The Wages of Sin and the Gift of God

Hear the word of God in the sixth chapter of Romans at the twenty-third verse: "The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." In most of our work we would be very emphatic that we had to get our wages. But we try to deceive ourselves that we can sin and there will be no ill effects, that there will be no wages that we must receive, whether we wish it or not. But God shatters the delusion with His pronouncement that the wages of sin is nothing less than death.

According to civil law it is only for the most terrible sin - murder - that men are condemned to die, but in the higher law of God it always stands that sin brings death. The world is full of sorrow and death because it is a sinful world. But it is more particularly of spiritual death that this text is speaking. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." This is the second death, the death of the soul which is more terrible than the death of the body. A man may fall sick and suffer terribly for a short time, and then when the body is worn out, he dies. The sufferings of his body are at an end, and even those who love him most are relieved that the pain and struggle are over. But the death of the soul is a death that goes on. A spirit is imperishable, and its death is therefore unending.

If men would only remember how terrible are the wages of sin, they might be restrained from sinning so light-heartedly and so carelessly as they do. But we have all sinned. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and there is none righteous, no not one." We are all under this condemnation that the wages of sin is death, and there is nothing that we can do about it. No sacrifice that we can make, no tears that we may shed, can wipe away the sin that we have committed, can rid us of the wages of sin which are due for payment.

But God has not left us without deliverance from our miserable and lost condition. God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to take the staggering load of our sin and to bear it away, so that in exchange for the awful wages of sin which we had earned, and which were nothing less that eternal death, He could give us as a free gift, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the Gospel, that whosoever will, may hand over to Christ the Saviour the cursed load of his sins. He may be cleansed from them and released from their power. And as he takes Christ as his Saviour, he may receive in Him, in place of the wages of his sin, which is death, the gift of eternal life.

This is such an amazing offer of God's love, that it passes understanding why anyone should hesitate to take it. We hear that much money lies unclaimed by those to whom it is due in the Maori Affairs Office. That is a pity, but what a tragedy it is that the gift of God, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, lies unclaimed by so many! The only way of escape from the wages of sin, which is death, is to take the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Dear friend, do not hesitate. Take God's gift now.