The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 369

a tenderness of heart under the Word of God." God is ever, and has ever been, in variou■ 'll·ays, calling men to repentance, because men are sinful, and constantly grieving him and ruining themselves by their wilfuln0(18. I. GoD's OALLB TO PENITENOE BY HIS PROPHETS. From Enoch(Judel6),andNoah, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, etc. It is the burden of prophecy. Their voice is ever crying, "Put away the evil of your doings." II. GoD's CALLS TO PENITENOE BY THE SILENT MARCH OF EVENTS. See the plea of Joel on foretelling invasions (ii. 12-14), "Coming events cast their shadows before," and those shadows ought to prove calls of God to thought and moral preparation. m. Gon's CALLS TO PENITENCE BY THE REVEALED wORD, " When God threatens us with his judgments he expects and requires that we bumble ourselves under his mighty hand, that we tremble when the lion roars, and in a .:..:y of adversity consider" (Matthew Henry). IV. GoD's CALLS TO PENITENCE BY JoHN BAPTIST. A most remarkable person, as standing on the dividing line between the new and old dispensations. He carries forward into the new God's great demand in the old, "Repent." And he shows that moral preparation by repentance is the threshold of the new kingdom of forgiveness, acceptance, and grace. V. GoD'S CALLS TO PENITENCE BY THE Lonn JESUS AND ms APOSTLES. They still demand repentance. Our Lord sends his apostles out with this message, and the apostles in the Pentecostal time, and in their letters, plead, saying, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you." VI. Gon's CALLS TO PENITENCE IN MODERN PREAcmNG. In this, more than in any other aspect of revealed truth, rnodern preaching fails. The ministers of the present day have no oppressive burden froIP the Lord, almost making them run away like Jonah-a burden of demanding" repentance of sin."-R. T. Ver. 14.-Iniquity that cannot be purged in this life. God is a God or infinite mercy to forgive sin, and yet he will "by no means clear the guilty." He will surely visit iniquity by :fixing its consequences upon the sinner, a.ad even also upon others who may be related to him. L SIN-PENALTIES THAT CAN BE REMOVED Now, WHILE WE ARE IN Tms WORLD, They nre such as rest on the soul. Sin has a twofold aspect--it is both an act of trans- gression 11nd a spirit of self-will. It is the soul that sinneth; the self-will, as opposing God's will, is the fountain and source of all wrong-doing. But the soul finds expression and action through the body, and consequently there will be both spiritual aud bodily penalties following upon all sin. The sonl will undergo a hardening process. The body will come into disabilities and sufferings. Pharaoh is wilful. Then the Lord, in his judgment, will harden Pharaoh's heart; smite him in the tenderest part of his family feeling by the death of his :firstbom ; and bring down the pride of Egypt by an ignominious overthrow in the Red Sea. The soul-penalties attaching to sin are expressed in tlie sentence," The soul that sinneth it shall die." Death, spiritual death, is the necessary result of soul-sin. Our first father, Adam, began to die when, in a spirit of self-will and self-pleasing, he ate the forbidden fruit. Every one of us, nowadays, begins to die the "eternal death" when we sin with our souls. The sphere of the atonement made by our Lord Jesus, in his lire and in his cross, is precisely this sphere of soul-penalties. Christ removes the penalties of sin which come upon our souls. Christ renews the life of love, and trust, and submission, and joy in God, which effectually prevents any of the hardenings and debasings of sin becoming permanent in our Ca!'es. II. SIN-PENALTIES THAT SANNOT NOW BE REMOVED. The penalties and consequences of sin that come on our bodies, our circumstances, and others who are connected with us. God has appointed the orJer in which family and social life Rhould be arranged aud conducted. If we would ca.rry out that Divine order perfectly, and obey those Di,·ine laws faithfully, heaven, with its eternal puriLies, its peace passing understa1?-ding, and its joy unspeakable, would be begun below. Sin, in its outward aspect, lB the infringement of this Diviue order, the breaking of those gracious and hllly laws. To ,,very such infringement a natural penalty is attached. This is expressed in I\ figure by the familiar words, '• Wliat,oevcr a man soweth, that shall be also reap," The redemp- OJI. :nu. 1-26.J THE BOOK OF 'fIIE PROPHET ISAIAH. 369