If you knew that the paycheck for the way you lived your life would be death, wouldn’t you want a new job? A new boss? A new anything to get out of that scenario? ­Wages—­a ­paycheck—­should be a good thing, but not in this case. Because our sin debt is so great under our holy God and creator, there is no way to pay it off on our own. Essentially, we don’t just work for ­sin—­we are slaves to sin.

Recognizing the devastating scenario we are all in and understanding the heavy, dark path that awaits us at the end of our lives can prompt a few different responses, which we see played out in our world all the time. The first is to say, “Well, there’s no hope. Better get all the pleasure I can now!” The second response is ignorance: “I’d rather not even think about life after death or the consequences of my life.” Another response is “I’ll try to live a good life, and perhaps that will balance out what I’ve done wrong.” The list goes on. We humans can come up with a lot of excuses for trying to avoid or figure out death. The problem with these kinds of responses is that they all focus on what we can do (or not do) to get out of this mess. Romans 6:23 presents a whole different approach: What can God do to get us out of this mess?

God has already answered this question. He has sent the debt payment in the form of His unconditionally loving Son, who has paid our sin debt with His holy life. Turn to Him and accept the gift He ­offers—­forgiveness from our sin and its hold on our lives!