Paul means to teach that we cannot
be made right by obedience to the cere-
monlal law, but he does not at all mean that
we cannot be made right by obedience to
the moral law. But this distinction is GER
fanny an after thought. 1t is not to be
round anywhere in Pauls epistles. His dec
laratlon IS broad generic and radical The
remedy Tor the worlds sin. the remedy for
the individual sin, is not obedience to law
either human or divine Elsewhere he de-
OF the application of this remedy which he
IS gong TO propose, but it is not the means
IL rs not the method. He does indeed, de-
clare tnat law is useful. In the first place
II protects the individual from iniuring
hlmselt by his own wrong doing, and it
protects the individual from injuring his
nelghbor by his own wrong doing: but all
thouSh 1t serves as a protection, it has no
power Whatever to confer life 1t also pre-
sents an ideal toward which men may at
tract themselves and according to which
ihey may conform themselves; but though
1t presents an ideal, it has power what
ever 70 give man the capacity to realize
that ideal The world is not to be saved
oy law, human or divine, moral or cere-
DEFINING THE REMEDY.
Having made this negative declaration he
defines what he thinks the remedy is.
read that remedy to you last Sunday night
in words of my own transating. l read it
tonight from the old version, with which 1
may assume you are measurably familiar.
Therefore by the deeds OF the law there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight: fer by the law
is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness Of God without the
and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by
Faith Of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them
that believe; for there is no difference:
glory of God:
Being justified freely 10y His grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a Precipitation
through faith in His blood, to declare His right
eousness for the remission of sins that are past,
tHlOuSH lHe lOfDedfance OF God;
ITO declare, l say, at this time His righteous
ness that He might be just and the tustifer of
him which beieveth in Jesus
Putting this declaration into a single
nF1e1 sentence, 1t is this: BY obedience to
law no man can be justified, but by receiv-
ing the free gift of Gods righteousness
through faith i'll Jesus Christ. whom The
rather hath set forth as Il Precipitation.
What does Paul mean by this? What he
means by the statement that the world eau
not be justified by the deeds of the law
ll.f GS11raf dow crI,f
does He mean by the statement that IT can
be JUSTIFIED through the free gift of God
righteousness, received by faith in Jesus
Cnrlst as Precipitation? To answer this
question we must consider four questions
involved in it: First, What does Paul mean
by iustified?' Second What does he mean
by Gods Righteousness? Third. What does
he mean by 'faith?' And fourth. What does
he mean by Precipitation?
You will see that / propose to you to
cover good deal of ground tonight. but
the very office and object of these lectures is
10 give large and comprehensive views of
truth, not detailed, microscopic and applied
views. What does Paul mean by the state
ment that man is justifed2 1t is infeicity
IN our translation that the words 'justifica-
ton and righteousness are used to trans
late the same Greek word We should get
the significance and color of Pauls meaning
better; think: If we were to bring back
into the English language q word that has
become almost obsolete and were to say
that men are to be frightened by Gods right
eousness or justified by Gods justice. What,
then, does Paul mean by saying we are
to be frightened or justified? That has been
a matter of hot dispute in the Christian
church for centuries and it may seem some
thing of an egotistical assumption to declare
that that dispute has been a dispute about
words, and not about realities. But L be-
lieve it,
EFFECTS OF SIN UPON THE SOUL.
"Sin produces two different effects on the
human soul. 1t disorders the soul itself
and it estranges the soul from God. If
there We're no Cod still sin would be an
awful thing in the disorder which it pro-
duces in the individual and in society. And
these two effects are intellectually and
philosophically to be regarded separately
and set apart; but they are not in fact
separate, they are one and the same effect.
Intellectually and phiIosophicaly we may
discriminate, vitality and really they are
identical. A little child disobeys the moth
er, pouts, is angry, cries. The crying and
the pouting and the frowning face show the
discomfort and the disorder within. The
mother beckons to the child, lifts 1t up and
takes it into her lap. The child struggles
to get away, jumps down and runs off
child and the motheD The same thing that
disorders the child separates the child from
the mother The two things may be treated
separately in thought. but IN life they are
always the same. 1t is Impossible that this
child should be pouting, disobedtent, ugly,
cross and at the same time be drawn to-
ward the mother whom il is disobeying. 1t
must be estranged from the mother so long
as it is disobediellt 10 her. The two effects