A Sure Thing

“…But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:17

“If you do the crime you should pay the time.”

“An evil deed must be punished.”

“Bad people should get what they deserve.”

Most of us would wholeheartedly agree with these three statements. People who do wrong should be punished. That is why we have judges, courtrooms, and jails. Without consequences for wrongdoing, we would have anarchy in the streets. Society as we know it would disappear. Regardless of what one believes about the death penalty, deep down we all think there are certain crimes that are so heinous they deserve the death penalty…but not every criminal gets it. Some do and some do not.

There is one statistic, however, that has been true since the beginning of time and will always hold true. One out of one people die. Everybody dies. We are all under the death penalty. Bad dictators die and good doctors die. Murderers die and ministers die. In a way, this seems unfair. One would expect evil people to die. We don’t shed a tear when a terrorist is killed. Why? Because deep down we think, “Well he deserved to die.”

But what about the rest of us? What about those of us who try to live decent, moral, upstanding lives? We die, too; and here is the startling truth…we also deserve to die. Why? The Bible says in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” That means all who have sinned have earned death…and who has not sinned?

Praise be to God that our story does not end there! The Bible also says that at just the right time, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Our sin earned death, but God redeemed us with the life of His Son. He died so that we might live.

Dear Lord, thank you for the free gift of salvation. I praise you that because of what Jesus did on the cross, I can spend eternity in fellowship with you. Help me to live my life in a way that points others to you, letting them know that in you, they have a sure thing. Amen.