Sin and Death

Have you ever played word association (what a friend of mine calls word association football)? You know eg Dog Cat, Cat Fur, Fur Coat, Coat Hat, Hat Head, Head Hair, Hare Rabbit, Rabbit Pie, Pi Maths, etc. It is used by psychiatrists to learn things about people but it can be fun too. Now what about the word sin? Do you associate the word death with it? You ought to – sin – death: the wages of sin is death. Sin leads to death. It is inevitably connected with decay and with death, with darkness and with hell. We need to connect not only the general idea of sin with death but individual sins too.

You know how children are not born with an innate sense of danger. They do not instinctively know that the road can be dangerous or that they can fall downstairs or that they can burn themselves on the oven – no, they have to be taught. They need to learn that stepping out into the road without looking is likely to lead to injury. Coming down the stairs backwards is a better way than forwards when they are little. They have to learn that hot ovens can burn. So we need to teach ourselves to connect sin with death. The wages of sin is death.