The Hard Way
Dr. Richard M. Robinson

“Good understanding giveth favor: but the way
of transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15).

One of the most notorious prisons in American history was Sing Sing in New York. This imposing lockup facility was built in 1825, and it didn’t take long after that for it to become the very embodiment of suffering. Much of it was made from the marble quarried in the area, reflecting the kind of hearts of those who lived within its walls. Sing Sing was a dark, damp maximum security prison. The cells measured just 3’3” wide by 6’ 7” high by 7’ deep. There were no windows in the cells and no indoor plumbing, just a bucket. The foul odor was so rank it was hard to breath at times. Of course, with those conditions, Sing Sing became the breeding ground for all kinds of vermin--mice, cockroaches, lice, fleas, and bedbugs were everywhere.

One particular prisoner, Jerry McAuley, became an inmate of Sing Sing from false charges, but he was by no means innocent. He was framed to simply get rid of him once and for all. He grew up in Ireland without supervision in a fatherless home. He was so mean and uncontrollable that by the age of 13 he was sent to live with his sister and brother-in-law in New York. It didn’t take long for him to move to the slums of lower east side New York and become a confirmed “river thief.”

During the next five to six years, Jerry became one of the most hated ruffians in the neighborhood. He used his proceeds from thievery to buy clothes and drink. He once related how “Stealing came natural and easy.” He was constantly in trouble with the law--a bigger nuisance never walked above ground. He frequently ended up in the local jailhouse, sometimes for up to six months!

By his late teens, McAuley had grown to physical maturity. He had the mind of a criminal and the body to go with it. His tall, well-built frame with long arms and great big hands showed brutal strength. His retreating forehead, small deep-set eyes, wide mouth and heavy projecting nose quickly caught one’s attention and could strike fear into the heart of anyone he fixed his gaze upon.

At the age of 19 he was falsely accused of highway robbery, convicted on trumped up charges, and sent to Sing Sing for 15 years. He knew he deserved to go to prison, but was nonetheless bitter for being framed. But God had plans for this no-good ruffian. It was in this notorious prison that Jerry McAuley’s life was forever changed. In these bleak and painful surroundings this hardened criminal was gloriously converted by the gospel of Jesus Christ! After his release, he would go on to start the very first rescue mission in America.

God, in His infinite wisdom, would use this notorious prison to prepare Jerry McAuley to receive Christ. It all began with the first thing he saw upon arriving at the prison. At the end of the 30 mile train ride from New York to Sing Sing, Jerry McAuley saw the sign over the doorway to the prison. It read, “The way of the transgressor is hard.” He knew this proverb well and had heard it many times. In his book, Transformed, he says about seeing that verse,

All thieves and wicked people know it well and they know
too that it is out of the Bible. It is a well worn proverb in the
haunts of vice and one confirmed by daily experience. And
how strange it is knowing so well that the way is hard, the
transgressor will still go on it.

Fast forward now to the twenty-first century. McAuley’s words are as true today as they were in his own time--indeed, as they were when they were written, and even before that time! Actually, this verse became a reality as soon as Adam and Even fell in the Garden of Eden. From that long-ago day to this, Proverbs 13:15 has been fulfilled without fail in every life that has ever lived on this earth. Listen to these words again: “Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.” Every man and woman, boy and girl is a criminal of God’s moral and spiritual law. And all of us, as it were, create our own Sing Sing prison of consequences--and like the literal prison, there are no exceptions and no escape. God has written in big letters across every sinful, rebellious, defiant life, “The way of transgressors is hard.”

The most important lesson that a child can learn from his or her parents is simply: Sin is the hard way, but obedience is ultimately the easy, comfortable, and happy way. Nothing compares to wisdom’s benefits. As Proverbs 3:17 says, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Not some, or even most, but all! Of course, at first, sin is the easy, comfortable and even a fun way, but in time it turns into exactly the opposite. And at first, obedience to God seems hard, but stay with it and the way gets easier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable.

This process leading to opposite results is supported everywhere you look in the Bible. It is also confirmed in every life, in every family, and in every nation composing all of world history. It is also written into the very fabric of the universe--as soon as the laws of nature are broken, this truth is begins to unfold. And it is in harmony with common sense itself. Even animals behave with more sense than sinful man--but they don’t really know why their behavior is right. Man knows what behavior is right and yet often does the opposite anyway!

