The wages of sin is death. That is what the bible says. Most of us do not believe this to be true; certainly we act as if we ‘hope’ that it is not true. I think that I know one of the reasons why we act this way. Can you guess what that reason is?
The reason is that we do not see death strike immediately! We don’t even believe a warning of eventual death when we see it on the side of a cigarette package, when it is OBVIOUS! Why should we believe the Manufacturer’s warrantee when He says, ‘DO THIS AND YOU WILL DIE’? Because death comes LATER — sometimes much later — after we sin, we feel that somehow we have cheated death.
Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. When she did not die instantly she concluded that God must have misinformed Adam when he said, ‘In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die’. So, she offered DEATH to him. The bible says that through Adam’s sin DEATH entered the world. But even he did not die that day!
There is only one way to UNDO the wages of sin. Yes, I did use the word UNDO. There is a reset button on the keyboard of life. There is an ESCAPE key for when you get trapped in a routine that you never intended to activate. There is an UNDO button. The scriptural answer is very clear. It says, “But the gift of God is eternal life”.
That’s right. GOD is the undo! GOD is the way of escape! And God’s word clearly states that sins can be FORGOTTEN and erased. What most people don’t realize is that forgiveness from God is not some kind of platitude that says, “I know you did it but I am going to pretend you didn’t do it, but you will still have to suffer the consequences.” What the bible shows is that through God THE CAUSE is eliminated. And if SIN is removed then there is no more WAGE to be exacted. It is not God withholding the Wage! It is God overturning the LAW of which He is the executioner. A PARDON is a free gift. It can be given to a man falsely accused OR to a man rightfully accused but RELEASED OF THE DEBT he owes for his crime. And that is called MERCY AND GRACE.
Sin is the snake in the grass, that bites you on the leg, and fills you with the poison that will eventually cause you to die. GOD, through Jesus Christ, is the ANTIDOTE to the poison! Stop the poison and you stop death!! God does not bring death immediately after you sin because He is longsuffering and not willing that any should perish. If he holds back death then he buys time to administer the antidote and save a life. When you sin… RUN TO HIM!! Get the antidote and LIVE!.
Original Copyright: © Anthony J. Massotti Th.M., Th.M. 6/25/2000