The Bottom Line

The profit of wisdom is better than silver, and her wages are better than gold (Proverbs 3:14, NLT).

Dear Friends,

It is interesting that the Bible uses financial terms to illustrate spiritual truths. Here is an example.

Do you know what the most crucial figure is in business?

It is not income, as many may think. Many businessmen have gone bankrupt while living a life of luxury on the money that was rolling in.

The crucial figure is not income, but profit. Simply put, profit is the total income reduced by the total expenses.

Our Lord Jesus Christ used this term in one of His most famous questions: "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37, KJV).

In other words, our Lord was saying that you can have all the income life has to offer -- health, wealth, social prestige -- and still be bankrupt spiritually.

How can that be? As mentioned, expenses offset income. As any businessperson knows, one of the greatest expenses in a business is wages. And the Bible says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23, NLT).

The "wages," or the expenses of sin, wipe out profitability. Unless sin is dealt with in our lives, the spiritual bottom line is eternal loss. On the eternal balance sheet, there is a deficit.

This does not mean that on the eternal balance sheet, the debit side (evil deeds) is weighed against the credit side (good works), with the result determining our eternal destiny, heaven or hell, although a Christian's rewards will be affected by his works.

In Romans 6:23, the Bible further says that while the wages of sin is death, "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (NLT).

When we receive Christ, the entire debit side of our life's ledger is canceled by His blood and with a free gift Christ imputes His own righteousness to our credit side! Like Abraham (Genesis 15:6), we are "credited" with His righteousness. Paul wrote, "The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness -- for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Romans 4:23-25, NIV).

Some Christians shout in their praise to God, as the Scripture exhorts (Psalm 47:1). They have probably had this revelation about the imputation of Christ's righteousness. If there is one spiritual truth above all others that would motivate one to shout with joy, this is it. Go ahead!

Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns,

Bill Bright