Editorial December 28, 1946 Issue

Resolved: To Condemn Sin but Not Man!

John Randall Dunn

What comfort and inspiration for the earnest follower of Christ Jesus shine through the messages of the great Apostle of the Gentiles! Although a giant intellectually and one whose demonstrations of divine power naturally raised him to a position of leadership among the early Christians, Paul never seems to have lost what the poet calls "the common touch"—the tender ability to go, like the Samaritan, understandingly where his hearers were.

His humility is unflagging. If he speaks of sinners, he promptly adds, "of whom I am chief" (I Tim. 1:15), and in the seventh chapter of his epistle to the Romans he frankly admits his struggles with the arguments of the flesh. He concludes the portrayal with this very human lament: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Then comes a typical Pauline rejoinder. He answers his own question with a triumphant, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And in the next chapter follows that mighty statement which has rung down the centuries and has comforted and strengthened unnumbered thousands: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

According to the Christian calendar we are approaching the end of the year, and before closing the record thereof and opening a fresh volume the wise bookkeeper may well cast a reflective glance over some of the old pages. Here he may be reminded of a triumph, there a defeat. Here was a piece of work well done, there a bit of bungling. But even if the debit side of the ledger shows a few unhappy entries, "there is therefore now no condemnation" to those who are honestly striving to be "in Christ Jesus"—those who are learning in Christian Science how to deny and forsake error and to love and live the truth taught by the Master.

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