This idea brings out the ingratitude of all sin.
But the third word here used literally means 'missing an aim,' and so we come to
(3) Every sin misses the goal at which we should aim. There may be a double idea here—that of failing in the great purpose of our being, which is already partially included in the first of these three expressions, or that of missing the aim which we proposed to ourselves in the act. All sin is a failure.
By it we fall short of the loftiest purpose. Whatever we gain we lose more.
Every life which has sin in it is a 'failure.' You may be prosperous, brilliant, successful, but you are 'a failure.'
For consider what human life might be: full of God and full of joy. Consider what the 'fruits' of sin are. 'Apples of Sodom.' How sin leads to sorrow. This is an inevitable law. Sin fails to secure what it sought for. All 'wrong' is a mistake, a blunder. 'Thou fool!'
So this word suggests the futility of sin considered in its consequences. 'These be thy gods, O Israel!' 'The end of these things is death.'
II. The divine treatment of sins.
'Forgiving,' and yet not suffering them to go unpunished.
(1) God forgives, and yet He does not leave sin unpunished, for He will 'by no means clear the guilty.'