As we shall see, UNBELIEF will be the sin that takes people to hell, for though Christ died on the cross to save sinners, they must BELIEVE on Christ as their Savior. God is offering everyone salvation through Christ and His finished work on the cross, but FAITH in Christ is the one condition necessary for the sinner’s sins to be forgiven. We will look at two verses in Scripture that you may be thinking of when you said, “the wages of sin were paid.” The first one is Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The second one is John 19:30, “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His Head, he gave up His spirit.”

In Romans 6:23 we have two truths brought before us. 1) Sin has a penalty and that penalty is DEATH. The sinner is “earning death by sinning” and “those wages shall surely be paid to the sinner” if he/she doesn’t take advantage of the free gift God offers to them. DEATH in this verse is “physical death” but it also includes “eternal death” in the lake of fire. “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the SECOND DEATH. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14-15). 2) God has a FREE GIFT that He offers to the sinner which is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eternal life is the opposite of “eternal death.” The sinner can’t earn this gift; he/she must simply reach out with the “hand of FAITH” to receive it. The moment a sinner “BELIEVES on the Lord Jesus Christ” they are given eternal life. “For God so loved the world He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). As we shall see, Christ’s work on the cross has PAID the price for the sinner to be saved and given eternal life, but one must believe on Christ to have their “debt of sin paid.” One passage that really helped me to see that God OFFERS SALVATION TO ALL through Christ’s work on the cross, but that it is ONLY GIVEN TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE is Romans 3:21-22. It says, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, TO ALL AND ON ALL WHO BELIEVE.” The work of Christ on the cross is “available to ALL SINNERS,” but it is only “effective to ALL WHO BELIEVE.” God loved the whole world and gave His Son for ALL SINNERS, but it is only sufficient to save WHOEVER BELIEVES ON CHRIST (as we saw in John 3:16).

In John 19:30 we see Christ “PAYING the price to save sinners.” He had just suffered God’s judgment upon sin and could cry out in victory “It is finished.” In the Greek those three words are the word TELELESTAI which means, “PAID in full.” He paid the price to redeem sinners. One commentator said this, “His redemptive work was completed. He had been made sin for people (2 Corinthians 5:21) and had suffered the penalty of God’s justice which sin deserved” (Edwin A. Blum in the Bible Knowledge Commentary). He exhausted God’s JUDGMENT and then He bowed His head in DEATH (the two-fold penalty of sin (Romans 6:23 and Hebrews 9:27). ALL sinners can now be saved based on Christ’s finished work! No one needs to go to hell (the lake of fire), yet as we saw the sinner must reach out in faith and accept God’s free gift of eternal life by believing on Christ as their Savior.  If one refuses to believe in Christ they will “die in their sins” (see John 8:24) and will have to “PAY for those sins in hell with God’s wrath upon them forever.” We see this clearly in John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Has my reader reached out with the hand of faith and “BELIEVED in the Son of God?” If not, I would plead with you to take God at His word and believe on Christ before it’s forever too late.  (DO)  (671.5)