The Wages of Sin is Death
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In the last post I wrote about why Jesus had to die and why the shedding of His blood (and the sacrifice of His life) made atonement for our sins.
Today I want to talk about sin. It's a horrible sounding word that has much theological baggage attached to it. Historically, it has been used as a means of devaluing people by giving them the diagnosis of being an "Evil sinner!" but they were not also given the appropriate cure. Many of us shy away from the word sin, but in so doing we often also reject the truth that we are in fact sinners. Maybe, if we understand the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words we will more readily accept the diagnosis.
The word in Old Testament Hebrew is "Khata" and in New Testament Greek it is "Harmatia". It is described in the Bible as either behaviour that hurts others or as a force that lives inside us that makes us do things we shouldn't do. Sins are moral failures, they are ways in which we are not living up to the way God intended us to behave; to love Him and love other humans. It also includes our ability to justify our behaviour as a way to cover over our selfishness and wrong doing.
This 5 min video by The Bible Project explains it well.
Khata - The Meaning of Sin - Bible Project Video >>
If we accept the definition of sin as moral failure, or a failure to love and God and others, then can any of us really say that we haven't sinned? The reason why it is so important for us all to accept the diagnosis of our moral failure is that it is the cause of so much suffering in the world. The seriousness of this 'sin problem' is why God chose to come into the world in the person of Jesus Christ to give us the cure for this spiritual disease.
Jesus' diagnosis of our problem is that we have turned away from loving God and our neighbours. If we don't agree with Jesus' diagnosis of our problem, we won't accept the cure, which is to repent, or to turn back to God. If we don't accept this cure we will not change and evil and suffering will continue.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8
Don't you ever wonder why the world doesn't get any better? With all the new inventions, spiritual and psychological knowledge and genuine will to change that is present why can't we make any real progress? Poverty, injustice, war, sickness, corruption still reign supreme and it is a constant struggle for most of us to do the right thing. Even the Apostle Paul makes this lament.
"I find it to be a law that when I want do good, evil lies close at hand." Romans 7:21
It may be easier for people to accept that other people's behaviour ruins the world, but taking some of the responsibility on ourselves is not something many people are willing to do. This self-deception is a symptom of the disease of sin and is something that will be mitigated by humbly accepting that we are all part of the problem, even when that is a bitter pill to swallow.
The consequence of sin is the corruption of us and the world. This corruption eventually leads to death. As the Apostle Paul says,
"The wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23
We can see where this all began when we read the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. But before we go back into the Old Testament, I want to give a practical example of this process at work in our own lives.
Perhaps you know someone who is prideful or arrogant. They never take responsibility for their actions and constantly blame other people for their problems. They do this because, for all of us, admitting that we have made a mistake, or done something wrong, is painful to us. It wounds our ego and can often make us feel guilty or embarrassed, so we pretend to ourselves that we either didn't do it, or that what we did wasn't our fault. This is the self-deception that we all can fall into.
However, there are people who find it so painful, or embarrassing, to admit they were wrong that they never admit to their mistakes. Over time, these people become more angry, unhappy, and delusional. Often their friends and family leave them, so they become depressed and their physical health may suffer because of their mental illness. They lose their joy, are angry at the world, become isolated and often die younger than they should.
The wages they received for their inability to admit their faults is a ruined life, broken relationships and an unhealthy or diseased body. If we believe we are never wrong, we will make one terrible decision after another and remain in a cycle of grief, failure, pain and shame. People who live their lives this way are dead on the inside and never experience what it is to be truly alive.
But it is not just this inner-corruption which leads to external suffering that Paul was writing about when he said that the wages of sin is death. He was also referring to how death came into the world through the sin of Adam and Eve.
Why would our moral wrong doing lead to death? It makes God seem like a cruel Father with an extreme means of punishment. If we read Paul's statement in light of death being the punishment we deserve, then it will seem harsh. But if we instead see it as the natural consequence of turning away from God, we may start to understand it better.
Let's start with how our Creator intended us and the world to be. The garden of Eden was a paradise. Humans, who were made in God's image, were able to live with Him in close proximity. They had access to everything they needed, including the tree of Life and they were charged with stewarding the Earth and everything in it. If they listened to God and did what He said (And why wouldn't they? He had made humans and the universe to work in very specific ways, surely they should trust Him to tell them how best to live) then He would trust them to take the Eden project forward by being fruitful and multiplying.
To test their trust in Him, He told them not to eat the fruit that came from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they disobeyed this command, God told them they would die. The wages, or consequences, they would receive for their sin would be death.
It was also an opportunity for God to test whether they would use the free will He had given them for good or for evil.
If they disobeyed Him and ate from the tree they would be demonstrating that they thought their way was better than God's way; hence, demonstrating their pride. If they chose to obey God and deferred to His wisdom even if they didn't understand it, they would be demonstrating their humility and trust in their Creator.
They had the ability to choose what was good or evil for themselves; self-justification and sin, which leads to death. Or they could forgo exercising their own will and desire and instead follow God's lead; trusting and obeying God, which leads to life.
Most people know what Adam and Eve chose. They ate of the fruit and became wise, knowing good and evil This was something that God wanted them to learn over time by following His lead which would take humility. But rather they wanted instant knowledge and this comes from the prideful desire of wanting to be like God.
"Then the LORD said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach our his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever - therefore LORD GOD sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken." Genesis 3:22-23
Adam and Eve chose power over submission; disobedience over obedience; their will over God's will; distrust over faith; pride over humility. The consequence for this was to be cut off from ever-lasting life and from being in close proximity to God. Eventually, after much toiling they both died. This is the same for all of us.
God created us and in return we betrayed Him, preferring to listen to the lies of the serpent that flatter and entice us to turn away from God's wisdom and indulge our own desire to be gods. It was this way in the garden and it is still this way now. The wages of this sin is still death; it is the natural consequence of turning away from God.
The good news is that God has given us a way of once again receiving ever-lasting life. Reading Paul's complete sentence shows us this.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
If we believe in Jesus and are faithful to Him until the end of the age, he will grant us access to the tree of life.
"To the one who overcomes, I will grant to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God." Revelation 2:7
And so we come full circle.
If we trust in God, by believing in Christ Jesus, He will raise us up at the end of the age and return us to paradise where we will be in God's presence once again on the new Earth. This is indeed good news but can we accept the bitter with the sweet.
In order to receive eternal life we also need to accept Jesus' diagnosis of our character and turn off the wide road that leads to destruction while we are alive. This includes letting go of our pride, selfishness, self-deception and sin. This may be the most difficult thing we ever do, but the reward far outweighs the pain.
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever." Revelation 22
Behold, he is coming soon.
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