A Gift to Enjoy
This year in our monthly articles we are considering favorite verses from the Bible.
This month’s favorite Bible verse is: Romans 6:23
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
My first paycheck. $100! A ONE with two zeroes behind it! It didn’t matter that I spent a week pulling weeds with thistles in a 45-acre field. It didn’t matter that I sweltered under a hot July sun. It didn’t matter that I earned minimum wage. It had my name on it. I earned it.
There is another paycheck that I’m not so excited about. It comes in the form of guilt pricking my conscience far deeper than a thistle could ever penetrate my skin. Sometimes I see it when my temper flares hotter than the summer sun. I feel it when I know I should be more considerate, more caring, more loving toward others around me. So I work harder to do what’s right and try harder to do better than before, but still, it never seems to be enough. And it isn’t enough, because the Bible tells me the wages of my sin is death—and it’s your paycheck, too.
But, thank the Lord, the Bible also tells us that God is not going to give us what we have earned with our sins. Instead, he gives us something we have not earned—eternal life. It’s a gift that has been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus and earned by his death on the cross.
That takes all the pressure off, doesn’t it? Instead of the failures of our past, we can look to Jesus’ perfect life of love. Instead of the pressures of tomorrow, we can look to the promise of eternal life that is already won for us by Jesus’ dying and rising from the dead. As a result, life is not a burden, but a gift to enjoy always.
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