DEATH IS STILL THE WAGES FOR SIN


For as long as this world continues, there is one thing that stands sure: every single one of us will die at some point. And until the time comes or draws near, none of us knows when we will die. There is no guarantee that we'll live through any given day, or even any given hour, regardless of our age, present health, wealth or heritage. Yes, you ... and I ... shall die sooner or later. True, it might be later, but it also might be sooner:

[There is] no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither [hath he] power in the day of death: and [there is] no discharge in [that] war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. (Ecclesiastes 8:8)

While life is generally going well, we don't think about death much, we don't spend our time worrying about it. We can't change the fact we'll die eventually. But it is good to consider the issues of life and death which we all face. Why? Because ultimately, life in this world is very brief, even for the longest living. Time goes by much more quickly than we realize. And the wages of sin is still (and will always remain) death. This is something that will never change in this present world. It can never be changed by the human race, even as God gives us the wisdom to live more healthily or to develop ever-improving, life-preserving technologies. Make no mistake, everything in this world is temporary, including (and especially!) our lives, regardless of whether they might be extended for a time. We will then die and be gone forever if we do not have eternal life that comes only through redemption in Jesus Christ:

For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

Most in the world today repudiate the Bible. We read confident statements that Christians believe in an imaginary "big Daddy in the sky." They claim the Bible is an outdated, old-fashioned, deceptive control-technique while the secular, athiestic experts, scientists, academics, politicians and entertainers possess all the wisdom. Their trust is firmly in the intelligence, technology and social constructs produced by collective, enlightened humankind -- all of whom die, by the way. Whereas the Bible's salvation message in Christ and its moral law are grotesquely Middle Ages, in their view.

This, of course, is nothing more than a judgment they make because they do not like the Bible. So every argument and every justification is proffered to ridicule, deride and trivialize God and His Word as nothing more than imaginary myth conjured up by medieval minds.

But there's one big obstacle they cannot eliminate. And that is, the wages of sin remain today and will continue into the future of this world -- it is still death. This is something that will never disappear as long as this world abides, regardless of the progression or direction of the human race. It doesn't matter who you are, you will die, and if you die unsaved, it is because of your sins, no matter what the technical reason might be from a medical perspective. The present creation is corrupt and passing away due to the sin of the human race, which is why everything has its lifespan and then perishes. You will not live forever, you will come to the end of your existence for all eternity if you're outside of Christ. You will have breathed the breath of life in this world as a vapor that was here momentarily just to vanish into nothingness, no different from the flower that exists a few days and is gone, or the insect that came and went and is long forgotten. And it's all because you are fallen into the spirit of the age with its godless wisdom and temporary pleasures, to live for self for a short while before your time expires. This is exactly why people commonly say, "Life is short, so [live it up and do this and that]..."

... let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die. (Isaish 22:13)

No matter how much one despises God and the Bible, no matter how much the world joins hand-in-hand to reject God's Law to live for its own glory and goals -- the wages of sin is death and that death cannot, and will not ever be prevented by the human race, regardless of what age or century you live. In the meantime, God is quietly and patiently bearing with this world while He saves His people in Christ unto eternal life:

[What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, (Romans 9:22-23)

The wicked continue headlong into destruction apart from God for the time He has allotted them in this world, then they shall perish forever. Since God doesn't usually snuff people out right away, but allows them to continue in their delusions of life, they use this time to suppress the Truth of God in order to live according to their own pleasure:

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold [suppress] the truth in unrighteousness; (Romans 1:18)

Now, sadly, Christendom itself has become so worldly today that most of it presents a shady and corrupt view of the Bible to the world, no question. Many who claim Christ have claimed the world, too, thinking all is well. But that is no excuse because the Bible continues to declare that the wages of sin is death, and the solution is to turn from the ways of the world unto Christ:

Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (I John 2:15)

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?...Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, (2 Corinthians 6:14,17)

Those who do not ponder and meditate seriously upon God's Word cannot take this to heart. The world is where the action is, that's where the temporal enjoyment is, they believe. The joy of eternal life in Christ is so remote from their experience that they have no idea what they are missing, neither do they care. They blindly tread the quick route to temporal happiness, going from one thing to another to "experience life" in this world, to live life to the fullest from their worldly perspective, at the expense of eternal death apart from God. They falsely believe the Christian lives an unrewarding life of subjugation to a false rule of life.

How sad that they have no idea what eternal life, spiritual life, in Christ is like. They are completely devoid of the eternal wonderment and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and His infinite (and infinitely amazing) Kingdom in Heaven. It's an entirely deeper, more rewarding, more joyful, blessed life in Christ than anything this world could begin to grasp:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (I Corinthians 2:9-10)

Again, the unsaved will never be able to avert God's Law that the wages of sin is eternal death, while the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, regardless of how antiquated or false they believe the Bible to be. Death for sin will never become antiquated in this present sin-cursed world no matter how long time continues, no matter how "advanced" and "intelligent" humankind believes they have become. So we see the world continue down the primrose path to destruction and misery as it's given over to extraordinary wickedness in its confident boasting. No one except for the redeemed in Christ will escape eternal death.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-5, 7)

May the Lord alone be glorified as He saves His people from their sins, and from eternal death unto eternal life in Christ. It is the world that is passing away, the world becomes ever antiquated with each passing year, not God's Word, the Bible. The world perilously believes God's Word can be swept aside as a quaint old adage of yesteryear when it is the world itself that is changing for the worse, away from God's Word into destruction, as evidenced on a daily basis.

Man is like to vanity: his days [are] as a shadow that passeth away. (Psalm 144:4)

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff [that] is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. (Hosea 13:3)

And they that use this world, as not abusing [it]: for the fashion of this world passeth away. (I Corinthians 7:31)

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (I John 2:17)

1.20.2013, Last updated 10.2.2022.