Sinner's Wager

I have read that one of the few moral convictions sociopaths have is in the powers of divine forgiveness. They believe that regardless of what sins they commit in this world, they will be instantly forgiven of them, and never condemned. That, I suppose, is their only true hope for salvation, and they cling to it like a child to its mother. Their misdeeds are not only justified by such hope, but also fueled by it. Altogether, I have come to refer to it as the Sinner's Wager.

So then, what is this "Sinner's Wager"? And why is it misguided? At its essence, the wager of a sinner is a profound gamble with fate. Knowing that the Lord above is forgiving, sinful people count on being free to do whatever they want to whomever they can get away with doing it to while they roam this Earth. They then plan within their hearts to repent of their sins at the last moment on their death beds, be forgiven, and instantly gain access to heaven. Ultimately, the wager is a profoundly manipulative attempt to "game the system" of life and come out favorably in the end.

There are many flawed assumptions being made with that wager though. Chief among them is the supposition that belief is more important than works of righteousness: that as long as you have inner conviction, there is no need to publicly demonstrate it in any manner. Most people of faith in this world, however, believe that sin must be atoned for by penance. It is like jumping into a deep hole in the Earth with the expectation that someone will happen along to pull you out. If you are near a busy town, someone will undoubtedly eventually come across you in the hole, but they also might force you to do some of the work yourself to get out of it. And once free again, the entire world will want to know just what went through your mind jumping into it in the first place. You will likely face a great deal of shame and disgrace when it comes to light how you decided to foolishly put fate to the test at absolutely no gain to yourself.

So it is with those who abandon Divine Law in order to take their fill of the pleasures of this world. Even if in the end they are rescued, they will likely face a great deal of chastisement and discipline for their foolishness.

Again, that is if a person is rescued. For I have known of many people whose deaths were so sudden that they never had a chance for confession, and just as many who ended up confessing them to someone as unforgiving and unsympathetic as they had been. Moreover, scripture teaches that, while the Lord can do almost anything in this world, there are places in dimensions far beyond this one where even His light will not shine. Christ used the illustration of a woman who loses a coin in the dark and dank crevices within her house, and leaves all the other coins on the kitchen table while she searches for it. Maybe she will find it, but then again maybe she will not. The wayward soul is that one coin, lonely and fearful as it waits in the dark for its master to happen upon it. Will it be found before the master's patience runs out? I do not know. But why be in a position to have to ask that question in the first place? Why become lost needlessly?