Punishment the natural fruit of sin
The punishment of sin is not an arbitrary penalty, but a natural consequence. It follows by laws of nature. It needs no executioner. The sin works out its own doom. This thought may be regarded from two points of view. From the standpoint of nature it is a proof that Divine justice does not abrogate, but works through natural laws. From the spiritual side it is an evidence that God has planted his moral laws in the very constitution of the world.
I. SIN BEARS FRUIT. Nothing really perishes. Deeds live on in their consequences. Evil is not simply negative; there is a terribly active and even vital power in it. Its vitality may be of a diseased, destructive order, like that of the cancer that grows and spreads to the death of the body in which it is imbedded; but it is none the less vigorous and enduring.
II. THE FRUIT OF SIN HAS A NATURAL AFFINITY TO THE STOCK FROM WHICH IT SPRINGS. The consequences of a sin have an inherent resemblance to the sin. As the Beatitudes are specially related to the graces they crown, so the curses of evil have close relations to particular forms of evil. Each sin bears its own fruit. Hatred provokes hatred; selfishness leads to isolation; falsehood engenders distrust.
III. THE FRUIT OF SIN IS BEYOND OUR CONTROL. We are free to sow the seed or to refrain; we are not free to arrest the growth of the tree. A deed once done is not only irretrievable, but it passes out of our power while it lives on to work out perpetual consequences. It may become a Frankenstein, horribly tyrannizing over its creator.
IV. THE FRUIT OF SIN MUST BE EATEN BY THE SINNER. It will come back to him when it is ripe. There may be a long interval between the sowing of the seed and the gathering of the fruit, but the sower will have to devour the harvest. Herein is the peculiar horror of the doom of sin. Though a man would fain forget the past, it returns in the dreadful resemblance it bears to its consequences, now fully developed and revealed in true colours. Nauseous and poisonous, it must not only be witnessed, but eaten. He will have to receive it in his own life, in most close and intimate union with himself.
CONCLUSION.
1. Let us beware of the thoughtless sowing which must lead to so fearful a harvest.
2. Let us lay hold of the hope of redemption in Christ through which our sins may be buried in the depths of the sea.