“I'll be okay because when I die I will have paid for my sins, since the Bible says ‘the wages of sin is death.’ I'm going to live life to the fullest now, because when I die that's the end.”
It’s obvious that those who say such things believe the Bible because they have not only quoted it, but they are gambling the whole of their eternity on the meaning of one word--“death.” They make the assumption that it simply means the “termination” of existence. But it’s not, and a little reasoning should reveal that fact. Take Hitler for instance. He was responsible for the cruel deaths of six million Jews, many of whom were children. Was his death the “wages” of his unspeakably terrible sins? If death is the end, then God has given you the exact same wages as Hitler. That would mean that God is unjust, which is unthinkable.
The person who believes that our demise is the end is in for the shock of their death. There is going to be a resurrection of, what the Bible calls, “the just and the unjust.” This is not a resurrection of those who are good and those who are bad. The Scriptures tells us that there are no “good” people. Not one (See Psalm 14:1-4, Mark 10:18). There are only those who have been made “just” before God by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
When we are found out to have done something wrong, we will often try and “justify” ourselves. We try and establish our innocence. In Christ, God freely justifies all those who come by child-like faith to the Savior. That means He proclaims us innocent--as though we had never sinned in the first place. However, those who die in their sins “fall into the hands of the Living God.” That’s a very fearful thing, because He will give them justice--their wages, and if that happens, there will be Hell to pay.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
