THE WAGES OF SIN

THE WAGES OF SIN.

  

If you need to be convinced that you are a sinner, imperfect in mind or deed; nothing much will be accomplished.  A man convinced against his will remains of the same mind still.   

       

The person who does not recognise good and evil and does not instinctively understand God to be absolute good, will not recognise his own relative good or of his being separated from God. 

We are separated from God due to the fact that our standards of good fall far short of God’s perfect standards. 

If perfection lowers its standards, instantly it ceases to be perfection.  If perfect good lowers its standards to relative good then all we have left is relative good; perfect good is no more.  If God lowers His standards to meet our standards, instantly He is no longer God and would cease to exist as God.  God is perfection and cannot lower His standards to save imperfect man. 

What hope then has man of gaining a relationship with God and subsequent eternal life? 

To answer this question we must go to the Bible; that written Word which the human authors accepted as from God; that Word which believers throughout the ages have accepted, believed and been motivated by; that Word which has the power to change lives for the good. 

Romans 3:23 "...all (men) have sinned and come short of the glory of God..."

A transliteration of this passage may be of some benefit. 

       

 "...All men have come short of the perfection of God in both body and soul and by their imperfection  become sinners, whose natural and spontaneous production is imperfection or sin..."

Romans 6:23 "...the wages of (this) sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord..."

The wages or production of imperfection is inevitably imperfection and continues to fall short of that perfection which is God's glory.  If this condition remains till the death of the body, that man will continue on for eternity in a state of final and irrefutable death which is separation from God's glory.  When imperfect man comes to realize the hopelessness of his imperfect life and production, he will cease from his works and look to God for mercy, a mercy that can only be experienced through faith in Christ.  If the sinner believes in Christ as Saviour, God is then free to bestow His gift of eternal life upon such a one.

Ephesians 2:8 “...by grace we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is a gift of God, it is not of works lest any man should boast..."

There is an extension to this doctrine that pertains to those who have accepted Christ as their saviour, who have been born again by the baptism of the Holy Spirit into an eternal union with Jesus Christ and are now children of God.  This extension is stated in the Scripture "...the just shall live by faith..." (Romans 1:17).  We do not become the "just" or justified ones because of any effort of our own, as has been shown above.  It is by the acknowledgement of our helplessness and total dependence on the sacrifice of Christ that allows God the freedom to save us.  If our salvation had depended on us in any way then our imperfections would have destroyed it, for salvation is eternal relationship with God and demands a perfect Saviour.  If our salvation depended on us, it would have been imperfect therefore short of God's glory, we would still be in our sins, and we would still be lost.

Those who have been justified by faith shall also live by faith.  Christians who believe God is pleased with them because of their clean living, are so far short of God's glory they can be considered as blasphemous. 

What then are the things that please God in the life of His justified ones? 

Overall it is the attitude of faith, that complete dependence upon God and upon His provisions for both the body and the soul.  To bring this down to specifics one needs to enumerate the works that reveal a living faith, or as James says in his epistle "...show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works..." James 2:18.

Before we go into this let us look at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew  22:37 "...'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment.   And a second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets..."

All the commands, statutes and laws; given in the scriptures for the temporal and eternal well being of men, are fulfilled by the keeping of these two.  If you say you love God yet hate your brother, you are not only a liar but are living a lie.  However, the Christian who is living the life of faith loves the Lord God with an intensity that even while basking in God’s grace, bows the heart and soul in humility and adoration. 

Adoration is not just a word used in liturgical worship, a casual, meaningless hypocrisy, but is an experience that surpasses the deepest emotions.  It is a love that is based on knowledge of God drawn from deep and constant study of God’s word, the only source available to men for this knowledge.  You can only love someone you know and the greater the knowledge the greater the potential for love.  In regards to God, to know Him is to love Him; to know Him well is to adore Him.

So many believers are ignorant of the holiness of God, and as a result are ignorant of their own unworthiness.  And because they have little or no understanding of God their conscience leads them into a life of striving to please God by their efforts, and consequently not by faith. They expect God will be pleased with their imperfect works.

Simply put, loving your neighbour is treating him/her as you would have them treat you.  As an example, if you love your own freedom and privacy then do not impose upon him your views or your morals.  Live your life as unto the Lord, and then your love for God will be reflected to your neighbour, to influence him/her for good.

To love your neighbour requires that you love God, and we are not able to love God apart from the filling of God the Holy Spirit, for love is a fruit of the Spirit - along with "...joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...” (Galatians 5:22, 23).

To gauge the reality of your love for God and your neighbour, ask yourself... Do I have joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control?  None of us will be perfect in this area, but is this fruit of the Spirit real and existing in your life?