We all work long and hard to earn our wages. Sometimes when payday rolls around, we find that we did not get paid for all the effort we put forth; but there is one payday that is guaranteed:

Romans 6:23  “For the wages of sin is death;”  The wages we have earned for our sin is death. That is one thing that is absolutely certain for every one of us. No one will be short-changed. 

When we die, we can be assured that all the years of working hard to break God’s laws have indeed stored up wrath for ourselves to be paid upon our death, in a place of fiery torment away from his presence.   -Unless we can find a way to pay for those sins, and be reconciled to him.

There is nothing we can do of ourselves to take away our sins. Even our good works and efforts are stained with our sin and unacceptable to God.

Isaiah 64:6  “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;”

Hebrews 9:22  “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”

Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God made a way for us to be reconciled to God. He shed his own blood on the cross to make atonement for our sins, and to secure for us a place in Heaven.

Who you are trusting in come payday will determine your destination.

Acts 16:31  “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved...”

John 3:16 “ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

So often I hear people state that we are no longer under the law, but under grace and therefore there is no need to preach or teach the law any longer. They claim that all we need to do is show people the goodness of God, and not the fearful wrath; and that we simply need to preach the gospel message so that others can put their faith in Christ.

This idea is regularly displayed in many of our children’s ministries. Often children right out of the nursery that have no understanding of who God is, or his righteous judgment of their sin, or even their need for a Savior are given the gospel and instructed to simply “accept Jesus”. These children are being offered a remedy for an ailment they are not even aware that they have.

Mark 2:17a “ When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick”

Many people even claim that repentance is not necessary at all; but Jesus tells us in Mark 2:17b “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The apostle Paul, like Jesus, obviously differed with that opinion:  Acts 20:21 “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Without an understanding of our condemnation before God, we cannot even see our need for a Savior. Having a fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom that leads us to repentance.

Psalms 111:10  “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments…”

Psalms 36:1  “The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.”

How can we know that we have sinned against God? Only by knowing his law can we see our offenses, and our need for a Savior.  Romans 3:20” for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

 Galatians 3:24  “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

The law shows us our condition as lost sinners separated from God, in need of repentance and reconciliation.

But what about those who say we are no longer under the law?  Romans 6:14  “… for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

This verse is speaking to those who have already been saved, who have been freed from the law through faith in Christ and are no longer under its condemnation.

Romans 7:6  “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”

Those who have not yet believed are yet under the law and condemned by it.   John 3:18  “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Romans 3:19  “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.”

Therefore, we must preach and teach the law as well as the gospel, so that sinners can repent and put their faith in Christ.