To Encourage You

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death. . . “

The next time you watch a sitcom on television, one that time after time makes jokes about all kinds of sin, it may be good to ask yourself, what is the cost of such sin?  Indeed, is there a cost?  Does it matter what we do, when what we do is a clear violation of the Law of God? 

So many people do what the Bible calls “rejoicing in iniquity” (1 Corinthians 13:6), but in that rejoicing, take no thought of the cost of that iniquity – which is just another word for sin. To answer this, it is essential that we realize that we live in a world that God created.  It is His world. He owns everything – even our very lives. He made everything there is, and everything and everyone is answerable, ultimately, to Him.  He is infinitely holy and righteous. He is One in Whom there is no sin – not even a spot of it.  But then man, whom God had gifted with life and wonderful fellowship in the paradise of Eden, sinned. He went his own way, and decided he knew better than his Creator.  He offended the infinitely holy God by disregarding His Law in flagrant disobedience.  But at what cost? 

The answer is, “it was a very great cost.”  Indeed, it is a cost that is so high that man is incapable of fully comprehending it. Worse than that, the very sin that dwells within every human heart has blinded us to the cost to such a degree that we tend to dismiss the notion completely that there is a cost. Thus, the laughs we give to the sitcoms, and thus our tendency to not give our own violations of the Law of God a second thought. We dismiss, redefine, and mock the things that God has told us, but think we can do all this at no ultimate cost. 

 But on this point, we are very, very wrong.  God has plainly told us in no uncertain terms, that the wages – the cost – of sin to us is our death.  And this death is not just physical death.  It includes the “second death,” which is defined for us in Revelation 20:14 as “the lake of fire.” The thought of an eternity in a lake of fire is, perhaps, so horrible, as to be incomprehensible.  But it’s the truth of God’s Word, and it is the ultimate consequence, the cost, of our sin. 

Throughout the Bible we are given many examples that, although falling short of the ultimate cost of sin, shed light for us upon it.  For example, when Pharaoh and the Egyptians refused to obey the law of God, the cost to that nation was the death of their firstborn children.  What a painful, costly loss. Unless one has lost a child, it is surely not possible to fully comprehend that pain, but we can imagine, and even imagining such a thing can hurt.  Throughout Scripture, God judged sin with such things as horrible diseases like leprosy, in the case of Moses’ sister Miriam, or being eaten alive by worms, in the case of King Herod. And we are given many other examples of other costs throughout God’s Word; things like broken families, mental derangement, blindness, imprisonment, and entire nations being taken into exile by foreign powers. 

You see, it’s God’s world and He made the rules, and to anyone that violates those rules, there is an ultimate and painful cost.  But then this same God, the very One Who has been mocked, disobeyed, and rejected, in response paid the ultimate cost of avenging the violation of His perfect righteousness by placing that sin on His only begotten Son.  Jesus paid the price for our sin on the cross, and thereby, incredibly, made it possible for us sinners to receive the gift of God, which is eternal life, if we will only believe. It’s a free gift, but a very costly one. It’s one that cost the perfect Son of God His life, and He did it all for you and me.  Perhaps something to think about the next time that sitcom rolls across the TV, or we’re tempted to “rejoice in iniquity” in some other way – for do you and I in any way truly realize the awful, infinite, and ultimately incomprehensible cost of sin?