RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-10-14	How Do We Get Tricked into Sin? (Ro.6:22-23)
		Rom 6:22  But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nobody sins out of duty. You only sin because it looks so appealing. When we obey sin it feels free. It does not feel like earning wages. As an unbeliever when I sin it does not feel like earning wages or going to work. It feels good. If sin rules over its slaves like that why call it wages? 1. Wages deplete life. They do for you and for me. That is why you want to get paid (wages). You do not work 40 hours a week and think, well that was not any cost for me. No, you want your money. You deserve the money because you have depleted time from your life. Life was taken away from you where you could have done other things. You invested your time into that employer's cause and now you want to get paid for your depleted time. Paul calls this wages. That is the way sin is. Satan has it all concealed. Satan conceals the effects of sin. The concealing is a deception to us that we do not perceive. It is like Satan has a magic potion that he gives to his victims. Everytime they give a pint of blood, they get a high. Satan comes and says, “Let me have your blood, and you will get a high”. The problem is that they will. When they get the high they think this feels good. I am not earning wages here. I am not being depleted. I am receiving a high. And all awhile your life is being drained away. “The wages of sin is death”. Sin brings death now, little by little as he keeps you deceived. In the end, all you get is the end of your life. Satan never gives anything for your time. He just keeps taking. And because of the high, we think we are receiving something, but we do not. He is a deceiver! Sin is like wages. Everytime you sin you lose (depleted time from your life). In the end it will all go. There will not be left one drop of blood in you, and your high will end, and will never come again. 2. When you obey sin you get exactly what you deserve. Like wages. Death will be like wages. It is a strange way to describe death — wages. What are the benefits of sin? In relation to Satan it is death. And death is what we deserve. Satan is a cruel master and a deceiver. O, how we should hate him. Has he tricked you into loving him? 3. Death versus eternal life The ultimate summary here of the wage of sin that is paid is death. The ultimate summary here of the gift that God pays is eternal life. Since the life is eternal, in contrast with death, the death must be conceived of as eternal as well. The parallel breaks down between slave-master sin and slave-master God. Slave-master sin has absolutely no say in the giving of the gift of life by Master God. But God has total say in the paying of the wages of death from master sin. There is no parallel here. Satan is a pretender. He is not a slave-master after all. There is only one slave-master in the universe and that is God. Satan has been pretending to have the authority of God, but he does not. Satan does not pay the wages of death. It is a trick. But God pays the wages of sin as death. There is freedom from the deception of sin. And that is only through the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Evangelical Free Church of America

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