One of the most principal truths in the word of God is that “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 It’s the reason Jesus came and died – to take the death penalty for mankind so that man who otherwise must die, could live forever instead. It’s important to go all the way back to Adam and Eve’s sin in Genesis 3, and understand that had it not been for Jesus, they would have been destroyed instantly. The whole human race would never have existed. There would be angels, and probably other created beings on God’s other planets in the universe, but there would be no human beings, for the whole human race had its origin in Adam and Eve and had they been judged and executed for their sin, none of us would have existed. But Jesus pledged himself to be a ransom BEFORE the creation of the world (Revelation 13:8). His ransom was the “mystery kept secret” for ages (Colossians 1:26) and was only revealed for the first time after the fall of man. The plan was in place, and because of the plan, Adam’s life was spared, and a sacrifice of animal skins, representing Christ and his righteousness, was made to cover his nakedness.
This knowledge is necessary to rightly understand to the topic of God destroying people groups in the Old Testament. You see, mankind as a race was not in the condition of sinless, spotless innocence that Adam had before the fall. We were now born (through no fault of our own) inheriting Adam’s fallen nature, and therefore falling under Adam’s death penalty as well because we each individually sinned against God (Romans 5:12, 17-19 1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
This resulted in only two options for every person born: Either they accept Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf and follow him by keeping his commandments (which he gives strength to do – both to will and to do of his good pleasure Philippians 2:13), which ultimately results in eternal life if they steadfastly remain in the Vine and do not leave the faith (John 15;4), or they reject Jesus’ sacrifice and live a life of breaking his commandments, which results in the death penalty. I do not believe hell burns forever. nor is Satan in charge of it. Hell is a judgment fire. Because Satan rebelled against God, he also will be judged and burned in hell. Hell burns people and evil angels to “stubble” (Malachi 4:1). As stated previously, the wages of sin is death, not eternal burning. When Jesus died for us on Calvary, he suffered for a time and then died – he didn’t suffer eternally. If the punishment for sin is eternal torment then Jesus hasn’t paid it! Jesus took humanity’s death penalty so that we could live forever, and he did physically and literally die, which is what will happen to all men who do not accept Christ and follow him.
There was no other way to save man except Jesus’ death. Had there been, you can be sure that God would have used that other way instead and spared His beloved Son’s life. Not destroying sinners who were unrepentant was not an option either. This would mean that man would live forever in sin, suffering its natural negative results, which the Bible calls “curses”.
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day:
And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
Deuteronomy 11:27-28
If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 18:5
When God wanted his people to experience health and not get sick and live good long lives, what did he tell them?
“If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
Exodus 15:26
Here God shows us the natural cause and effect laws, and the conditions upon which he heals people. He’s very clear that the laws themselves are right and just and good laws. In fact, they are life-promoting, inherently within themselves. Which is why breaking them results in death. They are not arbitrary. This is important to understand: When God asks us to love his laws, and to diligently keep them, He’s not asking us to keep an arbitrary law, but a life-promoting law.
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Romans 7:12
And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this bod
y of laws I am setting before you today? Deuteronomy 4:8
He cannot heal someone who will not take care of their health, who doesn’t keep the laws of health. This goes against his own laws. Asking God to heal you if you’re unwilling to live a healthy lifestyle, is asking amiss that you may spend it upon your lusts.
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:3
Think of what kind of a God He would be if he used his power to keep someone healthy who ate unhealthy food, never exercised, smoked packs of cigarettes every day? Think of what that would say about his character as a Person. What we should do, is ask God for the strength to keep his health laws, rely on him daily to live and eat right, and keep an open connection with him through prayer so that he can vitalize us to do his good and perfect will.
It could be said that Adam was tested in Eden. It was God himself, not Satan who planted the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden.
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:9
God planted the tree, in order to give Adam and Eve the freewill to rebel against him, or to refuse to rebel and never eat from the tree. He did not take away from them their individual autonomy. He made it clear what his will and his desire were for them – for them to never eat from the forbidden tree and disobey – but he didn’t force their obedience.
