Guilty

But the children of the murderers he did not execute, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, in which the Lord commanded, saying, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; but a person shall be put to death for his own sin.” – 2 Kings 14.6

Amaziah was now king. He was a good king, basically following God’s way. He wasn’t perfect, but he generally did right and regained fairly.

When he became king he meted out justice on his father’s murderers. But he did not, as was the practice in so many parts of the Middle East in that time, kill the children of the murderers.

The reason was that God had said that fathers and children should not be executed for each other’s sins. You could only be put to death for your own sins.

This is a matter of laws and justice in ancient Israel, but it is also a lesson for us. The eternal truth is that ‘the wages of sin is death’ and that is meaningful because ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’

All are sinners, there is no one who does not sin. We can’t blame Adam and Eve or our grandparents or parents or anyone else. We are all guilty and we must all pay the price for our sins.

That's really bad news because the penalty is eternal separation from the presence of God. Hell is still real and that is the eternity for those who die in their own sin. Death  is the price of sin.

The good news though is that Someone has paid that price for us. Jesus went to the cross as the sinless sacrifice to die in my place. He took the penalty on His own shoulders. He died for me – but then He defeated death when we rose from the grave to give me victory over death.

Yup, we are all guilty, not of someone else’s sin but of our own sin. But Jesus chose to pay the price. The only question is whether or not folks are willing to take a chance on paying the penalty for themselves or accept the free gift of forgiveness and salvation that comes with accepting Christ’s free gift.