While listening to the message in church this past Sunday, I
was struck by two words, “wages” and “gift,” contained in a familiar Bible
passage: “For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23
NKJV). It seemed to me that the sharp
contrast between these terms revealed much about sin, God and eternal life.
A wage
is something earned, something required
for labor or services rendered. Some synonyms for wage are salary, stipend,
fee, and reward. A gift, on the other hand, has the sense of
being given voluntarily, freely, and transferred from one person to another. Looking back at the Romans verse, the
required payment for our sinful ways is death.
But God, in His great goodness and mercy, willingly offers us what we
cannot earn: eternal life. And it is life no longer marred by suffering,
sadness, loss or pain.
One of
the first verses I learned in Sunday school was John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten son . . . “ God freely gives
us the embodiment of His love. It is,
indeed, a gift, not required as a payment but a glorious gift of grace and mercy.
No comments:
Post a Comment