What can we do about Sin?
"For the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans
Last time we looked at the progression of
sin from a desire deep within our hearts all the way to the overt act of
sin. We also concluded that sin is in
the nature of humanity; we sin because we're sinners. Finally, we concluded that even though we are
by nature sinners, we are still responsible for our actions because of the very
fact that sin originates within ourselves.
The next question in our progression is what will eventually happen to
us because of our sin? This is a valid
question. If sin is anything that
violates God's holy law, and all people do in fact sin because that "sin
nature" was passed down from Adam to all humanity, and we are all
responsible for our sin despite the fact that we naturally sin, then what is to
become of us?
The Bible teaches that there are two basic
categories of humanity: Those who will
enjoy eternal life with God in heaven; and those who will suffer eternal
damnation separated from God in hell.
There is no third category; no gray area; no middle ground. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus illustrates
this fact by saying there are two gates.
One gate is broad and the way to it is easy; the other gate is narrow and
the way to it is difficult. The broad
gate leads to destruction and many travel that way, whereas the narrow gate
leads to life and few find it. The
Apostle Paul, in the verse quoted above illustrates the same principle in a
different way. The major distinction is
between two key words: wages and gift. When we think of
wages, we think of something earned for the work we do. We put in time in our jobs, and when payday
arrives, we expect to be paid our wages.
On the other hand, gifts connotes something we haven't earned; something
given to us freely. For example, at
Christmas time, we give gifts to one another, not because the person we give
the gift has earned it, but because we want to.
We give the gifts freely and expect nothing in return.
With that in mind, let us return to the
verse. What does our sin earn us? Death. The wages, or proper payment, of our sin is
death. This is not physical death;
though physical death is a result of our sin.
The death Paul has in mind here is eternal damnation in hell; the broad
gate that Jesus spoke of. This means no
matter what we do to try to get "right with God" the ultimate wage of
all our activity is death. God is not
interested in our efforts to reconcile with Him because all of our efforts to
reconcile ourselves with Him do nothing to remove the sin in our lives. Let's bring this down to a real-life
example. If you wrong someone, it won't
matter what you do to make things right if the person you wronged won't forgive
you. The only thing you can "do"
is to place yourself at the mercy of the person wronged and humbly ask for forgiveness. Likewise with God. Our sin is a barrier between us and God, and
the only way that barrier can be removed is if God chooses to remove it. All man-made religion is an attempt to remove
the sin barrier from our side and is doomed to failure.
The big question that needs to be asked is
has God decided to remove the sin barrier?
Yes! This is the second half of
the verse: but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The wages of everything we do is eternal
death, but God has decided to offer a gift to us, and that is the gift of
eternal life. We can receive this gift, but it must be on God's terms, not ours. We can have eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We
must accept the fact that God has sent His Son, Jesus, to suffer and die to pay
the penalty of our sin debt, and that God has raise Him from the dead. We must accept this in faith. Then we must acknowledge Jesus Christ as
Lord. This means we must follow His
pattern for our lives. We must obey His
commands. We must renounce our sinful
ways and follow Christ. It's a simple
choice! We can continue to try to earn
our way to heaven through man-made religion or philosophy; and earn the wages
of sin which is death, or we can give up our futile efforts at pleasing God and
accept the gift that He has offered us and follow Jesus. There is no third option.