THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH

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Scriptures: ⁶ “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of ^[a]offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!⁸ “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.

Sin is death (Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death).

Sin itself is a terrible thing to commit by oneself, when it was known, the results brought nothing but guilts and shame waiting for its consequences and judgment. But what is atrocious (horrifying wicked) is to teach other to sin or in other terms to encourage others to commit sin. As the scriptures say it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea, meaning it would be better for him to have died before he had committed the sin. Interesting both millstone (two huge circular stone for grinding grains) and drowning signifies excruciating pain, slow and fearful form of death.

The Temptation to Sin.

“Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! It is true to say that no man sins uninvited, and oftentimes the bearer of the invitation is a fellow-man, in other cases it is was presented through circumstances or situations that was also at work with our lives through our willful desires.

James 1:14-15 “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

I believed all of our natural desires are good and God-given but when it was done not in accordance to God’s ways and means and corrupted by sinful desires through lust, then it is no longer serve its purpose to do good but rather it leads to our own destructions.

Let it be known to us temptation itself is not a sin, unless you give into it and mishandled the temptation. How do we know this? Jesus was tempted (Mark 1:13; Luke 4:1-13), but He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15) Nevertheless it is the first step, eventually and inevitably it will come to our lives. We live in a sin-stained world and a tempting world. No one can go out into it without meeting seductions to sin.

Remember back in the Garden of Eden, (Genesis chapters 2-3) how Satan tempted Adam and Eve, took advantage of their willful desires, the free will to choose and to act upon their choices. Interesting to know, that the Devil’s trick in temptation never changed, he used the same way too when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He presented temptation through what is appealing to our eyes, pleasant to our flesh and pride of life through self-exaltation. With this knowledge, we understand that there are two ways by which we are tempted; Satan and our own sinful fleshly desires.

Cut it off and Cast it from you

⁸ “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. The same words can be found in Matthew 5:29-30 “²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Both words are spoken by Jesus himself but of different context. In Matthew 18 it was taken in the context of one’s accountability not to put a stumbling block or causes others to sin, while in Matthew 5 in the context of how our sin rooted in our heart, that is not only the forbidden action but also the forbidden thought is guilty in the sight of God. Yet in these two occasions, Jesus gives us hard-teaching. Of course, these words were not to be taken in crude literalism, Jesus use a figurative  What they mean is that anything which helps to seduce us to sin is to be ruthlessly taken out of our life like;

• Habits or lifestyle which can be seduction to evil, that can leads to sin and destruction like gambling, drinking alcoholic beverages, smoking that can leads to addiction.
• Passing pleasures which could turn up to be our ruin like compulsive and excessive buying of things, out of wanting much not of needs.
• Relationship or association which can be the cause of wrongdoing like illicit affairs, idolatry (anything that replaces or captures our heart affection instead of God)

These things that causes us to stumble and sin must be removed from our lives, no matter how hard and painful it is, for if we allow it to continue what awaits us is an everlasting death. To illustrate, a person who contacted a gangrene disease, type of tissue death resulted by a lack of blood supply caused by infectious agent, hands and feet are commonly affected, in order to save the arms or legs, the infected part must and need to be amputated as quickly as possible because saving the hands or feet and not losing it will eventually cause a person’s death.

What shall we do then when we are tempted? How should we prevent ourselves from continually sinning?

1. Allow God to perform Spiritual Surgical Procedures (Heart Transplant) in your life by giving your life to Jesus, believing Him as your Lord and Savior.

Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

2. Crucify the flesh just as Jesus did at the cross.

Romans 13:14 “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

3. Abstain and Abstinence. Joseph abstain from what Pharaoh’s wife offered to him and fled, used his God-given legs to run away from temptation. Daniel decision to not to eat king’s delicacies and drink no wine in order not to defile himself. (Daniel 1:8) This abstinence even gives him good health and great physique compared to those who eat royal foods and drink wine.

Psalm 101:3-4 “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes;I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.⁴ A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.

4. Live a life of contentment, and be content.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Philippians 4:11-12

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1 Timothy 6: 6-10 “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs”

5. Submit and surrender your life to God.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

James 4:7-8 “⁷ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.