Romans 6:23

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

(1) "For the wages of sin is death, 

(2) but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What does that mean -- "the wages of sin is death?"

Well, "wages" are what you get paid for working.

"Wages" are what you earn or your payment. 

And "death" here is eternal separation from God or hell. 

So

(1) the price or the consequence we must pay for our sin is that we will be forever separated from God in hell.

But

(2) we can experience heaven or spend the afterlife with God in spite of our sin. 

How do we secure this spot in heaven? First we must recognize that:

• it is a free gift. 
• we cannot earn it. 
• we cannot buy it. 
• we cannot bargain for it. 
• we must do what we would do with any other gift we are given -- either receive it or decline to take it. 

What's so cool about this is that even though we are the ones who should be punished for the bad things we have thought or said or done, Jesus is the one who actually paid the price. And because of Him we are eligible to receive God's free gift if we want it. 

And that's the second part of what we must recognize:

• it is because of Jesus that we can have eternal life. 
• we cannot get to heaven by any other way except through Jesus. 

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John‬ ‭14:6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Lord, thank you for your great mercy in that you are willing to offer us heaven as a free gift instead of giving us what we deserve. We are forever greatful!