Death Sentence
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23
“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;” 2 Cor. 1:9-10
If you think the executioner’s chair is the ultimate death sentence, that those on death row are the greatest sinners, or that the people in greatest bondage are those who will take every remaining breath behind bars on death row, think again. Whether or not you believe in the death penalty, your belief is inconsequential when it comes to the death sentence we ALL face whether from behind bars on death row or on the other side of the bars living regular everyday lives. The letters I have gotten from men on death row in response to the writing I send them are testimony about THE TRUTH about God – and us. And about the death – and HELL – sentence.
Every single human being is born into sin thanks to Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden, which means we ALL are given a death sentence of death and hell forever apart from God. God is perfectly holy and righteous, and we are sinners which means we can’t be in His presence in a relationship with Him on earth nor for forever in heaven. Unless an atonement is made for our sins. Christ died to pay the death penalty for us, to die in our place on the cross to bear God’s wrath at us for our sins and the resulting punishment. We ALL fall short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23); we ALL deserve death and hell, no matter what our sins look like. Sin is sin, and all sin ends in death and hell without Christ’s atonement. The only way to true everlasting freedom, to a forever relationship with God, is for us to repent of our sins, turn away from the world’s ways and unto God, and to believe in and follow Christ forever. This is not a one-time profession of faith in Jesus. It’s a lifestyle of living for God.
There are people on death row who are free because they have repented and now devote their lives to God. There are those on death row who refuse to repent and are headed to hell forever unless they repent and turn to God. And there are those of us who will never see the inside of prison bars but who are bound in sin living with our backs turned to God and headed for hell forever. And there are those of us who have been set free from our death sentence because we have cried out to Jesus to save us and given our lives to the Lord. Real freedom isn’t about which side of prison bars we’re on. It’s about repentance and the freedom that comes only in living for God.
Regardless of which side of the prison bars we’re on, there is only one way to be free. In Christ. Are you free?