THE SERIOUSNESS OF SIN A couple of years ago I was walking down a street in Nome, Alaska with a pastor friend of mine when we stopped to engage a gold miner in conversation. The man was working on his gold dredge and as are most gold miners, he was quick to explain to us his unique idea of how he is going after the gold. His dredge was indeed unique, so unique that it didn’t work. After some light talk of gold and its allure, the conversation quickly turned into a spiritual dialog. His comment was interesting as he looked at us and made this statement, “You guys subscribe to DECISSION BASED THEOLOGY whereas I believe in GRACE.” “There is nothing else for there is little on our part since GRACE plays the major role.” I have thought about that conversation many times since then. People who subscribe to Reformed Theology put little emphasis on the free will of man and ultimately his responsibility for his choices. This mentality plays nicely into the hands of the ME ME GENERATION that we live in today. When you consider God’s view of sin and what the Bible says about it there is a very stark contrast. God says that there are very serious consequences to sin in that it must be punished and that punishment is to have the wrath of Almighty God poured out upon it as its penalty. Here is where free choice comes into play. Every man has a choice as to who pays that penalty. God loves mankind, we were created in His image, so much that He paid the penalty by sending His Son Jesus to the cross so we wouldn’t have to incur the wrath of God as payment for having sinned. As He hung on that cross the wrath of God was poured out upon His body for the cumulative sins of every person who has lived or will live. Once again the choice comes down to a decision on my part. Do I choose to appropriate Jesus’ payment for my sin or do I decide to go it alone and take a chance that the culture that we live in is right and the Bible is wrong. Choosing the later obligates me to pay my own penalty. My paying the penalty requires having the wrath of God poured out on me and it will take all of eternity to satisfy the justice of God. That’s why eternity is so long. The location of that place of incarceration and torment is where the Bible calls HELL. A place of separation from anything and everything that is good. I am sorry to say but our eternal destiny is of our own choosing, do I appropriate His payment and go free or do I decide to pay the penalty myself and spend all of eternity doing it? That is the question.