THE PENALTY OF SIN

A. The Natural Penalty.

This can best be illustrated by the example of a child who was forbidden to eat of a certain food. He disobeyed and ate too much, with the result that he became sick. The natural consequence of his disobedience was his illness. The natural penalty of sin is disease, disappointment and physical death.

B. The Positive Penalty.

To continue with the above example, we find that the natural penalty was the child’s becoming sick. The positive penalty is the spanking he received from his father. The positive penalty of sin is described by the following:

1. Death.

“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Death, in Scripture, never means “annihilation” or “complete destruction.” There is no place in the Word where the word “annihilation” can be substituted for “death.”

a. Spiritual Death.

“She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth” (I Tim. 5:6).

b. Eternal Death.

“Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev. 20:14). “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed . . . in the flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (II Thess. 1:7, 8, 9). See also Revelation 20:12; 21:8. There was no death before sin came into man’s life. Man was created to dwell with God forever. Death is said to have “passed upon all men” (Rom. 5:12). The word “passed” is translated “pierced through” in Luke 2:35; “go through” in Matthew 19:24; and “passed through” in I Corinthians 10:1.

2. Lost.

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12). The word “lost” is the same as the words “perish” (John 3:16) and “destroy” (Matt. 10:28).

3. Condemned.

“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). The word “condemnation” is a legal term, and indicates judicial decision. This same word, “condemnation,” is “damnation” in John 5:29, and “judgment” in Matthew 11:22, 24; II Peter 2:4, 9; 3:7; I John 4:17; Jude 6.

4. Guilt.

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom. 3:19).

5. Perdition.

“Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that . . . I may hear . . . that ye stand fast in one spirit. . . in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God” (Phil. 1:27, 28). See also John 17:12; II Thessalonians 2:3; Hebrews 10:39; II Peter 3:7; Revelation 17:8, 11. This same word “perdition” is translated “destruction” in Matthew 7:13: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” See also Romans 9:22; Philippians 3:19; II Peter 3:16. (In the New Testament the word “destruction” means “ruin”.) In Matthew 26:8 it is translated “waste”: “When his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?” The word “perish” in Matthew 9:17 is the same word as “perdition”: “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”

6. Punishment.

“These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matt. 25:46). There is a difference between the above Scripture and Hebrews 12:6: “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Punishment is for the sinner; chastisement for the saint.

7. Eternal — Everlasting.

“These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matt. 25:46). See also Jude 6; II Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 20:10; 14:11. Some say that the words “everlasting” and “eternal” mean “a long life, an age, age lasting.” In other words, they say that guilty sinners will endure the fires of hell only for an age; after being purified, they shall enjoy eternal bliss with the rest of the saints of God. But this we add, “If hell and punishment are not forever, then there is no such thing as eternal life, nor eternal salvation.” The same word “eternal,” or “everlasting,” is used of God, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14). “The revelation of the mystery... now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:26). If the punishment in hell for the damned is not eternal, then salvation is not eternal, and God is not eternal!

But He is! So is salvation eternal; so is punishment.

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