LAW AND SIN ance means eternal damnation.* We shall return to that. The essence of sin’s gravity, as I have said, lies simply in its breaking of God’s law. It is blank ingratitude to God; to whom all men owe so much — to whom Christians know that they owe so immeasurably more than the rest of man. It is incredible stupidity: rebellion against God is one of the most ludicrous things in the world. For whether we are obedient or rebellious we are at every moment totally in the hands of God. He made us of nothing; by His almighty power He keeps us above the surface of our native nothingness. Without His concurrence, we could not act at all, we could not even defy Him. The sinner, as it were, stands up in the hand of God, sustained in being by that all-powerful hand, defying God, but in his very defiance using the power which God has lent him and which God could at any moment withdraw from him. LAW AND FREEDOM This fact that the essence of sin is offence against the law of God sometimes — in fact most often — mis* The distinction between mortal and venial sin is very important. Between two breaches of law there may not only be a difference of degree, but actually a difference of kind. Consider the law of the land. A man may break it by not taking out a dog-licence. Or he may break it by fighting against his country in war. It is not simply that one breach of the law is more serious than the other. The two breaches are totally different in their nature. So with the law of God. There are breaches of His law which do not involve rejection and rebellion, others which do. 95