SIN-RESULT

We should observe that God does not send anyone to hell. He desires that none should perish (2 Pet. 3:9). God created humans to have fellowship with Him and provided the means by which they can have that fellowship. It is a human's choice to experience to agony of hell. His or her own sin sends the person there, and his or her rejection of the benefits of Christ's death prevents escape. As C.S. Lewis has put it, sin is the human being saying to God throughout life, "Go away and leave me alone." Hell is God's finally saying to the human, "You may have your wish."

Millard Erickson

Christian Theology, Baker, 1998.

We live in the climate of postmodernism. Western society encourages sin in an enormous extent and resists definition of, or clarity about, sin. Postmodernist philosophy is fiercely antinomian, that is, opposed to law. Right and wrong are judged on the basis of subjective human feelings. The result is a slide into an abyss of lawlessness. The consequences of lawlessness are seen in the alarming increase in family break-up, divorce, crime and overcrowded prisons.

Erroll Hulse

Who Are the Puritans? Evangelical Press, p. 172.

Christianity insists that everyone is a sinner through and through. Our minds, hearts, wills, and emotions are in rebellion against God. When it comes right down to it, the problem is not that there is only one way to God (through Christ). The real problem is that human beings will not follow God at all.

Philip Graham Ryken

Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 41.

When men talk of a little hell, it is because they think they have only a little sin, and believe in a little Saviour; it is all little together. But when you get a great sense of sin, you want a great Saviour, and fell that, if you do not have Him, you will fall into a great destruction, and suffer a great punishment at the hands of the great God.

C.H. Spurgeon

Joy Hindering Faith, 38.512.

Sin must indeed be exceeding sinful, when the Father must need to give His only Son to be the sinner's Friend!

J.C. Ryle

To determine the effects of a life-dominating sin, you must examine the way it is demonstrated in all areas of life. If you practice a life-dominating sin, it will eventually affect all relationships and responsibilities. Other life-dominating sins are often developed and practiced to “cover up” (practice deceit) for primary life-dominating sin.

Biblical Counseling Foundation

Self-Confrontation Manuel, Lesson 20, Page 8, Used by Permission of the Biblical Counseling Foundation.

We never see sin aright until we see it as against God… All sin is against God in this sense: that it is His law that is broken, His authority that is despised, His government that is set at naught… Pharaoh and Balaam, Saul and Judas each said, “I have sinned;” but the returning prodigal said, “I have sinned against heaven and before thee;” and David said, “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.”

W.S. Plumer

When a True Christian sins, what happens?

1. His Fellowship with God is severed. David, when backslidden, mourned, “Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer” (Psalm 32:4). As clouds hide the sun for days, so sin comes between the soul and God.

2. The Joy of salvation is lost. One loses all relish for spiritual things: the heart is empty. David, in this condition, confessed, “My sin is ever before me” and “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit” (Psalm 51:3, 12).

3. Power for service is lost. The Holy Spirit’s power is essential for any real witness for Christ. It cannot be faked. David prayed, “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts” and “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:6, 10).

4. The Christian invites divine chastisement. Hebrews 12:6-7 – “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth…What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” Psalm 89:32-33 – “I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.”

5. There is loss of reward. (Read 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.) Out of Fellowship means out of Service – out of service means that one is failing to lay up treasures in heaven. He is building of “wood, hay, and stubble” which cannot endure the test of the rewarding day (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). Many will be chagrined in that day by suffering Loss of Reward. Take the Way Back Now. Psalm 32:5; 1 John 1:9.

Keith L. Brooks

Essential Themes, Moody Press, 1974, p. 48-49.

Let them fear death who do not fear sin.

Thomas Watson

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 71.

Sin has the devil for its father, shame for its companion and death for its wages.

Thomas Watson

As sinful commissions will stab the soul; so sinful omissions will starve the soul.

Thomas Brooks

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 265.

Sin is best defined in relation to God’s perfect character; at root it is an attack against His holiness. It must therefore be punished. Although three kinds of punishment are spoken of in Scripture – preventative, remedial, and retributive – only the first and last pertain to hell. Warnings of hell are preventative for all who heed them, but those who reject God’s warnings will endure His retributive punishment forever.

Robert A. Peterson

Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p. 220. Used by permission.

If we recognize degrees of heinousness between a crime against one human being and another, we can see that the difference between a crime against a human and against the divine Being as infinite, and requires an infinitely more severe punishment.

John Gerstner

The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria, 2002, p. 14.

There is no comparison at all between God and any of His creatures. In fact, all our sins against our fellowman are ultimately sins only because God has forbidden these deeds. “Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned,” cried David, after committing adultery and murder.

John Gerstner

The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria, 2002, p. 14.

Sin’s first-born is death – and its last-born is hell.

William Secker
The Consistent Christian, 1660.

Subconsciously perhaps, we tend to think of certain sins as “mostly harmless” – especially if we’ve played with them for years and never been seriously bitten… What makes sin so heinous and grievous is that it is against God…for it violates His holy law and character.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Holiness, The Heart God Purifies, Moody Publishers, p. 70-71.

If I am content to go on in sin, I am an enemy, an adversary of God. Hell, not heaven, follows at the end of my life. I must not comfort myself in this state. I must repent!

Tom Wells

Christian: Take Heart! By Permission of the Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1987, p. 90.

[Sin] says to an absolutely holy and righteous God that His moral laws, which are a reflection of His own nature, are not worthy of our wholehearted obedience.

Jerry Bridges

The sins of the wicked pierced Christ’s side; but the sins of the righteous pierce His heart.

Author Unknown