Money is king, in this life. Money can fix anything, and get you out of any fix. If this wasn’t true, why would everybody spend so much time and effort trying to beg, borrow and steal it?
The problem is, people trust their money. They hedge up great piles of it against tomorrow. Tomorrow things might get bad, right? You’ll want to have lots of money on hand, just in case.
But money is only good if people who have something to sell will accept your money. What if they think your money isn’t worth anything?
Think about God for a minute. Does he need your money? Of course not.
The trouble is, people who are rich, who are used to always getting what they want, get to where they trust their money. They think that money can buy them anything. Houses, cars, influence, power— even sex. Money can even buy you out of jail. Rich people can afford to hire sharp lawyers who can keep them out of jail.
So no wonder rich people trust money. Is there anything money can’t buy? Rich people get to where they’re not afraid of anything, because their money can buy their way out of any jam.
But there’s one thing money can’t buy.
It can’t buy you release from the penalty of sin.
It says in the Bible, “the wages of sin is death.” [Romans 6:23] This means literally, the payment for sin is death. You sin, you owe a sin debt. To pay that sin debt, you can’t pay for it with money, you can only pay for it with your own death. The Bible is very clear on that. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” [Ezekiel 18:20]
Death is the only acceptable payment for sin. This may seem preposterous to men, but it’s not to God. Why not? Because the only thing you really own is your life. It’s really the only thing that belongs to you. After all, you brought nothing with you when you came into this world. Everything you’ve ever made since you’ve made by inheriting, borrowing, buying, trading, and selling what was already here before you were born.
“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out..” [1Timothy 6:7]
So when your life is over, you will stand before God, and if you have committed sin, you will have to pay for that sin with your life.
This is true of EVERYBODY. All of us, rich and poor, good and bad, righteous or wicked. “What do you mean, even a righteous man will have to pay for his sin?” If he turns from his righteousness and sins, he will die for it.
“But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.” [Ezekiel 18:24]
What this means is that even people who try to do what’s right, if they commit even one sin in their lifetime, they will have to pay for it with death. In fact, for those of you who are “law abiding citizens” – do you know that if you break God’s law even once, you are condemned to death?
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” [James 2:10]
Does this seem mean and cruel to you? Does it seem unfair? Doesn’t this look like God has stacked everything against you?
Actually, the opposite is true.
God is not interested in your death.
“For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” [Ezekiel 18:32]
The reason he exacts such a heavy penalty, is because he is trying to show us that we can’t save ourselves from death by any human efforts. We can’t pay for our sins with money, or good works. Money is useless to God. And the penalty is too severe for any human being to pay. The reason God exacts such a heavy fine, is he is using the fine to drive us to His remedy.
You see, if a rich man is rightly or wrongly locked in a prison and threatened with execution, he feels he can buy his way out with his money. But what if the fine is more than he can ever hope to pay? What if the cost of saving his own life is more than all his assets? Then he realizes his desperate situation. Then he realizes that his jailer isn’t interested in money, can’t be bought off with money.
God can’t be bought off with money. God owns everything and doesn’t need your money. So if you intend to pay for your sins, you’re going to have to come up with some collateral that is worth something to God. And the Bible tells us there is only one currency that throws any weight with God:
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” [1 Peter 1:18,19]
We are saved, not with money, or gold (which are corruptible assets) but with something of infinite worth, something incorruptible:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” [1Peter 1:23]
The only thing precious to God is the blood of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross 2000 years ago to pay the sin debt of the whole world. This would include you, IF you’d stop relying on your money to get you out of everything, and started trusting in Christ.
If you come to Christ, admit your sinfulness, admit your need for forgiveness, admit your inability to buy your way out of this one, and trust him completely to save your soul from sin and death, He will save you.
But he can’t do it—he won’t do it— if you continue to trust in your money. Why? Because it is an insult to God that you would think you could pay for, with paper money, what it took his son dying in agony on the cross to pay.
So if you have read to this point, whether you are rich or poor, you are a sinner in need of salvation. So do what the Bible tells you to do in this case:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” [Romans 10:9]
Why don’t you admit you are a sinner, and take Jesus as your Saviour? Admit your sin, and pray a sincere prayer, something like this:
“O God, be merciful to me a sinner! Forgive me for ignoring your Son, Jesus Christ. I have heard his name many times throughout my life, but I was always too busy making money to care. Now I see that he paid my sin-debt by dying in my place on a cross on Calvary. I now ask for your forgiveness, and admit with all my heart that I need Christ to save my soul. Please Lord God, save me, and make me the kind of man (or woman) that will shine a light to turn others away from their money and their gold, to your son Jesus Christ. Amen.”