The following definitions are from
Webster's Dictionary:
- WAGE:\'waj\ n 1: payment
for labor or services 2: compensation
- REWARD:\ri'word\ n:
something offered for service or achievement
Regarding
wages and rewards, the Bible tells us: "The
wages of sin is death..." (Romans
6:23)
Now let's
define sin...
-
Sin is
breaking God's law: We break God's law
by what we do and by what
we fail to do. We sin in our actions and our inactions, by what we
say and don't say and even in our thoughts.
-
Sin is
rebellion against God: It's choosing our
path over His; doing our own thing instead of
doing it His way.
-
Sin is
missing the mark:
Righteousness
is the bull's-eye in the middle of the target. Unless we consistently hit
that bulls-eye in our thoughts, words and deeds, we fail.
-
Sin is
our very nature: We live in sin, we walk in sin,
we breath sin---it's all around us and we can't escape
it. If God were to remove all the sin from the world,
He'd have to remove you and me!
(See
Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew
5:27-28, Psalm 51:5 and
Jeremiah
17:9)
Why
"religion" will never save you
Try to be perfect for
just one day. How long do you think you can last?
- God doesn't grade on a curve; He is perfect and He demands
perfection. Being good 70% of the time is not good enough!
Basically, 100% is an "A" --- 99% and lower is
an "F"! One mistake is all it takes.
- If you were born in sin, and every day you continue to sin; how do you think you can
ever do enough good works to
make up for yesterday's sin AND stay on top of the sins you're committing
today?
- The
"religions" of the world try to build ladders to heaven; which is
impossible to begin with. The truth is they're all
digging holes into hell. Trying to make
yourself righteous with good works, meditation or going to church is like throwing a shovel to someone
in a hole and telling him to dig his way out! In the end it only leads to
disillusionment, exhaustion and frustration (I know --- I have tried).
- Jesus didn't
preach religion. Quite the opposite: He preached good news to the poor, healed the wounded, bound up the
broken-hearted and comforted those in mourning. His simple message was that we
can be reconciled with our Creator - because
our Creator wants to be reconciled with us!
In the end, our
attempts to "earn" God's mercy fail because we fall short of God's perfect will. There HAS
to be another way to be reconciled with God besides our well-meaning but
half-assed attempts to make ourselves righteous. If not, then we're ALL doomed...regardless of whether we
consider ourselves Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, Muslim or Agnostic.
There is
another way,
but
it's not something we can earn nor is it a reward for our efforts.
It's called
MERCY. God's love for us is greater than our sins against Him; and He freely offers salvation as a
GIFT to any and all who will open their hearts to receive it.
"For it is by
grace
you have been saved, through faith---and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift
of
God---not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8,9
Click the image
below to discover God's answer to our dilemma.
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