Title: The Wages of Sin Is Death — Why the Lamb Was Provided and Why We Must Die to Self
There are truths I used to run from because they felt too harsh, too heavy. I wrestled with them, I argued with God about them, and then the Holy Spirit took me deeper and showed me a picture so raw it didn’t leave room for soft, pretty theology. I want to lay that picture down for you — plain, uncompromised, and driven by what the Spirit has revealed to me over the last days.
This is not a lecture. It’s a call. It’s the hard love of a Father who refuses to let His house be mocked.
Before any creature sinned — before angels fell, before Adam reached for the fruit — God had already established His system. The throne of heaven runs on unshakable principles, and one of those principles is absolute: sin equals death. This is not God being cruel; it is the moral architecture of the universe. Sin disturbs life. Sin severs intimacy with God. Sin cannot coexist with holiness — it must be judged.
When Scripture says, “The wages of sin is death,” it isn’t a cliché or a dusty doctrine. It is reality. Sin eats away at life until death is the only possible outcome.
And yet, here is the mystery of God’s heart. Justice was never reactive. The Lamb was not an emergency plan after humanity failed. The Lamb was chosen before the foundation of the world. Before Adam rebelled, before Satan fell, God had already prepared the Substitute. He knew His justice system could not be bypassed — but He also knew His mercy would not leave us without hope.
Blood became the chosen currency because blood is life. “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus). Every Old Testament sacrifice whispered this truth. Life for life. Sin demands death, but blood could speak on behalf of the guilty. The animals were shadows, temporary placeholders pointing toward the true Lamb.
When Jesus shed His blood, He did not just symbolically cover sin. He poured out life itself. He satisfied the justice of heaven’s court, and He opened the floodgates of mercy. The cross is where justice and mercy kissed. The place where death demanded its due, and love supplied the Substitute.
But here is the sobering part: that Substitute is not a license for rebellion. Grace is not permission to sin without consequence. The blood covers those who repent, those who surrender, those who present their bodies as living sacrifices. To accept Christ only with your lips while clinging to fornication, pride, or rebellion is to cheapen the cross and mock the covering. Legal forgiveness is offered, but only a surrendered life can walk in its reality.
This is why hell exists. Not because God delights in punishing, but because His justice cannot be mocked. Hell is the eternal outcome for those who reject the covering and insist on bearing their own penalty. And yet, in this moment, God waits. He is patient, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hell stands as proof that His holiness is unshakable, but the cross stands as proof that His mercy is unstoppable.
So what does this require of us now? To die daily. To crucify the flesh and let Christ live through us. Paul’s words still echo: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” This is our worship, our survival, our only safe place. Not hiding behind excuses, not using grace as a cloak, but yielding our bodies so that when the Father looks at us, He sees His Son.
The truth is this: Jesus gave His life to satisfy God’s throne. We give our life in surrender so His life can be displayed through us. When we die to self, we aren’t earning salvation — we are honoring the One who purchased it with His own blood.
If you are tired of the cheap version of Christianity that says “say the prayer and live as you please,” I invite you to wake up. The cross is beautiful because it is costly. God’s justice is terrifying because it is perfect. But His love is greater still, because it made a way.
Repent. Surrender. Present yourself as a living sacrifice. Not tomorrow. Today. Because the wages of sin is death — but the gift of God, found only in Christ Jesus, is eternal life.