The Wages of Sin are Death

I was reading one of my favourite letters today – Romans. I must have read that one 100 times. Every time I get more out of it. I keep coming across one piece that is absolutely foundational: Salvation. That IS important, right?

Most of us become Christians because of the promise of Heaven. There are good reasons and selfish reasons but when it comes down to it we yearn for eternal life with God. Solomon points out in Ecclesiastes that “God has set eternity in the heart of man“. So, since the promise of heaven is so important to us, I wonder why we seem to accept such shortcuts to salvation. Wouldn’t we want to get that right?

Now I realize that not only am I treading on very controversial ground here but also ground that has massive consequences for people near and dear to us and those for the last few centuries or so. You’ll see what I mean in a minute. Remember my about page? I’m all about challenging sentimentality and dogma. And, if there’s anything that will shake things up, this topic is it.

How are we saved?

The grand implications are that, if we don’t have it right or are teaching the wrong things, where does everyone stand who abided by those ways for years, decades, centuries gone by? In my research, up until 1678 or possibly Moody, maybe even Billy Graham, salvation was understood as coming through baptism only. Then the sinners’ prayer came on the scene and, to me, was an answer to quick salvation – and unfounded. Sorry! (I’m so Canadian)

Romans really clears some paths that make a ton of sense to me. For starters, we understand in 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Well, that sums it up. Who has sinned? Everyone (save one in Jesus, that is). None of us can say “I’m okay”. We’ve all sinned and all fall short. I’ve heard it compared to three guys jumping across a 20 foot crevice. One guy says “I’m pretty good” and gets about 10 feet out, one says “I’m really good” and gets 15 and the last one says “I’ve been good my whole life” and gets 19 feet out – who made it? Not one. All fall short.

Okay, so now we know where we stand, how do we get right with God? How do we make it?

Paul paints a perfect simple picture in Romans 6:1-14. My illustration here demonstrates it. Particularly vs 3-4. Salvation, we all can agree on, is a new life. We get to that new life through imitating Christ. We’re called to that through many scriptures and here, we get to become like Christ in dying to ourselves and becoming a new creation. When we die we are set free from sin (vs 7). The wages of sin are death (Proverbs 10:16), but death no longer has mastery over us as we imitate Jesus (vs 8-10). That death is burial through baptism.

So, where is the point of salvation? Once we were dead, now we are alive, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10). There is a definite line between salvation and death, light and dark, saved and not saved. I’ve found that when I ask people when they received salvation it’s some convoluted story about praying Jesus into their heart (14 times), baptism at some point and finally really feeling like it worked. Although this is intended as tongue in cheek, I know this rings true for me as much as others who have done this. If this is your experience, please consider that it can be this simple – baptism is clear and a definitive point in time. We would all argue that Jesus’ death was the most significant event in the history of man. I would add that proper baptism for the forgiveness of your sins and entry into a new life and the grace of God is the most significant point in our personal history.

Another analogy that makes this clear to me is entering the covenants. The old covenant was entered through circumcision – a definite (and cringingly clear) point in time, the covenant of marriage is entered through the consummation after the ceremony – we all know if we’re married or not, and it was a memorable event. And the new covenant – God’s holy plan for eternal life – is entered through baptism.

I’ll finish with this scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

I sincerely don’t want to come off as having all the answers. I’m here to spar with you and make sure our thinking is clear and thought out. I do, however, deeply desire people to know the truth… me included. I’m open to the debate and, as I’ve stated in my about page, I want to bring it back to scripture and truth so we can all make it to heaven.

Does this rock your world or is it the aroma of salvation?