The Wages of Sin is Death
There is a hell to shun, and a Heaven to gain. As I attempt to write this article about the seriousness of sin, I do so praying that I’m led by the Holy Ghost. For this is my understanding and believe about sin. Much of the problem in the local churches and society today is that we do not take the terrible effects of sin seriously. Shallow thinking concerning sin has led us to a powerless and licentious church. Unless we come to grasp the exceedingly sinfulness of sin few of us will rise above a quality that is neither good nor bad in our Christian lives. The issue is important in fact is vital! If we are wrong about the effects that sin has upon us in our relationship to God, we could be fooling ourselves about our relationship to God. We cannot assume that we have a relationship with God based wholly upon our feelings and experiences; it must be based upon the fruit of Christ working in and through us. It is not whether we feel saved, but upon what God’s verdict is upon us. Can one be saved and refuse to forsake sin? Is a salvation based upon our feelings of salvation reliable apart from the sin issue? Moving right along this we will look at. Some if not most today speak of sin as something that is not all that horrible. God has taken care of it. So we do not have to worry about it such preaching and teaching as this has grave repercussions. If we deaden our hearers to the seriousness of sin, and convince them that they are safe in the arms of Jesus while they willfully continue in rebellion towards God, we lie and the truth is not in us. How few of our pulpits are there where more has been said at times for sin than against it? The attitude that sin is not all that horrible, states a belief that we are not in any peril from continuing in sin we can assume all day long that God will forgive us even though we may choose to sin. I believe that many people look at the promises of God’s forgiveness while they avoid or ignore the equal statements of scriptures concerning God’s horrible retribution upon those that continue in sin. My friends, it is not what we assume to be the case, but what God says is the case.
It is absolutely true that God stands ready to forgive. When he does forgive, he casts our sin as far as the east is from the west. That is a glorious promise. The difficulty with the promise is that many people ignore the warnings associated with it also. While it is true that our sins are cast as far as the east is from the west, it is equally true that this does not include future sins, or the conditions of forgiveness for future sins, or the conditions of forgiveness for future sins, nor does it minimize or remove the truth that sin always has, and always will separate. I don’t know how much plainer God can make it. The Wages of Sin is Death, Wages is what we earn. In life, we work for wages on a job which gives us money. In the spiritual realm, God says that we earn spiritual wages. His servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Romans 6:16 know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Therefore brethren we are debtors, not after the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live. (Ezek 18:4) The soul that sinneth it shall die. (Ezek 18:24) But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? Answer all his righteousness that he’s done shall not be mentioned in his sin that he hath sinned, in them he shall die warning to the person who would discard God’s words on the issue by shoving it all off us something from the past that does not apply to Christians today. It is confirmed in the New Testament as well as the old. James 1:15 But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err brethren. There are those who come back with a sharp or witty reply. But doesn’t Romans 6:23 say But the free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord? Now truthfully, where is this license to sin with impunity? I do not believe it is there, or anywhere in all scriptures. The context follows Paul’s other statements to the facts. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. You say but the free gift God says, the wages of sin is death. The wages for sin never changed. In the context Paul states that the one who has that free gift is free from sin. Not free to sin as some teach. It is clear from all of scripture that the one saved does not continue in sin. But now being made free from sin and become servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. The first example of the law sin and death is to be found in Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. In Genesis 3:4 Satan claimed otherwise, just as he still does today! And the serpent said unto the woman ye shall not surely die.
This is God’s standard sin always separates! There is not one example in all of scripture where this example has been amended to allow believers to be exempt from the law of sin and death. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot colas, and his feet not be burned? Can a person dabble with sin and not suffer consequences? If the wages of sin is death and the soul that sinneth it shall die is true then why should attempt to trifle with such a monster. God said the consequence is death. Who are we to argue with God almighty? We cannot attach too much importance to the question of sin and how to deal with it. It is the element in life that settles our eternal destiny for happiness or misery, life or death, Heaven or hell. And though many treat it with lightness and indifference, yet it is destined to be the deciding factor in our lives for good or bad, weal or woe, joy or sorrow, suffering, sickness, death, destruction, either directly or indirectly, since the fall of man. It always kills. Can we not see the horrors of such a thing as sin? Look into the suffering hearts of guilty millions, and see the storms that are raging there. Listen to the wail of distress, as it comes up from the bed of suffering and death to the sobs and groans of agony, from hearts riven by untold calamities, or dark with corruptions, unseen but by the eye of God.
Look upon the whole creation, groaning and travailing in pain together until now and then say if you have a plea to offer for sin. If for anything it has ever done and you can offer for it and excuse if there be any form of degree of it that you wish to hide in your heart. Just as any good and righteous work earns a reward, every sin earns a certain wage death sin is deadly, to treat it so lightly as many do is unconscionable. Imagine, if it cost God his son a terrible death on a cruel cross to reconcile us because the separation that sin brings, how can we think that sin is of such a small consequence? My friends’ sin will kill you. It will make your life miserable; it will drag you to the horrors of an eternal hell. God is watching he sees everything of every moment of everyday. No though or act will escape him. You will stand before him in all his holiness. No excuses for he knows your true thoughts and intent. Your sin will find you out. You cannot run you cannot hide. You will one day stand before almighty God! Repent now! Turn from sin and live.
Now in my closing remarks I know I have written a long article, but I only covered a small portion of the subject sin and its wage. In our day as I see and hear how complacent our people have become to the seriousness of sin. It is my sincere prayer that we awake and repent and believe that Jesus can and will deliver us from the bondage of sin and death and give us the power to live our lives free from all sin. For the true grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously, and Godly in this present world. These are my convictions and my heart felt believes, I cannot recant. This is how I live this is how I am blessed with joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. For by the grace of God I am what I am. Not I but the power of the crucified Savior Jesus Christ living in me.
With Joy and Love,
Elder Terry L. Harmon