After Adam fell, Jesus’ pledge to die on his behalf gave humanity another chance at passing the test. This whole life that we live in this world is a life-long test, where we decide whether we will follow Jesus or refuse to follow him. But there is another facet to the test now that didn’t exist in sinless Eden – Satan is now God of this world and he isn’t present in just the tree; he’s everywhere, and we must resist and overcome him, the flesh, and the world, in order to prove our allegiance to God. The test is now much harder, but it results in Satan and his kingdom being forever destroyed, so more is being accomplished than just our personal salvation. We’re drafted into God’s army upon conversion to build up his kingdom and fight for his cause.
It’s interesting that God gave Adam a test and opportunity to prove his allegiance. And that even after Jesus died for us, that we still have to prove our allegiance. This is central to how God does things. He doesn’t grant eternal life on a whim. You don’t just say one prayer and ouila! you’re saved for all eternity. Even sinless Adam in Eden was not saved for all eternity, unless he refused to eat of the tree over and over again.
God wants a definite answer on our part. Not a one-time prayer, but a life of choosing him shows whose side we’re on. And likewise, a life of rejecting him shows we’re not on his side. He doesn’t want anyone in heaven who didn’t truly want to be there; neither does he want anyone to miss out on heaven who truly didn’t make a firm decision to reject.
The commandments are central to the war of good verses evil that is depicted in the scriptures. Satan fell from heaven by jealousy and idolatry; he made a god out of himself, desiring God’s position and power. Then he lead other angels to also break God’s commandments, and finally Adam and Eve.
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:4
It’s impossible to know Jesus, be converted and not love and obey his commandments. He so identifies himself with his commandments, that to break them and delight in lawlessness is to deny Christ. The commandments are a transcript of Christ’s own character.
When we look at the people groups in the Old Testament, we see them breaking God’s commandments and delighting in doing so. Below is a list of some of the things they were doing.
Sacrificed their children to the god Molech 20:2
Consulting spirits and wizardry 20:6
Cursing father and mother Lev. 20:9
Committing adultery with another man’s wife 20:10
Men had sexual relations with their father’s wife 20:11
Men having sexual relations with their daughter-in-law 20:12
Men marrying both a woman and her mother 20:14
Having sexual relations with an animal 20:15, 16
And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. Leviticus 20:23
You can see what an eternity of sin would be. If God allowed these nations to live on forever unrepentant, these are the things they would be doing for eternity. Is it not merciful on the part of God to destroy people who are so steeped in such dark sins, if they choose not to repent?
Look at the law of God in contrast to the practices of the nations that did not have God’s law. How pure and right and good it appears! God gave marriage between one man and one woman. He said to honor our fathers and mothers. He wants us to worship him, not Molech.
I want to pause here and explain that while the law itself is good, it cannot save. What I mean specifically by this is that it can justify no one, that’s why Jesus had to come and die. The wages of sin is still death, so for anyone who has committed even one sin the death penalty must be paid or belief in Christ’s sacrifice.The law exposes sin and shows us our true fallen condition before God. But Jesus loves the law and desires us to keep it so at conversion he gives us a new heart that can keep his ways.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
Ezekiel 36:26-27
It is in Christ alone – only through Christ – that human beings have grace from the judgment of God for their sins. We do not have grace without Christ. Chris’s death bought for humanity a second chance to pass the test (Adam failed his first test in Eden when he ate the fruit) in which to choose whom they will serve.
While many people in this life – even those who never repent and never choose Christ – die a natural death, there have been some people throughout history who have not died natural deaths, but have rejected the Holy Spirit over and over again to the point of making an eternal choice against God in this life. They filled up the cup of God’s wrath, which happens when a person commits the unpardonable sin, which is where they reject the Holy Spirit’s conviction on their heart to repent to the point where they’ve made a final decision, and grieved him away completely and can no longer hear his voice. When this happens, there is no longer any grace through Christ to stay the judgment of God, and Jesus as Sovereign Judge steps in and judges the person with death. They rejected the only One who brought grace, and grieved away his mercy.
We’re told that entire people groups did this. At the time of Noah the entire earth except for Noah and his family committed the unpardonable sin. It seems that sin can spread to a certain ‘tipping point’ where after that point entire nations are corrupted and influenced to sin and there are no more repentant people left in these cities and nations. No one who desires God and his ways. God told Israel repeatedly to separate from the surrounding nations or Israel would be lead into idolatry. The Bible depicts a sad history of Israel mingling with the unrepentant people in those nations and going after false gods. Israel was never cautioned against mingling with repentant people of other ethnic groups who were grafted into Israel and served the Creator. It wasn’t a race thing or a national pride thing. It was a sin thing. Those who did not repent of sin had a strong power to influence others to sin.
