WAGES OWED WILL BE PAID “The wages of sin is death”, Romans 6:23
One of the most misunderstood doctrines, if not the greatest, is the doctrine of sin. Sin did not originate at our first act of transgression, it originated approximately 6,000 years ago through our first parents in the Garden of Eden. In Romans 5:12 this is clearly taught, “Wherefore, as by one MAN sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon ALL MEN, for that ALL have sinned.” Adam (termed the ‘First Adam’ in I Corinthians 15) stood as a representative figure for the human race, just as congressmen stand as our representatives in Washington. Whatever legislation they propose and help to enact they do in behalf of those whom they represent, whether we agree or not. Contrary to what most people believe and are being taught, men do not become sinners in their first act of sin. Men sin in that first act because men by nature are sinners. Sin is in our nature just as the acorn is in the oak tree. We sin because sinning is consistent with our nature. People have a tendency to deceive themselves on this very point. Therefore we are cautioned in I John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Let me share British hymn writer, Augustus Toplady’s illustrated estimation of the enormous debt of our sin. “Calculating the national debt at one hundred thirty million pounds sterling, and a man was able to count it in shillings at the rate of one hundred shillings per minute, counting twelve hours a day it would take him almost ninety-nine years to count it. In shillings it would weigh almost forty-two million Troy pounds. If a man could carry one hundred pounds from London to York it would take four hundred nineteen thousand, three hundred fifty-five men, with the line stretching over seventy-six miles. Considering the interest rate, it would take more money than is in all England to pay back the debt. “Taking this into consideration, if a person broke God’s Law just once a day, at ten years his failure would be three thousand six hundred fifty. Twenty years, it would be seven thousand three hundred; at thirty years, ten thousand, nine hundred fifty; at forty years, fourteen thousand six hundred; at fifty years, eighteen thousand, two hundred fifty; at sixty years, twenty one thousand, nine hundred; at seventy years twenty-five thousand, five hundred fifty; at eighty years, twenty-nine thousand, two hundred.” The fact is, in this life we can do nothing pleasing to God. Everything we do is contaminated by sin; every second of our life is sin against God. Now taking this into consideration, if we lived a life of eighty years we would have accumulated two billion, five hundred twenty-two million, eight hundred thousand sins. When will we be able to pay off this great debt? Never! Eternity itself will never clear the debt, but only add to the debt by plunging us deeper and deeper into infinity. The damned will never satisfy the justice of the Almighty Creditor. Divine Goodness will never reduce the debt. Justice must be satisfied. Who can pay my sin debt? “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
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