This is a question many have asked themselves over the ages. Have my good deeds outweighed my bad deeds enough that God will let me into heaven? Fortunately, in God’s Word, we can find the answer. Rom 2:6-11 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and…
To make all men see….. Ephesians 3:9
To make all men see….. Ephesians 3:9
Salvation
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans we read the following statement.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23
Obviously, this is one of the most well known passages of scripture in all of God’s Word. It shows us two great contrasts about our sin and our salvation. The first contrast is between a wage and a gift. Our sin earns us a wage but God gives us a gift. The second contrast is between death and eternal life. The wage that our sin earns us is death but the free gift that God gives us is eternal life.
We are all familiar with what a “saying” is. A saying is simply something that is said, usually over, and over again over the course of time. Sayings like, “A stitch in time saves nine, a penny saved is a penny earned, absence makes the heart grow fonder”, and countless others have become a part of our vocabulary and culture. I have often been amused when someone will quote one of these adages and then ask me where it is found in Scripture. While these types of sayings often give us insightful bits of wisdom, they are certainly not on a par with the inspired Word of God. There are however, sayings that are the Word of God. These sayings are distinguished from all other sayings in that they are said to be “faithful”. While man’s sayings become sayings because they are found over the course to time to be generally true, a “faithful saying” is guaranteed by God Almighty to be true every time. The four faithful sayings of Scripture are found in the epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23
What is Death?
If we are to understand the penalty for sin, then it is necessary for us to understand what death is. Many have the opinion that death is the cessation of existence or activity. They believe that when someone or something is dead it is no longer functioning, or perhaps has even ceased to exist. The Scriptures do not support this definition of death. In fact, the Scriptural use of the term would seem to argue against this understanding. A few examples from Scripture will help us understand the true meaning of death.