The nitre here mentioned was a mineral substance, and the soap was a vegetable substance, both employed for the purpose of removing spots; and the meaning is, "Adopt what means you may, and all the means within your power, still your sin will remain, it will strike through again, and be as fresh as the day on which it was committed. This is true of sin in both its aspects of guiltand stain;as guilt or wrong you cannot remove it, and as a blot you cannot remove it."
I. Who can expiate it as a matter of right? It does not require much thought to teach us that God could never give, to any of His creatures, the power of expiation, consistent with the stability of His own throne and government. To grant that a man has power to expiate a sin would be to grant that he has a right to insult God, and to sin whenever he desires. A man would have the right to sin because he could pay.
The commands of God are not the offspring of His will, as if they were capricious and might at any moment be changed or even reversed. The commands of God are God Himself in expression, and not merely the power of God or the will of God. They express His own eternal nature, and they appeal to our moral nature.
God's commands contemplate and secure, in so far as they are obeyed, our happiness. In other words, they not only enjoin the right way, but the happy way. To sin, therefore, is not only to disobey, but to disarrange. If, therefore, the line of obedience to the Divine will is also the line of blessedness to yourself, do you not see that there can be no expiation for disobedience?
II. What expiation can there be which you can offer? (1) Will punishment for a certain time be an expiation? Many mistake altogether the meaning of punishment. They treat it as if there were something virtuous in the endurance of it, when, in fact, there is no virtue at all. The first meaning of punishment is the expression of the disapproval and righteous anger of the lawgiver. (2) It may be said that suffering is not the only nitre and soap by means of which men seek to wash off the guilt of sin; that there is repentance and future amendment, and that these are sufficient as a set-off against any amount of transgression. Repentance does not mean sorrow only for sin. Repentance is a change of mind and heart and life; and in the dispensation under which we live, repentance is connected with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Saviour did not admit the value and sufficiency of any repentance, which was separated from faith in Him. Repentance does not bear our sins; Christ bears our sins. We are not bidden to look within us; we are bidden to look without us, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
E. Mellor, In the Footsteps of Heroes,p. 79.
References: Jeremiah 2:22; Jeremiah 2:23. W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons,vol. i., p. 37. Jeremiah 2:25. H. F. Burder, Sermons,p. 249. Jeremiah 2:28. Parker, The Ark of God,p. 301.Jeremiah 2:32. Spurgeon, Ser?nons,vol. xxvii., No. 1634; S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit,2nd series, No. 20. Jeremiah 3:1. J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 365.Jeremiah 3:4. E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation,1st series, p. 23; J. Vaughan, Sermons.15th series, p. 133; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 145; D. E. Ford, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 411.Jeremiah 3:12; Jeremiah 3:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxi., No. 1833.Jeremiah 3:12; Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 3:22. Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi,p. 265.Jeremiah 3:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiii., No. 762; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 204; S. Cox, Expositions,2nd series, p. 1.Jeremiah 3:15. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,2nd series, p. 90. Jeremiah 3:16. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvii., No. 1621.Jeremiah 3:17. J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 317.