GRACE GAZETTE
Volume XVIIIIssue 21
Published occasionally for Zion's mourners
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Hebrews 12::12-13

BLAMELESS

Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 1:8

Imbedded in the corrupt nature of men is the desire to lay the blame for their misdeeds and errors upon others. We see this trait in operation quite early in both Adam and Eve. When the LORD confronted Adam as he hid from the LORD after his eyes were opened to behold good and evil. HIS first response was to blame the woman, but ultimately to blame the LORD HIMSELF. “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (Gen 3:9-12) For not only did he single her out as the true culprit, but he really sought to dismiss his own action by pointing out that (in a paraphrased manner), “after all, YOU LORD were the ONE who gave her to me.”

Now we are certain that the LORD did indeed give the woman to the man and HE did so for the very purpose which Adam pointed out. Since Eve was taken from Adam’s side, she was of the same corruptible nature as he, and she in turn laid the blame upon the Serpent. “And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” (Gen 3:13) Now I will point out that she did indeed speak the truth in a measure and did not openly lay the cause of her error at the feet of the LORD as Adam did. She was (due to her innate weakness as the weaker vessel) deceived by Satan. “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (1Tim 2:14) Adam, on the other hand, did deliberately partake of that fruit, in direct rebellion against the commandment of the LORD and then sought to mitigate his guilt by blaming the LORD.

Men sin because they are sinners, having inherited the corrupt nature of their father, Adam, whom the LORD created in order to demonstrate the glory of HIS grace, in his redemption. None of the activities which occurred in the Garden of Eden, happened by chance nor was man created in some sort of probationary period where he was put on trial to see what he would do. He was designed to fulfill the exact purpose for which he was created and his subsequent sin was as much ordained by the hand of GOD as was the creation of the moon and the stars.

The lovers of free will let out a collective gasp and immediately say that to say such is to make GOD the author of sin. (as if this would be a terrible crime) In saying this, they assume that it is possible for the potsherds of the Earth to “blame” GOD, while they deny that they do so, by exalting man as a free moral agent who can choose (as they suppose), to do good as easily as he can do evil. Adam could only do what he did, and by doing so demonstrated his corruptible nature, just like Judas who sprang from his loins (see Luke 22:22; Mat.26:24,25), and every other member of the human race from that time forward.

GOD made man to be without excuse and does dare men to find some fault with HIM in whatever HE would ordain to do. “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom 9:20-21) It is impossible for man to put GOD on trial or to bring any accusation of wrongdoing (whether hypothetically perceived or real) against HIM. Whatever GOD does is right, and HE does not need any input or aid from the creature to establish HIS sovereign right to do as HE wills with that which HE alone has created out of nothing. Nothing exists without HIM.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way we can see most plainly that men are sinners, by birth, by choice, and by practice. Every evil thought proceeds from their own corrupt nature and “all have sinned and come short of the glory of GOD.” Men cannot rightly blame anyone for their sin, and as the LORD is pleased to awaken a man to know his own depraved nature, he will confess with David, “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psa 51:2-5) The man who makes “any” excuse for his sin does not know his own heart which is deceitful and desperately wicked. Such a man is a stranger to grace.

It is plain to see as we read the scriptures that men are to be blamed for their sin and it is sheer folly to think that some “mitigating” circumstance can be brought forward as a valid excuse for it. I am reminded of a hymn by John Newton:

In evil long I took delight, Unawed by shame or fear,

Till a new object struck my sight, And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood,

Who fixed his languid eyes on me, As near his cross I stood.

Sure never till my latest breath Can I forget that look;

It seemed to charge me with his death, Though not a word he spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt, And plunged me in despair;

I saw my sins his blood had spilt, And helped to nail him there.

A second look he gave, which said, “I freely all forgive;

This blood is for thy ransom paid; I died that thou may’st live.”

Nothing that a man can do, think, or say can change the charges which the law has rightly and justly brought upon him. That law which is just and holy cannot be changed, nor can any crime which has been committed or good deed omitted, according to its demands, ever be forgotten or swept under the rug as if it never happened. This is a law which demands satisfaction. “The soul that sinneth shall die”. “The wages of sin is death”. The JUDGE of all the earth will “by no means clear the guilty” nor will HE at all “acquit the wicked”.

Therefore men find themselves in a dilemma from which they have no escape and are as the woman taken in the very act of adultery and brought before the face of JESUS CHRIST who is of purer eyes than to even look upon sin (i.e.; to regard it in a favorable light or have any approval of it). The LORD JESUS did not need to breath out condemnation upon this woman because she was “condemned already”. Why was she (of all of the women and men, for that matter, who were guilty of the very same act) singled out and brought to the LORD? The wonder of all wonders is that she was a vessel of mercy upon whom the LORD would demonstrate HIS power to deliver from just condemnation pronouncing her “blameless”. Those glorious words, “Neither do I condemn thee” rang in her ears with a sweet relief she had never experienced before.

Yet HIS pronouncement was not a setting aside of the law nor a disregard of the heinous nature of her crime, but a declaration of HIS ability as the SAVIOR of sinners to take away her guilt by bearing it in HIS own body on the “tree”. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Gal 3:13) “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”(Rom 3:25-26) Have you been made “blameless”?
mam