Let’s take the case of the Amorites.
In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached it’s full measure.
Genesis 15:16
Notice that God did not go in and destroy the Amorites when they first started sinning, nor even at some arbitrary point when He had had enough and it was too painful for him to endure more – no, their sin grieved him continually and yet he did not step in and destroy them. It was only when they had filled up the cup of his wrath and there was no more hope for their salvation that God judged them with death. It was about them. God’s love is always self-sacrificial. He held on to the very last, convicting them, and wanting them to repent and be saved.
The city of Nineveh at the time of Jonah heeded God’s call to repent, and the city was not destroyed. (This story is found in the book of Jonah, the whole book.) Their time would have been up if they had persisted in sin, but they did a 180 degree turn, and God forgave them of their sins and averted the judgment. Every one of these people groups who were destroyed by God’s judgments could have been spared as Nineveh was, if they had repented.
Not only did they not repent, but many of them actually went out with their armies to attack Israel, rather than letting Israel peaceably through.
I’ve heard some people say that God destroyed the Canaanites in order to give the land to Israel and promote the Israelites. This makes God out to be no different than any worldly conquering king who seizes territory and prospers his own people. God’s kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), and the principles of his rule are not of this world. Selfishness is the norm for worldly conquering powers (and for the common person born into this world with a sin nature) but God operates completely differently, shown in how through the self-sacrifice of the cross he wins hearts to his allegiance, rather than forcing people to serve him. God doesn’t change through history. The same God who offered his Son on Calvary operated self-sacrificially when he delivered Israel out of Egypt and established them as a nation. If God was merely a selfish conqueror, he would have destroyed Satan instantly when Satan first sinned, and every subsequent sinner.
He didn’t establish Israel as a nation for Israel’s sake alone. Again and again God says he does it for his name’s sake. For the sake of his great Name. What is his great Name? Name in the Bible equals character. It’s the character shown on the cross. When God says he does something for his Name’s sake – what he really means is for our sake. For love, to put it bluntly. God does things in the Name of Infinite love. God is love and his name is love. He won’t do anything in the name of selfishness or promote it in any way. God clears his Name of Satan’s charges through the cross for all time (Satan charged God with selfishly holding back something good from Eve in Eden, having a motive of selfishness, and Satan slandered His name and sat in judgment on his law. Read James 4:11) , but not only the cross, also all of his self-sacrificial dealings throughout history with both men and angels. The Israelites were not warriors with God’s approval to wipe out nations and steal their land. They had the sanctuary where daily a lamb was slain for sin, representing the Messiah that was to come. They knew themselves to be sinners in need of a Savior, and God established them for the other nations, to take this message of a lamb slain for sin to the corners of the earth, and to live by his commandments and show to the world the benefit of living a Christian life. The Israelites were servants.
As they went forward and showed the sanctuary to the world, anyone who sincerely repented of worshiping other gods and wanted to worship the true God, was grafted into Israel. The story of Rahab the prostitute from Jericho shows this. She hid Israelite spies and helped them take over Jericho, left her old life behind and became an Israelite.
This happened throughout Israel’s history. Ruth, a Moabitess chose to leave behind her Moabite beliefs and worship the God of the Israelites and she also was grafted into Israel. The Messiah came through the line of both Rahab and Ruth.
At the time of Esther many non-Jews were grafted into Israel. (Read Esther 8:17)
At the time of Daniel even a Babylonian king repented and worshiped the Creator, Nebuchadnezzar.
The purpose of Israel was always to bring the message of Salvation to the ends of the earth.
He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Psalm 98:3
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
Isaiah 49:6
Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
Isaiah 45:22
The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Isaiah 52:10
that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
Psalm 67:2
These are Bible verses found in the Old Testament. It’s not a New Testament idea for the message of salvation to reach the whole world; it was Israel’s mission in the Old Testament as well.