This leads to the most important characteristic to remember about sin. The power of sin lies in its ability to deceive. It promises one thing and delivers the opposite thing. Notice the simple, direct statement found in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” As soon as a person starts sinning, they get on sin’s payroll system. Sin has wages--yes, it pays to sin, but you won’t like it. You’ll have a great time earning sin’s wages, but you will hate receiving those wages. As it says in Hebrews 11:25, you can only enjoy “the pleasures of sin for a season.” Never forget that sin has two seasons--one short and one long. Notice that the “pleasure season” is short and the pay season is long. The pain of sin lasts longer--much longer—than do the pleasures.

In contrast, obeying God can be very hard, and seem to last very long, but the pay is greater, and will last even longer! I love the comparison between physical exercise and spiritual exercise seen in 1 Timothy 4:8. “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” Living in obedience to God puts you on God’s payroll immediately. And the pay helps you in every area of your life--as it says, it is “profitable unto all things.” Being spiritual helps you be successful in everything--legitimately, honorably, and lastingly successful! This is one of the great secrets of life on which Satan is forced to focus his entire vast propaganda machine.

The Devil doesn’t want people to ever discover this truth. And the best part of this truth is found is in the duration of God’s payroll system. Notice 1 Timothy 4:8 again: “...godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, AND OF THAT WHICH IS TO COME.” God can stop sin’s wages but sin cannot stop God’s wages. Having health through living right, peace by thinking right, and purpose through working right are all great payments in this life. But the biggest windfall comes after we enter Heaven! We keep getting paid just as 1 Timothy 4:8 says, but now we get a gigantic pay raise.

That is the idea found in James 1:12, when it says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the CROWN OF LIFE, which the Lord hath promied to them that love him.” That crown is literal and it represents both authority and wealth. We will be as powerful as we are rich. Getting saved is purely by grace apart from good works, as it says in Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us...” But if we “endure temptation” as it says in James 1:12, we shall earn a promotion in God’s heavenly pay scale.

We are all saved the same, by faith in Christ. We will all live in the same place, Heaven. But in this life we all do not love the Lord the same. And those who loved the Lord more down here, will receive more in the next life up there. That’s why it says in Hebrews 10:35, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath GREAT RECOMPENCE OF REWARD.” When God says, “great,” He means great! We must maintain our confidence that God’s payroll is better than anything Satan and this wicked world has to offer. God says to us, “You must endure temptation--that is your job in this life. Your chief employment in this life is to obey and glorify me at any cost.” But God’s pay, both now and later, is always far better than the what it cost us--we must stay confident of that truth.

Satan comes along and says, “Come work for me--I pay a better wage than even the Lord. I will pay you in pleasure, He will pay you in pain.” That is a lie! Pleasure is not the pay--it is the bait. Pleasure is the bit of cheese on Satan’s mousetrap. It is enjoyed for a few bites, just long enough to spring the trap.

Put another way, Satan is the warden of a prison--a kind of Sing Sing where the pay is hard labor with no freedom. Prison life ages a person, and Satan’s prison ages a person the most. Have you noticed that a transgressor looks old at age forty and a saint looks young at age sixty? At the end of his long career, it says of Moses in Deuteronomy 34:7, “And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Because Moses was, for the most part, was an obedient man, he had retained much of his youthfulness even at the ripe old age of 120!

The same basic rewards are found in Psalm 92:13-14 to those who are faithful to attend God’s House. “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” And this is declared to be part of God’s fair and generous payment system for obedience in the very next verse: “To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him” (v.15). Notice that being faithful to God and His House can be hard work. Many have stopped working at it already. Even before the New Testament age came to a close, it says in Hebrews 10:25 that it was a pattern with many. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, AS THE MANNER OF SOME IS...” That’s when Christians choose the Devil’s easy life, which becomes an increasingly hard life.

Remember what Jesus said about Satan in John 10:10? “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy...” That describes increasing hardship--going from robbery to mass destruction. But Jesus promises the real good life--“I am come that they mgiht have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” That’s increasing benefits, making life increasingly easier. Thus, if we remain faithful, though hard on the surface, we experience the easiest life of all.