THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH

As we drove past a small house church one day, my passenger commented of the man who ministered there, “That preacher always tells his followers that they must go out and deliberately commit a sin every week so they will have something to beg God to forgive at the next service.” I really hope that my friend was mistaken in his statement. Mankind is prone to sin without deliberately seeking it! And such a thought is absolutely contrary to our Lord’s teaching and example. It reminds one of the “sale of indulgences” to raise money for the building of the great cathedrals of Europe many years ago.

Romans 6:15-23 “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye become the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, nut the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

SHALL WE SIN BECAUE WE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE?

Paul was writing to Roman, Gentile readers who were being confused by the demands of some that they could reach Christ only through Judaism, as they had done, being Jews. They were placing their faith in the commands of God through Moses for the guidance of their ancestors. Those same ancestors had broken that law many times, and that whole generation had died and never reached the Land of Promise at all. That law is called the Old Covenant or Old Testament.

Christ came to fulfill that era and to usher in the New Covenant or New Testament, a covenant based on Grace and obedient faith. This new era is that of the Church. Jesus had said, “I will build my church” and gave to Peter the “keys,” the message of salvation he preached at Pentecost. Christ gave his life blood to fulfill the sacrifices of the Old, and open the doors of heaven through the church of the New. Be reminded of the tearing of the veil of the temple from the ceiling down at the moment of Christ's death on the cross. The Holy Place represented the church, the veil the division between that room and the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant stood, representing God and Heaven. The barrier was removed, between the two, not by man, but by God. They become one room. When we become a Christian, a part of the body of Christ, we also have direct, no longer through a priest as before, access to God and Heaven. There is no such thing as being a Christian and not being a part of His body, the church. He adds obedient believers to His church.

WE MUST CHOOSE WHOSE SERVANTS WE ARE.

Actually the used here is stronger than “servant”, it is a “bond servant or slave.” A Christian has been bought with the blood of Christ. He is not his own. In fact, he never was. Before he was serving Satan, not self.

Paul uses the term, “ye were the servants of sin.” When one becomes addicted to an alcohol, a powerful drug, sexual sins, or even gluttony, it is all the same, he is a slave to the addiction and the only way to break him free from it, is to replace that addiction with something else, even more powerful, Jesus Christ. On the other side of the balances, is Christ, who died to break our addiction to this world’s sins. He offers to take on the burden of our sins upon himself, that we might be free.

DO WE SERVE FOR A WAGE, OR OUT OF LOVE?

We have to ask ourselves, however, why we want to make this change. Do we want to change with the thought that we will be working out our own salvation ? The way of the world is to earn a wage. What is done with the wage, then is up to the worker. But, we serve the Lord Jesus, not to earn salvation, but out of love. We are saved through his grace, because He loves us. Nothing that we can do is earning a reward. “The wage of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 6:23.