“The Greatest Gift, pt.2 (Romans 6:23)" |12/24/23
Romans 6:23 | 12/24/23 | Will DuVal
What’s the greatest gift you’ve ever received? I mean the greatest PHYSICAL, material gift - we’ll get to Jesus; and I know your spouse, your kids… they’re the best. But let’s talk about PRESENTS for a minute; Kids - I know you feel me.
I’m a very PRACTICAL guy. Most years, my favorite gift is like… replacement heads for my electric toothbrush… a new pack of BOXER-BRIEFS I really needed. So one of the best gifts I’ve received in RECENT years was an EMBER COFFEE MUG from my father-in-law. If you’re not familiar, this fancy mug keeps your coffee WARM… all day LONG! The rest of the church staff used to make FUN of me, for microwaving my coffee 2… 3 times throughout the day - well not anymore! It’s a GREAT gift - I use it every DAY!
But here’s the thing: that coffee mug sat in its box on a shelf in my office for over a YEAR before I finally used it. Because I convinced myself that I didn’t really NEED it. Embers are like 100… 120 BUCKS! I don’t mind reheated coffee THAT much! But I didn’t have the heart to RETURN it, either. So it just SAT there.
Friends, I want to share a VERY short devotional with you tonight - just one verse of Scripture that highlights THREE simple truths for us; they are simple, but they are MASSIVELY important, and here they are: that…
1) We NEED Jesus, God’s GIFT to us.
2) We CAN HAVE Jesus. Because God HAS GIVEN him, to us. And lastly,
3) We MUST RECEIVE Jesus. The greatest gift in the WORLD does you absolutely no good sitting on a shelf, still in the box, unopened.
You NEED Jesus. God GAVE Jesus. Now RECEIVE Jesus.
Let me read the verse for us; it comes from the Book of Romans ch6, v23, which declares:
“the wages of sin is DEATH, but the free GIFT of God is eternal LIFE in Christ Jesus our LORD.”
Let me read it again:
“the wages of SIN is death, but the free gift of GOD is eternal life in Christ JESUS our Lord.”
Now, if the Bible is truly God’s WORD - and it IS - then that means it is absolutely TRUSTWORTHY when it teaches us these three massively important things about God’s gift of his Son JESUS, that we celebrate this season at Christmas.
First, it reveals our NEED of the gift. Because according to GOD, “the WAGES of SIN is DEATH”. Every word of that phrase is significant, so let’s dissect it.
“Wages” refers to the payment one is OWED as a result of work rendered. And ironically, and TRAGICALLY, that’s how a LOT of folks are accustomed to thinking about their **“GOOD works”, the “good DEEDS”, that they “render” to GOD. They think, “I’m a good person, so when I DIE, God is gonna REWARD me with life in HEAVEN.” They think “the WAGES of my GOOD DEEDS is eternal LIFE.” But the problem is: that’s not what the Bible - what GOD - says; HE says, “the wages of SIN is DEATH.” Which brings us to the NEXT word of the phrase:
SIN. And once again, there’s a lot of misunderstanding about what SIN is. MOST people today think of “sin” as “the REALLY bad stuff out there that like… lands people in JAIL, or on DATELINE, or at least in society’sdoghouse - we don’t think kindly of murderers, adulterers, scammers, thieves... THOSE people are “sinners” because those kinds of wrongdoing are SINS, the “bigones”.
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But once again, that’s not how GOD describes sin; according to GOD, sin is anything that falls short of His WILL for us, God’s PERFECT will for our lives. Because God is our good heavenly Father, he desires nothing but the very BEST for us. And because God is perfectly HOLY, and RIGHTEOUS, He deserves nothing but the very best FROM us as well. The folks who assume they are “mostly good people” who God will therefore let into Heaven one day, apparently don’t stop long enough to consider the simple question: “How ‘GOOD’ is ‘good ENOUGH’?” And so they operate under this false assumption that God is gonna like “WEIGH” all of their deeds one day, and as long as the GOOD ones outweigh the BAD ones - the REALLY bad ones, anyway, the ones He actually CARES about - then they’ll be just FINE. Despite the fact that there’s not a SINGLE other area of their LIFE that works that way:
If the teacher gave you a 100 question test, and you answered 51 of them correctly - was that “good enough” to pass? If you answered 60 questions right… 65… at MY school, that was still an F.
