Sin has an eternal price which Christ paid for the elect on the cross, accepted by God as full payment thereof with the witness of the empty tomb ever before man as to this great truth. Nonetheless there remains a dichotomy we need understand. A Christian can sin, in fact will sin every day either by direct violation of the law of God, or by not doing what God has told Him to do. Thus the old distinction of sins both being those of commission and those of omission. All sin costs the elect two prices, or perhaps we could say has portions of the debt that will be collect now, and portions that will be collected in eternity.
Sin always results in human misery.
There is not one single thing in the universe that touches evil or not being of good that is not the direct result of sin. Either from the original sin and the resulting curse, or more directly in the circumstances that surround the saints of God throughout history. The second payment in eternity deals with the reward due the saints on entering glory, or lack of same for misdeeds during their journey through life. Here we are dealing with the elect, and it is from this perspective that I speak. We could at this point out the various aspects of the Christian life which sin affects, but that has been handled other places and my desire is for all to know how close to the surface of each sin lies, and that it is only by constant reliance on Christ and the indwelling Spirit man can even begin to live apart from the pits of hell clinging longingly to his flesh.