I don’t think I can discount this as an accidental slip because I’ve read the same thing from theologians writing for official publication.
Machen meant that in the hour of our death it won’t be the dirty sins of commission that will haunt us. It will be the sins of omission. All the good stuff we coulda, woulda, shoulda done but didn’t do. So it will be a great comfort to us in that hour to consider that Christ’s active obedience is reckoned as ours.
OK, there you have it. Jesus’ death is insufficient to forgive our sins of omission.
Machen was undeniably a great Christian hero.
But I’m not going to worship his remains.
Nor will I pray to him to intercede for me
And I’m not going to encourage anyone to follow his alleged example of denying on one’s death bed that the blood of Christ is enough to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If the Gospel is really at stake here, it really looks like it lies on the other side of the issue.
Its also interesting to consider what on earth Jesus could mean in telling us we will do “greater works” than the ones he did.