Also it’s important to understand that Israel was a theocracy. A government under God’s direct rule. So when they killed people it wasn’t an army of self-willed people carrying our their own violent desires for power and territory. Like the destroying angel who slew the first-born of the Egyptians during the plagues on Egypt, the Israelites were carrying out God’s specific judgments and they were never to kill using their own human wisdom or carry out their own ideas. At times when they did not carry out God’s direct orders, and failed to do something, or did something God did not ask them to do, they were punished for it. They had to follow his exact orders. Otherwise they were judging with human judgment and human judgment is flawed and not perfect and this would be unjust and wrong.
When David killed people groups and carried out God’s direct judgments he was not sinning. He was not committing murder. But when he killed Uriah of his own will so that he could cover up the fact he had gotten Uriah’s wife pregnant and committed adultery with her – this was murder on the part of David. God judged David for his sin and brought calamity upon him for a time, showing the seriousness of murder in the sight of God.
It is never ok for man to act as God.
It is murder for a person to take another person’s life. But it is not murder when God takes the life of people. God is Sovereign and he owns everything, including us. Murder is wrong because it steals from God the life of a person who belongs to him, and also steals the life from that person. But if God takes life it’s not stealing. And God doesn’t ever take life for an evil reason or with an evil motive. God cannot even lie (Titus 1:2), or do any other immoral sin either.
He is the rock, his work is perfect; all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is he.
Deuteronomy 32:4
The Word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth.
Psalm 33:4-5
The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his deeds.
Psalm 145:17
God is good, and he cannot go against his own good and righteous character and do evil.
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
Indeed, what Satan accused God of was selfish motives and a selfish character. And God shows through the cross that God is the opposite of selfishness; he is selfless love, thus refuting Satan’s charges.
The cross shows us that if God takes life, it’s always for a purpose of love and with all the right motives. We can have assurance that this is his character, when we look to calvary.
Job during his painful trial, was commended for not charging God with wrongdoing. He knew God’s character – that God could not do anything immoral. (Job 1:22)
So for God as Sovereign to step in as Judge of the Universe to take the lives of people groups who had grieved his Spirit away and rejected Christ fully is not immoral on his part.
We wouldn’t say that a judge in a human court who sentenced a person to life in prison for murder was unjust. In fact, we would say it would be unjust for the judge to let the person go without a sentence. This would encourage lawlessness and people would come to see murder as not being the serious wrong that it is. There would be no justice for the victim either. The judge giving the life sentence to the murderer is the opposite of unjust; it is the very definition of justice. For God to judge the unrepentant sinner with death is just and right. Indeed the wages of sin have always been death. And if the person – or whole people groups – decide to reject Christ fully, there remains no more grace for them.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
Hebrews 10:26
1 John tells us that there is a sin that is unto death. It’s when the person uses their free will to decidedly choose against Jesus. They make a firm and final decision and ratify that decision again and again by living a life of willful sin and refusing the pleadings of the Holy Spirit to repent. To all those who don’t sin decidedly unto death, God gives life! But mankind has free will and some people choose fully to reject Jesus.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he should ask God, who will give life to those who commit this kind of sin. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying he should ask regarding that sin.
1 John 5:16
In fact, Jesus tells us sadly that most people in the world reject him.
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them,
“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.
Luke 13:23-28
Keep in mind that Jesus was speaking to his own people when he said these words. Even of his own people, most rejected him, and throughout history those who follow Jesus have been the minority.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Entire nations have rejected the gospel, and the vast majority of individuals choose to reject God and be lost.
Whole people groups like the Amorites refused to repent and believe in the Messiah to come, and not only went on sinning, but sinned to greater and greater lengths for hundreds of years until they filled up the cup of God’s wrath.
This is the sad tragic norm of the human race. We are not safe if we follow the lusts of our fallen nature. If we do what’s natural for us. We have safety only in repentance and allowing Christ to forgive us and recreate our nature so that we have characters like his and in daily taking up our cross and surrendering to Christ and putting to death the works of our flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:20-23
We are told in the scriptures the gospel went to the Gentiles and we are now to be subject to the governing authorities (Romans 13:1, 1 Peter 2:13-14, Titus 3:1). So there is no more theocracy with God’s people – we are now a church only. This will be the case until Jesus comes back to earth to gather his people. In heaven there will be a theocracy again. For a Christian today to stone someone for adultery, for instance, would be murder. No one has authority today from God to kill another human being. The Bible is clear that no theocracy exists today and will not exist again in this world.