The Wages of Sin is Death

Romans 6:19-23 

Fish was always served on Friday at school. My friend had forgotten this. Through tears she told me it was a venial sin to eat meat on Friday. She said it was smaller than a mortal sin, and still she would need to confess it.

At Sunday school I learned about sin. I didn’t yet know that it takes a lot of living to experience and to grieve the consequences of “little and big sins." Both may result in little and big payback. Sin is an outrage of love, an affront by one spirit against another.

We may come to physical “dis-ease” through such affronts, as well as our own personal choices. There is no shortage of healthcare services to meet our physical needs.

The sin-sick soul is another matter. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? Jeremiah 8:22  

Jesus would become the balm for the healing of our sin-sick souls. Isaiah 53:5

Lets understand the relationship between the love of God and the anger of God towards sin. The great equalizer is the blood of Jesus flowing from the cross. For those who accept Jesus’ payment for their sin, there is mercy and justice. He did not come to condemn us, but to save us. John 3:17

"Come now, let us settle the matter," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

Someday, there will be an accounting for each of us. I think I may have to go through the agony of hearing all my sins recited in the presence of God, but I believe it will be this this; Jesus will come over and lay His hand across my shoulders and say to God, “yes, all these things are true, but I’m here to cover up for Peter. He is sorry for all his sins, and by a transaction made between us, I am now solely responsible for them.”

Peter Marshall-1902-1949 (Pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC and twice appointed as Chaplain of the United States Senate.)