“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!”
Romans 6:21
“If you eat of that tree,” the Lord warned Adam and Eve, “you will surely die” (see Genesis 2:17). We know that they did eat, and eventually they died. Sin brings about judgment from our holy God. There is no other way. It cannot go unpunished. Sin’s penalty is nothing less than death.
At this end of the point of the spear is perhaps the greatest wound of them all, because death is not simply a metaphor for the destructiveness of sin; it is reality. Everyone dies. Everyone we hold precious in this life is eventually laid in the ground. There are not enough tears to fill either that hole or the one it leaves in our hearts.
There is no evading the punishment due sin. The blow will inevitably and necessarily fall … but on whom? God does not turn a blind eye to our sin in order to forgive us. Instead, He laid the punishment upon our Savior. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). For Christians, death has lost its sting in the sweetness of Jesus’ conquering love.
At this end of the point of the spear is perhaps the greatest wound of them all, because death is not simply a metaphor for the destructiveness of sin; it is reality. Everyone dies. Everyone we hold precious in this life is eventually laid in the ground. There are not enough tears to fill either that hole or the one it leaves in our hearts.
There is no evading the punishment due sin. The blow will inevitably and necessarily fall … but on whom? God does not turn a blind eye to our sin in order to forgive us. Instead, He laid the punishment upon our Savior. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). For Christians, death has lost its sting in the sweetness of Jesus’ conquering love.
Scripture Focus
Romans 6:15-23
Insight
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Bible In A Year
- 2 Chronicles 11-12
- Psalm 13
- Matthew 19-20