Have you ever dropped a piece of food at a picnic, only to look down a few moments later to find that morsel covered with a colony of ants? Do you remember what it looked like, how that frenzied mass of bugs had a form remarkably similar to the piece of food you had dropped? I have seen a perfect pretzel of undulating insects, precisely because that’s what had fallen from my hand. There’s a lesson for us in this living illustration, though in a much darker place than we would think to find it. The fundamental proposition of this blog is that the more we pay attention to the world around us, the clearer we will see its testimony to our God. So I’ve written about Waterfalls and Wind, Minor Chords and Meat, the Sense of Smell, and the point of Sand and Stars, just to name a few. Our world is literally teeming with its “manifold witness.” I have primarily focused on those things that are ostensibly good, beautiful, and true, but this post will be about the equal evidence that evil offers of our God. Allow me to explain.
Sin is a parasite. It only exists by feeding on its opposite. Just as shadows only have their being in the presence of the light, so sin is only found in its rebellion to the truth. The 14th question of the Shorter Catechism asks, “What is sin?” And the answer given is, “sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” In other words, sin has never been random and righteousness has never been generic. There is a particularity to evil because there is only one true God and His law is its only target. Pagans and atheists sin the same way Christians do, just against lesser light. And this is why even our transgressions testify to the Holy God of Scripture. Just as those tiny, six-legged invaders take on the form of whatever they devour, so our sins are an inverse indicator of our God.
Think of any sin, then consider what the opposite of it would be, and you will see the likeness of God’s character come sharply into focus. It is His law that every sin assails, and He is displayed in the very paths that He commands. Look a little closer at those virtues esteemed around the world and you will find that they are equally present in the tenets of the Ten Commandments. Why is lying so despised among men? Because etched upon our natures is a likeness to the God who alone is truth Himself. The same applies to the other nine as well, and every other statute that He has uttered. Their point is not to keep us from a world of pleasure, peace, and joy, but to hem us into the only One in Whom those things are truly found. And while every disobedience takes us farther from the Lord, the shape of our rebellion is but the outline of the place we should have stayed.
This is certainly not to suggest that sin has any desire to elevate the knowledge of God. Far from it! Every sin has as its ultimate goal the complete annihilation of God. As John Owen writes, “Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice if it has its own way it will go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery, if it could, every thought of unbelief would be atheism, if allowed to develop. Every rise of lust, if it has its way, reaches the height of villainy; it is like the grave that is never satisfied.” But being that God can never be destroyed or diminished, nor His laws annulled, sin’s aggression serves only to accentuate the difference, to bring into relief the lovely contrast that is our God.
What smites your conscience today? It is a violation of some law that God has written on your heart. Can you see how it is also a road sign back to Him? You have but to turn the opposite way to find the truth that foul deceiver tried to replicate. But do not think your contrary ways can be undone by further works. No, rather, lift your eyes to the One who had them all placed upon Him like that black and swarming mass of ants. The shape was undoubtedly that of a man, but a Man so unlike any other. After all our sin and the wrath of God was heaped upon Him, what walked out of the tomb, on that first day of the week, was a new humanity, the perfect contradiction to all that had gone before. Let all your hope and cleansing rest in Him, and as you do, you will find the opposite of all your were come shining forth. “Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” 1 John 2:8 Turn from the empty husks your sins have formed to the eternal opposite of every one of them, Jesus Christ, the Righteous!
