I. The consciousness of sin is so far a universal fact of human nature, that if any one of us is without it, it is because of some disease and defect in his own mind. The conviction of sin may be stifled, nay, it is stifled every day, and yet it is universal as light is universal, although some may shut their eyes close and admit none of it; so is the consciousness of sin universal, although many believe that they have got rid of it altogether. For this very absence of conviction only proves the incompleteness of their nature. They deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them. They are sleeping steeped in cold mists and poisonous dews, but they know not the poison because they are asleep. Yet fire burns and poison destroys not the less, when the senses that are sentinels against them desert their posts. Every man whose nature is complete and awake and active knows that there is such a thing as sin and that he is a partaker in it.
II. In what does the consciousness of sin consist? It is the consciousness of division and strife within a man. His mind is not at peace with itself. In our pride we revolt against God, and all our inner thoughts start into rebellion against us. Today, with its high hopes and promises, passes censure on tomorrow with its foolish outbreaks and lame performances. If we could add a little weight to our will, or abate but a little from the force of our temptations! but as it is, the secret record of our lives would be a register of unfulfilled intentions.
III. Such a condition must be one of misery, out of which it is natural to try to escape, either by the door of deliverance opened to us by Christ in His gospel, or through the gates of death and hell. And all these belong not to the nature of sin itself, but only to our consciousness of it. Let us remember that the Physician is close at hand, who will pour balm into our wounds, who will create a new heart and a new spirit within us.
Archbishop Thomson, Lincoln's Inn Sermons,p. 188.
References: Romans 7:24; Romans 7:25. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 235; T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. v., p. 313; J. Wells, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xv., p. 5; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 347; Ibid.,vol. xiv., p. 356; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 96. Romans 7:25. Good Words,vol. iii., p. 447. Romans 8:1. G. Moberly, Parochial Sermons,p. 157; Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 128; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 420; vol. ii., p. 258; vol. vii., p. 113; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 44.Romans 8:1-4. D. Bagot, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 125.