Orange Moon Thursday, May 7, 2026 "The Wages of Sin"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

“The Wages of Sin"

    “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

     It is.  

     “Christ died for our sins” (I Corinthians 15:3).

       Certainly, the pronouncement of sins deadly wages applies to sinners.  It applies far more, however, to the Savior and the wonder of His death for the sins of sinners.  Indeed,  the  Lord Jesus could bear our sins on the cross of Calvary because He had no sins of His own for which to die.

    “We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

    In His humanity, the Lord Jesus could feel the pull of enticement, as in the wilderness temptation wherein Satan presented the allure directed toward body, soul, and spirit (Matthew 4:1-11).  Our Savior overcame the devil’s challenge, as He did during His entire earthly lifetime.  This warrants a particularly grateful and solemn appreciation of all our Lord did to make possible our salvation.  Temptation did not merely annoy Him as a bothersome gnat flitting about His face.  He experienced it as do we ourselves, and perhaps more because Satan Himself directly confronted Him in ways we likely do not encounter.  The Lord Jesus overcame them all, every one of them, in more than three decades of challenge from the most cunning of enemies who found himself defeated over and over again.  “Christ hast suffered for us in the flesh” includes not only His death on the cross, but also the pains of never succumbing to temptation (I Peter 4:1).

    In one sense, the Gospel proclaims a breathtakingly simple proposition: Sin accrues wages.  Somebody has to pay them.  Somebody did.  We declare this to unbelievers who must humble themselves to believe a message offensive to all infected with “the pride of life” that deceives with the lie that we can live apart from He who “is… the life” (I John 2:16; John 14:6).  We share the same truth among ourselves, that we might grow in love and appreciation for One whose death for our sins made available His risen life for our righteousness - “raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25).      Yes, “the wages of sin is death.”  Upon every reflection on the dark truth, let us first set our gaze upon the bright light that shines upon the One who paid them, that we might not have to.

“He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, 

I needed someone to wash my sins away.

And now I sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace the whole day long.

Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.

(“He Paid a Debt,” Ellis Crum)

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

(I Peter 1:18-19)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”

 (Romans 8:9)  

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