Thank You, My Dear Watson

To round up our discussion of sin, I would like to bring in a long-silenced voice from across the Pond. Thomas Watson (born 1620) was a Puritan who studied at Cambridge and went on to pastor St. Stephen's in Walbrook, London from 1646 until 1662 when he was ousted due to the Act of Uniformity. Undeterred, he went on to preach privately and then publicly until 1680, when he retired on account of poor health. Husband to Abigail, father of at least seven (four of whom died young), Watson died in 1686 while he was praying.

He wrote a number of books, one of which is "A Body of Divinity." In this book Watson gives a chilling description of sin:

"It is a defiling thing. Sin is not only a defection, but a pollution. It is to the soul as rust is to gold, as a stain to beauty. It makes the soul red with guilt, and black with filth" (pg. 133).

He goes on to expose the heart of sin: "Sin strikes at the very Deity.... Sin is God's would-be murderer. Sin would not only unthrone God, but un-God him. If the sinner could help it, God would no longer be God" (pp. 133-4).

Sin is horrendous. What unspeakable mercy that God would condemn this murderous pollution in the flesh of his Son for all who will trust him (Romans 8:3-4).