The Cost Of National Sin Series

Sin is expensive! You can’t afford the price demanded when you embrace sin! Though you may play with sin, you are playing a game that is rigged to ensure that you cannot win. You deceive yourself when you imagine you can afford the price you are going to pay. We are warned against inviting sin into our life; but at the moment we are embracing our sin we are prone to ignore the warning, “The wages of sin is death” [ROMANS 6:23a]. If you are now emmeshed in some persistent sin, you need to know that while you are unable to pay the price that is demanded, God has made provision to deliver you from that sin, having paid the price demanded of sin. It is essential for you to take note of the remainder of that verse which continues by stating, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” [ROMANS 6:23b].

The devil exacts a massive fee for the fleeting pleasures of sin. The writer of the Letter to Hebrew Christians made a stunning observation concerning Moses, writing, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them” [HEBREWS 11:23-28].

What a contrast to our view of wealth and pleasure compared to what we witness in Moses. We are told that he chose “to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” The fleeting pleasures of sin for Moses included wealth, a pampered lifestyle, power, the ability to impose his will over the will of others. Most of us would consider these trappings of position and power and possessions as the epitome of success. Few of us would willingly walk away from such luxuries.

I suspect that we can convince ourselves that we can do so much good if we have wealth. We can masterfully spin a tale of how we can serve God more effectively if we hold a position of power and influence. In our private moments we convince ourselves how much we need some particular pleasure to recharge our life.

However, we run headlong into the words of the Apostle who cautioned, “Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” [1 CORINTHIANS 1:26-29]. Wealth is seductive, leading us into pursuing still more wealth. Power corrupts far more frequently than it frees us to serve. Pleasure tends to turn us from refreshing our soul, and thus becomes a futile pursuit.

Focused as I am on the way in which sin yields such fleeting pleasures leads me to point you to the cautionary words penned by the Apostle of Love, who has written, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” [1 JOHN 2:15-17].

I acknowledge that sin can provide pleasure, genuine and oh so real pleasure. The pleasures of sin appeal to the flesh, and thus whatever pleasure there may be is transient, momentary. Whatever pleasure we may derive from sin quickly evaporates, leaving an even greater emptiness than was there before. And in our eagerness to grasp sin, we seldom think of the high cost that will be exacted. It still holds true that “The wages of sin is death” [ROMANS 6:23a]. Indeed, the wages of sin have not been frozen.

The world is passing away along with its desires, though we would be hard pressed to know this to be the case. Like those who scoff at the thought of Christ’s return, even we who follow the Lord can fall into the deadening trap that leads to musing, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” [2 PETER 3:4]. We need to be reminded from time-to-time, “That the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” [2 PETER 3:5-7].