The
Price Of Sin
“For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God…” Romans 3:23
Sinning is a “falling short” of the glory
of God. (The original
word for “falling short” means “lack.”) The idea is not that you shot an arrow
at God’s glory and the arrow fell short, but that you could have had it as a
treasure, but you don’t…you have chosen something else instead. The deepest
problem with sin is it is a suicidal exchange of infinite value and beauty for
some fleeting, inferior substitute. This is the greatest insult to God. In Romans 3:23, Paul says, “For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
It’s
been said that sin is fun on credit, but eventually we will have to pay. Which of us haven’t found that to be true?
Yet, unlike a credit card, we never choose the price.
Say
you go into a store. The rule in a
novelty shop is, “If you touch it, you buy it.” In this store, there are no price tags and
you won’t be told how much it will cost until you buy it. So you go in this store and tell your kids,
“Don’t touch anything.” But then you see
something that you want. You’d like to
have that…you’d like to do that…you’d like to experience that. Then the thought runs through your mind, “But
then I’ll have to pay, and I don’t want to know how much it costs.” And you have this momentary moral dilemma, “I
think it will be worth it. I don’t care
what it costs. I’m going to go my way.”
And then we carry that item to the
cash register and we ask with a bit of fear, “How much is this going to cost
me?”
Then our knees almost buckle when we
hear someone say, “That? That costs your
reputation. That one? That will cost your marriage. If that’s what you want to do, that will cost
your kids. That one is going to cost you
your peace of mind. They are collisions
that seem irreparable in some cases.
Removing a clean conscience, a joyful life, or even a hope for a
fulfilled life; a large price indeed.
If we’re honest we must agree with G. K. Chesterton:
“This one thing is certain—man is not
what he was meant to be.” Something has gone wrong with the human race.
Something evil lurks inside the heart of every person. No one is immune, no one
is exempt, and no one is truly innocent – me included. Call it what you will—a
twist, a taint, a bent to do wrong. Somehow, somewhere, someone injected poison
into the human bloodstream. That’s why, even when we know the right thing to
do, we go ahead and choose to do wrong; Deliberately. Repeatedly. Defiantly.
The Bible makes is very clear that we
are frequently on a collision course, not with a hard-hitting running back, but
with a devastating opponent named “sin.” The impact of
this foe can on occasion buckle our knees and in other cases simply bowl us over. One author said it well:
Sin
will take you farther than you want to go
It will cost you more
than you want to pay
It will keep you longer
than you want to stay
In a word- devastating.
However, the deception of sin is that it can often seem like a friend
when it is fully foe. In the words of
Billy Joel, “She’ll quietly cut you and laugh while you’re bleeding.” Our ability to avert its harm determines
greatly the price you will pay in life.
The stakes are high and the consequences are higher.
Have you ever thought
about the fact that sin is a form of insanity? Ecclesiastes 9:3 makes this
very interesting statement: "This is
an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly
the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their
hearts...." Now think about it.
What else except
insanity
would cause a person to choose sin over salvation?
What else except
insanity
would cause a person to choose hell over heaven?
What else except
insanity
would cause a person to choose judgment over Jesus?
What else except
insanity
would cause a person to choose eternal
death
over eternal life?
Now,
you may think it is foolish to call otherwise educated people insane, but I've
got news for you…sometimes even people we call insane show a lot more sanity
than people who claim to be sane.
God’s
Word reiterates that though sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Christ’s sacrifice cleanses us of sin and we
are offered freedom toward victory. He
takes our upside-down worlds and turns them right side-up.
Ravi
Zacharias, noted Christian speaker, once said, “The most empirically proven
fact in all of history is the deception and wayward nature of mankind.” There
are an infinite number of examples from which to choose in every person’s life.
He adds, “The most difficult thing in
history to see happen, is to get man to admit his own deception and wayward
nature.” When that happens, as the astronaut Neil Armstrong once said, while
taking the famous first steps on the moon, it becomes, “One small step for man,
and one giant leap for mankind.” Only when we come to terms with our own faults
can we begin to move toward correction.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) What is your perception of sin?
2) Why do we struggle to admit we struggle with
it in our lives?
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright
2014- Terry Risser
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