Monday, March 13, 2017
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
CONTRASTING SIN AND DEATH WITH GOD'S GRACE
From beginning to end the free gift of the Savior from sin is just that-- a free gift. The promise of the Savior given in Eden was a free gift, given when man fell into sin. That Savior Himself was a free gift, sent into the world as humble Man. He suffered and died on the cross, freely offering up His own holy body as the atoning sacrifice for sin. All of this He did without asking anything in return, for Jesus said, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).
Having sent us this Savior from sin to keep the law in our place and to offer up His life in payment for our sins, God did not leave it up to sinful man to bring Himself to faith. If this were the case we would still be doomed to eternal death, for the Scriptures tell us that "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Instead, we find that faith in the free gift of the Savior is itself a free gift. We read in Ephesians 2:8f, "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
And so it is that through the gift of the Savior, in whom we believe by the gift of faith in Him, we receive the gift of eternal life. Having been brought to faith in our Savior Jesus Christ we can be confident that God will not judge us according to what we deserve.
Rather, because Christ kept the law perfectly in our place and paid for our sins in His death on the cross we "become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). In Christ we are judged by God, again, not according to what we deserve. Rather, as believers we are judged to be "not guilty" of sin. Through the gift of faith in Christ we believe what our Savior has promised, namely that "Whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
"The wages of sin is death." The law shows us that we are sinners who have fallen eternally short of being righteous.
"But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Through grace (undeserved love), God sent the Savior into the world to suffer the wage of eternal death that we deserved, and has brought us to faith in that Savior, turning that wage of sin, death, into the entrance into everlasting life, as the Apostle writes, "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).
This is the contrast that sets the tone for Lent. We deserve death for our sins, and yet in Christ God gives us what we do not deserve, eternal life. We are sad our sins drove our Savior to humble Himself and go to the cross to suffer our punishment. For this same reason we are joyful and eternally grateful, for unless Christ had done this we would get what we deserved.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
