Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned
‘Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.’ — Ver. 4a.
TN his verse confession is now made of that in which consists properly the grievousness of sin. It is against God that it has been committed. According as the soul understands this will its knowledge of the real nature of sin increase, and its insight into the reasons for which nothing but wonderful and divine grace can take it away.
In order to feel this we have only to think how on earth the heinousness of a misdeed depends on the person against whom it is committed. The same action is accounted much baser when done against a father than against a servant, against a king than against an ordinary subject; and this is the grievousness of sin, that it7 has been committed against God.
Yes: against God; and who is He? Is He not the Holy and Perfect One, who manifests Himself as a consuming fire against all that is evil? Is He not the King and Lawgiver of heaven and earth, whose will is joyfully accomplished throughout the whole heaven?
Is He not the Creator and Upholder, who has a right to expect at the hands of His creatures that they will do what He has created them for? Is He not the God who in accordance with that right has given us His law, and towards whom it was a matter of the highest reasonableness that we should show obedience? And against this God you have sinned; that is, you have withheld obedience from Him. You have refused to do what He hath commanded you. You have not hesitated to violate and to break His holy law. You have sinned against Him. You have exalted and chosen your will, unjust and perverse as it is, above His will. You have said that the counsel and the will of Satan is more attractive to you, and has more influence with you, than the will of God. As far as it was in your power you have done your uttermost to rob God of His glory. You have withstood Him. You have assailed Him in His honor. You have dishonored Him, this great and infinite God. You, a poor worm of the dust, you have affronted and insulted the high and holy One before whom angels prostrate themselves. And as God is the Lawgiver and the Proprietor of the universe, He cannot endure sin. He must maintain His right in the universe. Every transgression of His law violates that right, and the terrible wrath of God is kindled in order to maintain it. And against this God you have sinned. What think you? The moment a man succeeds in once beholding this God in His greatness, does it not become self-evident that it is this which startles and bruises his soul:
HAVE MEKCY VFON ME.
‘Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.’ Oh what have I done? I have revolted from this God, the highest perfection: I have dared to provoke His wrath and curse: this God, without whom I cannot live, 1 have made mine enemy. Woe is me!
And this is still not all. There yet remains one thought which makes all this still more bitter for the awakened soul. The God against whom I have sinned is the God of love. He has not only shown me His goodness in the thousand blessings of this life, but He is the God of love and the God of grace who has revealed His Son Jesus Christ in His eternal glory. And I have been such a child of hell that I have dared to sin against this God. I have despised His Son and turned my back on Him. Oh there is an inexpressible bitterness for the soul who truly feels this in the confession: ‘Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.’
It is this that makes sin so terrible. It is this that makes it so impossible for man to bring his sin to naught; for sin is an act of enmity against the holy God. And man is not in a position to recall this sin or to take it away. Every sin is an assault against the law and a violation of it, an inroad upon its authority of which by the law cognizance is taken, and nothing that man is able to do can possibly bring to naught one single sin that has been committed. Sin has been committed against God. He has observed and marked it. It has assailed Him. He alone can say if He will forgive it, and He alone has the power
THE COKFESSIO^.
to blot it out and to annul it. Tes: against God has the sin been committed, and with God must it be accounted for. Once again, this is the terrible element of sin that is expressed in the confession: 4 Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.5 And yet how little thought is bestowed upon this fact. Even in the case of awakened sinners, how much do they concentrate their thoughts simply on the view that they have sinned against themselves and their own happiness, and how little on what ought to cause them the greatest concern, namely, the fact that they have sinned against God.
My reader, let this be the goal of all your effort. Make it, I entreat you, a matter of much prayer. Tou have to do with God. On the great day of judgment you shall meet Him face to face. If you have not thoroughly learned to feel it, you will then experience to your everlasting horror what is meant by your having sinned against God. Even here it is grievous and painful to make confession; but far better be humbled here than be condemned forever. And do not suffer yourself to be drawn away by anything from your endeavor to make this confession. There are thousands of so-called Christians who know nothing of this conviction of sin; but, bethink yourself, they shall not be able to help you in that great day. Many will say to you that you must not make yourself too anxious about sin; but I feel bound to say to you that you have reason to be anxious about sin* You have sinned against God and He is a con-HATE MERCY UPON ME.
sinning fire. Your sin is so great, the danger is so threatening, that it is in the highest degree unreasonable not to be anxious about sin. As certainly as you have sinned, has God uttered His sentence of wrath upon you, and it is only sheer folly to seek rest and comfort before you know that this God has taken away your sins. The God in whose hand your life is is your enemy. He can at any moment suffer His wrath to flash out against you. Oh haste then, I pray you, to Him with the confession: k Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.’ And if your heart does not feel it so deeply as it ought to feel it, entreat Him to work out this result Himself in your heart. The Spirit who taught David the word will also teach you, if you continually make the petition, to say: ‘Against Thee, Th.ee only, have I sinned?