Romans 6:23-“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Have you seen this poster that’s been doing its rounds on the internet lately?
Sin
It takes you
where you don’t want to go
It keeps you
longer than you want to stay
It costs you
more than you want to pay
If we look back at our life till date, however old or young, we will be able to vouch for this.
Imagine this –
–Your friends ask you to bunk class and go with them without informing parents or teachers (unbeknownst to authority-fear of being found out).
–Your peers or colleagues goad you into joining them to smoke a cigarette or to have a drink (away from others-fear of getting caught).
–Your best friend asks you to tell her parents that she is with you although she planned to go out with company whom her parents asked her to avoid (permission with omission of details-fear of being called irresponsible and disappointment).
–Your husband logs on the computer every night at a set time and sits online through a major part of family time (thus avoiding responsibility-disrespect to the role and responsibility given to him).
–Your wife waits for you to go out of town on work and meets her friends for her social time (idling time – being part of nonconstructive activities).
Every situation mentioned has something in common… the peace is disrupted in the person. They are caught in a web like an innocent insect that first strolls past the web and is enticed into the space of sin. Sin takes you where you don’t want to go but you are enticed into it as a trial which pulls you head down into the sticky web.
Sin keeps you down there in the sticky situation longer than you wanted to stay because once in, you are stuck in the nasties. You are unable to free yourself or emerge on your own.
Sin costs you more than you ever wanted to pay. You heeded the wily comforts promised and went in for a few minutes. Before you knew it, you felt like you were on a bean bag with less beans. You couldn’t get back up. Later the stickiness increased and you were unable to arise. You felt like you were drowning in a whirlpool and you reached out… for some help.
Shame came into the world with sin. Sinners plow sin, sow vanity, and reap the same. The end of sin is death. Though the sinful way may seem pleasant and inviting, yet it will be bitterness in the end. From this condemnation, We believers are set to freedom from this condemnation when we were made free from sin by the cross. A fruit of holiness comes from an active principle of true and growing grace. Then, the end will be everlasting life; a very happy end! Though the way maybe up-hill, though it is narrow, thorny, and beset, yet there is certainty of everlasting life at the end. The gift of God is eternal life. And this gift is through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ Jesus purchased this gift for us, prepared it, prepared us for it, preserves us to it; He is the only way in our salvation.
