The Wages Of Sin

Romans 6:16-23

At the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865, one of the things that happened was that slavery was made illegal, and the slaves were set free from their masters.  They were free to go now, go find jobs for themselves, find other houses for themselves.  Most slaves left to go off and live their life now for themselves.  A few stayed behind.  Why would that be?  Was it because they hadn’t heard they were set free?  Maybe they didn’t believe they were free?  Maybe they were so used to working for the slave master they didn’t know anything else, because slavery had such a hold on them?

Before coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are slaves to sin.  It has its grip on us, and we follow its control.  We follow sin down its path, leading us further and further away from God, and eventually to its end, which is death and hell.  A slave could be set free if someone bought him from his master, and then released him from slavery.  Sin, which was our slave-master, had a price, a payment to be made, and that is death.  The only way to have those shackles taken off is with a payment of blood.  The Bible says in Hebrews 9:22 that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.  

God knew our condition in sin, and He knew that the only way we could be set free from that condition was to pay that price Himself.  He sent Jesus, His Son, the second Person of the Triune God, to shed His Blood for us, as our payment for our sins.  What we earned as being a slave to sin, our wages, was death, including eternal death in hell.  The payment to redeem us from that condition was blood.  Who paid that for us?  God did.  It was a free gift for us, and all we have to do is accept that gift (vs 23).

Where does sin lead if we haven’t repented and accepted Jesus as our savior?  It leads to hell.  This is a word that the world doesn’t want to hear about.  Many today don’t even believe that it exists.  A number of churches will never preach about it because they don’t believe a “loving God” would ever send someone there, and that God likes everyone just the way they are.  That is not the God of the Bible.  The Bible does speak about hell many times, and it says that those who have rejected God and His Son, Jesus Christ, will spend eternity there.

There is a way out from the slavery of sin and its penalty which is hell, and that’s through the shed Blood of Jesus.  That is something that some hesitate to speak about, the Blood of Jesus, the Sacred and Precious Blood of the Savior.  Even back in the days when the good, traditional hymns were sung more often in churches, in some churches the ones about the Blood of Jesus were frequently omitted.  For some reason the Blood is offensive to many.  The only one who shouldn’t want to hear about the Blood of Jesus should be Satan.  If I had been sentenced to be executed, and someone else came in to take my place, or if someone had stepped in front of a bullet that was heading for me, wouldn’t I be grateful?  That’s exactly what Jesus did for me - He took my place on the cross and paid that price.  Forever will I hold His Blood precious and dear!  It is not offensive.  That is the gift that God gave that paid the price for our salvation spoken of in verse 23.

With Good Friday just around the corner, the day that Jesus gave His life, shed His Blood for our sins, I would like to ask those who may not yet have accepted Him as their Savior to ponder exactly what happened that day.  Read and consider the following verses that will help to explain man’s condition and what Jesus did for each of us:  Romans 3:10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; Romans 5:8; John 3:16; John 14:6; Romans 10:13; and Romans 10:9-10.