The following passages have been copied and pasted from:
Ryle, J. C.. Holiness [Annotated, Updated]: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – Hebrews 6:1 . Aneko Press. Kindle Edition.
[Bracketed statements, emboldening, and underscoring are mine.]
SIN
Sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4)
He who wants to attain the right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very deep if he wants to build high. A mistake here is most harmful. Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption. I make no apology for beginning this book about holiness by making some plain statements about sin. The plain truth is that a proper knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. Without it, such doctrines as justification, conversion, and sanctification are only words and names that convey no meaning to the mind. The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes anyone a new creation in Christ is to send light into his heart and show him that he is a guilty sinner….
Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If a person does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul’s disease, you cannot wonder that he is content with false or imperfect remedies. I believe that one of the main needs of the church in this century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin….
…”the fault and corruption of the nature of every person who is naturally born of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh always lusts against the spirit; therefore, in every person born into the world, it deserves God’s wrath and damnation.” Sin is simply that vast moral disease that affects the whole human race, of every status, class, title, nation, people, and language. It is a disease from which there was only one born of woman who was not afflicted. Needless to say, that One was Christ Jesus, the Lord.
I say furthermore that sin, to speak more specifically, consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God. As the Scripture simply says, Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). The slightest outward or inward departure from absolute mathematical parallelism with God’s revealed will and character constitutes a sin and instantly makes us guilty in God’s sight.
Of course, I do not need to tell anyone who reads his Bible with attention that a person can break God’s law in heart and thought, even when there is no plain and visible act of wickedness. Our Lord has settled that point beyond dispute in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21-28). Even a poet of our own has truly said that “one may smile and smile, and be a villain.”
Again, I do not need to tell a careful student of the New Testament that there are sins of omission as well as commission….
I think it is necessary in these times to remind my readers that a person can commit sin and yet be ignorant of it, and can imagine himself innocent when he is guilty. I fail to see any scriptural basis for the modern assertion that “Sin is not sin to us until we recognize it and are conscious of it.”
…I find our Lord distinctly teaching that the servant who did not know his master’s will and did it not was not excused on account of his ignorance, but was beaten, or punished (Luke 12:48).
… that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years. It is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples, as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No! It is a family disease that we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born.
Created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), innocent and righteous at first, our parents fell from original righteousness and became sinful and corrupt. From that day to this, all men and women are born in the image of fallen Adam and Eve and inherit a heart and nature inclined to evil. [See Romans 5, e.g.]
The Extent of Sin
Concerning the extent of this vast moral disease of man called sin, let us be careful that we do not make a mistake. The only safe ground is that which is laid for us in Scripture. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is by nature only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).
Sin is a disease that pervades and runs through every part of our moral constitution and every faculty of our minds. The understanding, the affections, the reasoning powers, and the will are all more or less infected. Even the conscience is so blinded that it cannot be depended on as a sure guide, and it is as likely to lead people wrong as right, unless it is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. In summary, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness about us (Isaiah 1:6). The disease may be veiled under a thin covering of courtesy, politeness, good manners, and outward decorum, but it lies deep down inside.
I fully admit that man has many grand and noble abilities left about him, and that in arts and sciences and literature he shows immense capacity. But the fact remains that in spiritual things he is utterly dead and has no natural knowledge, love, or fear of God.
…The godless do not understand how man is able to plan and erect buildings like those of Karnak and Luxor in Egypt and the Parthenon at Athens, and yet worship monstrous gods and goddesses, and birds, beasts, and creeping things….
…Nothing solves the complicated problem of man’s condition but the doctrine of original, or birth, sin and the crushing effects of the fall….
…The remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, completely separate from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, beyond the reach alike of Oriental luxury and Western arts and literature – islands inhabited by people ignorant of books, money, technology, and modern weapons, uncontaminated by the vices of modern civilization – these very islands have always been found, when first discovered, the home of the most wicked forms of lust, cruelty, deceit, and superstition. If the inhabitants have known nothing else, they have always known how to sin!
Everywhere in the world, the human heart is naturally deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). For my part, I know no stronger proof of the inspiration of Genesis and Moses’ account of the origin of man than the power, extent, and universality of sin. If you understand that all of mankind has come from one couple, and that this man and woman fell (as Genesis 3 tells us), then the condition of human nature everywhere is easily accounted for. If you deny it, as most do, you are at once involved in unexplainable difficulties….
After all, I am convinced that the greatest proof of the extent and power of sin is the tenacity with which it cleaves to man even after he is converted and has become the subject of the Holy Spirit’s operations….
Sin, no doubt, in the believer’s heart, no longer has dominion. It is checked, controlled, mortified, and crucified by the expulsive power of the new principle of grace. The life of a believer is a life of victory and not of failure. But the very struggles that go on within his heart, the fight that he finds it needful to fight daily, the watchful jealousy which he is obliged to exercise over his inner man, the contest between the flesh and the spirit, and the inward groanings that no one knows except he who has experienced them all testify to the same great truth: they all show the enormous power and vitality of sin.
Mighty indeed must that foe be who even when crucified is still alive! Happy is that believer who understands it, and while he rejoices in Christ Jesus, has no confidence in the flesh; and while he says, Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57), he never forgets to watch and pray so he does not fall into temptation (Mark 14:38)!
The Deceitfulness of Sin
… You can see this deceitfulness in the awful tendency of people to regard sin as less sinful and dangerous than it is in the sight of God and in their readiness to pardon it, make excuses for it, and minimize its guilt. They say, “It is just a little sin! God is merciful! God is not so extreme as to keep track of these little things that we do wrong! We mean well! One cannot be so critical! Where is the great harm? We only do as others do! There is no need to make such a big deal over such a little thing.” Who is not familiar with this kind of language? You can see it in the long string of smooth words and phrases that people have used in order to designate things that God calls downright wicked and ruinous to the soul. What do such expressions as “mistake,” “choice,” “wild,” “unsteady,” “thoughtless,” “fun,” or “not hurting anyone” mean? They show that people try to deceive themselves into the belief that sin is not quite as sinful as God says it is, and that they are not so bad as they really are.
[The above passages came from the initial 40% of Ryle’s chapter on sin. One of the topics he spoke in the duration of the chapter was the unbiblical nature of the holiness / perfectionism movement. They had one then too – the late 1800s. If you have understood the words above, then you comprehend why it is impossible to be without sin in this world.]
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
*The truly born-again believer’s journey of faith is described in the beatitudes: knowing poverty of spirit; mourning sin….
*To hear a 4 minute video definition of conversion by Dr. John MacArthur, click the following link and scroll down to the 3rd video:
https://sheeplywolves.com/decisionism-vs-the-doctrines-of-regeneration-and-faith-repentance/
*To hear a 4 minute video definition of Justification click the following link; also on this post are a 1 and 2 minute definition of faith and more:
https://sheeplywolves.com/study-helps-a-checklist/
*For more information about such doctrines, see the following CATEGORIES: Doctrine; Faith; Justification; Sanctification; Salvation; Gospel Message…. Foundational posts in those categories are the earliest posts.