Law and Sin

In “Law and Sin,” Rushdoony argues that God’s law addresses real, completed acts of sin rather than attempting to prevent evil through coercive control, thereby strictly limiting the authority of courts and the state to punishing criminal actions after the fact and not governing intentions, thoughts, or potential wrongdoing. He contends that humanistic statism seeks to usurp God’s role by trying to eliminate the possibility of sin through regulation and bureaucracy, transforming society from rule by law into rule by agencies that treat freedom itself as criminal. By attempting to make men “good” through preventive control, the state becomes a false god, extending its power over all of life and enslaving the righteous along with the wicked. True law, Rushdoony insists, flows only from God’s sovereign word, and when men abandon it they become shoeless—without rights—under man-made authority. The central issue is therefore lordship: whether men will submit to God’s law, which restrains evil while preserving freedom, or to the state, which seeks total control in the name of preventing sin.

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