SIN
WAGES
14
AND ITS
There is a further negative in Romans 3:23, where sin is defined as `coming short' of the glory of God. `Coming
short' is the essential meaning of the most important word translated `sin' in the Scriptures, viz., chata.
`Seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss' (chata -
sin) (Judg. 20:16).
Hamartano, the New Testament equivalent, is derived (according to Cremer) from two words meaning `failure
to attain or to arrive'. This tragic failure, this missing of the mark by man, has entailed all the terrible aftermath of
guilt and shame. The failure that marks initial sin is soon followed by deadly ignorance and alienation from the life
of God (Eph. 4:18); life and its activities become purposeless toil; vanity, iniquity, deformity, deceit, ruin and death
make up the tale. These words are not strung together at random or for effect; they are but a summary of the words
used in Scripture to describe sin, and the interested reader will find a fuller examination in The Berean Expositor
Vol. 16, pp. 183-191.
So far as man is concerned, sin is universal.
`There is none righteous, no, not one ... all the world ... guilty before God ... all have sinned' (Rom. 3:10,19,23).
Scripture declares that sin is of the Devil, who `sinneth from the beginning', and that sin is abhorrent to the
holiness of God.
Should the reader have come into contact with a course of teaching that seeks to include sin as a part of the `all
things' that are `of God', he is earnestly recommended to read the booklet, `Sin and its relation to God' - same
author and publisher.
What are the wages of sin? `The wages of sin is death' (Rom. 6:23). When the Old Testament writers speak of
the wages of sin, they speak of destruction, of perishing, of being cut off, of being consumed. `Hell' in the Old
Testament is the translation of sheol, meaning the grave. This can be seen by referring to the following passages;
Genesis 37:35; 42:38; 44:29 and 31; Job 14:10-13; 17:13,16 (pit); Psalm 6:5; 30:3; 49:12-15. The New Testament
speaks of death, destruction, perishing, punishment and torment. Where it speaks of hell, the original is either hades
(the New Testament equivalent of sheol) or gehenna.
It has been taught that the words used by the Saviour `their worm' and `the fire' (Mark 9:44,46,48) - must imply
conscious suffering. Seeing that He quoted from Isaiah 66:24, we are confident that no such implication was
intended.
Throughout the whole of Paul's recorded ministry, hell is mentioned once, and we must remember that he
declared that he was `pure from the blood of all men'. His one reference is in 1 Corinthians 15:55: `O grave
(margin, hell), where is thy victory?'
The references to the gehenna of fire are restricted to the scriptures that deal with Israel and the kingdom. The
Sermon on the Mount, which contains the first reference to gehenna, uses it of Christians, which hardly fits the
orthodox teaching concerning `Hell'. The only passage that contains the words `everlasting punishment' is Matthew
25, where the judgment of the nations in connection with their treatment of the Lord's brethren is in view. Some
enter the kingdom; some are cast into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. Anyone who preaches
eternal life on the terms set out in Matthew 25 can consistently use the warning of everlasting punishment as the
alternative. But where the preacher announces that `God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son',
the alternatives must be `perishing' or `everlasting life' (John 3:16). If he preaches, with Paul, salvation by grace,
and declares that `the gift of God is eternal life', then he must follow Paul in the omission of all reference to Hell,
and plainly say, `The wages of sin is death' (Rom. 6:23).
References to torment are as follows:
Matthew 18:34 Used of one that had been pardoned.
Revelation 9:5 Lasting five months.
Revelation 11:10 Inflicted by the two witnesses.
Revelation 14:9-11 Endured by the worshippers of the beast.