Systematic Theology (Vol 2) - Hodge - XIV - Chapter 8 (Sin) continued

Required reading
Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge (Vol 2) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Chapter 8 (Sin) by reading up to the heading '9. Immediate imputation'.

My summary
This week Hodge continues teaching us about sin.  He now turns to the Protestant understanding.

Hodge nicely sums up his thoughts at the beginning of the section:
'The Protestant Churches at the time of the Reformation did not attempt to determine the nature of sin philosophically. They regarded it neither as a necessary limitation ; nor as a negation of being ; nor as the indispensable condition of virtue ; nor as having its seat in man's sensuous nature ; nor as consisting in selfishness alone ; nor as being, like pain, a mere state of consciousness, and not an evil in the sight of God. Founding their doctrine on their moral and religious consciousness and upon the Word of God, they declared sin to be the transgression of, or want of conformity to the divine law....

It is included in these definitions,
(1.) That sin is a specific evil, differing from all other forms of evil.
(2.) That sin stands related to law. The two are correlative, so that where there is no law, there can be no sin.
(3.) That the law to which sin is thus related, is not merely the law of reason, or of conscience, or of expediency, but the law of God.
(4.) That sin consists essentially in the want of conformity on the part of a rational creature, to the nature or law of God.
(5.) That it includes guilt and moral pollution.'

Hodge then unpacks these five points.

What grabbed me
A very clear and helpful section.

I appreciated Hodge's affirmation that sin involves guilt and pollution: ' Sin includes guilt and pollution ; the one expresses its relation to the justice, the other to the holiness of God. These two elements of sin are revealed in the conscience of every sinner. He knows himself to be amenable to the justice of God and offensive in his holy eyes. He is to himself even, hateful and degraded and self condemned.'

For all of us who love to think we're not that bad, the polluting nature of sin is a terrible revelation.

Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 8 (Sin) by reading up to the heading '10. Mediate imputation'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.