If you were supposed to turn in 100 bi-weekly reports to your boss at work this year, but you only met his deadline on 80 of them… or even 90 of them… and then you just SKIPPED the other 10 reports - is that “good enough” to keep your job?
If you went on 100 out-of-town business trips, and 99 times, you remained FAITHFUL to your spouse. But just ONE NIGHT, you had a little too much to drink, and the next thing you knew… is 99 out of 100 “good enough” for your SPOUSE?!
And yet, for SOME reason, we operate under this CRAZY assumption, that “being just a little better than the NEXT person” is somehow “good ENOUGH” for the perfectly PURE, utterly UPRIGHT, infinitely HOLY God of the UNIVERSE!
Despite the fact that God HIMSELF tells us it doesn’t work that way. In the Bible, Jesus says, “If you want to EARN your spot in Heaven with YOUR good deeds,” as your “WAGES” for the works YOU’VE done, then “you must be PERFECT, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). That is the standard, of a perfect God. For admittance into a perfect place, Heaven, that’s reserved for perfect people: the standard is PERFECTION!
And anything that falls SHORT of that standard, of God’s BEST, the Bible calls “SIN”. And it says, “we have ALL sinned, and fallen SHORT of the glory of God”, the perfect PURPOSE for which we were created: bringing God GLORY with every single thought, word, and deed of our entire LIVES!
Which brings us to the THIRD word in the opening phrase - what ARE we owed, according to God, as a RESULT of our sin? DEATH. If just one sin - you can be 99 out of 100 - but just one sin of infidelity can result in separation from your SPOUSE, how much MORE so, will just one act of SPIRITUAL infidelity, just one SIN, result in our separation from God. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms, “Your sins have made a separation between you and your God” (Isa 59:2).
But friends, here’s where we get to the GOOD news of Christmas, of JESUS! Because the second half of Romans 6:23 assures us that THOUGH the wages of sin - what is rightfully OWED us - is DEATH, “but the free GIFT of God is eternal LIFE in Christ JESUS”.
Once again, every word there is important: God reveals the “WHAT”, “WHY” and “HOW” of His gift.
First: the “WHAT”. What is God’s GIFT to us? “ETERNAL LIFE”. It’s HEAVEN! Even though we deserve eternal separation from God, as a result of our sinful REJECTION of Him, God instead offers us eternal LIFE.
“WHY”? God says He offers it as a “FREE GIFT”. Why are YOU giving gifts to YOUR loved ones tomorrow? Because you “OWE” them? Because you want THEM to owe YOU? Not if it’s a “FREE” gift!
No, friends, God TELLS us why he offers us this incredible gift; it’s because “God SO LOVED the world”, THAT’S why “He gave his only Son, Jesus”, that we might not perish [DEATH!] but instead have everlasting life.” NOT because we “earned it” with OUR works, but as a “FREE GIFT”; the Bible says that “while we were still SINNERS, rebels against God,” that IN SPITE of us, Christ died FOR us.
Which brings us to the “HOW” of the gift: God offers us eternal LIFE, as a free GIFT… HOW?
“IN CHRIST JESUS”. God is not only perfectly HOLY, he is also perfectly JUST. That means he will not - he CAN not - simply turn a blind eye to sin. Not even the LITTLE ones. God must and He WILL deal with ALL our sin; “You do the CRIME, you gotta do the TIME”. You gotta pay the FINE, the PENALTY for your sin. And according to the Bible, we ALL pay that fine one of two ways: We will either spend the rest of eternity trying in VAIN to pay it off, since all sin against an infinitely holy God incurs an INFINITE debt. OR, the SECOND way, to pay an INFINITE fine, is to find an INFINITE remuneration. The perfect, sufficient payment for sin.
And friends, that’s exactly what God GAVE us in the gift of his SON, Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life of obedience that we should have, but failed to. And then on the cross, Jesus died the death that we should have, but couldn’t - a death that actually PAID the penalty for our sins, in FULL, sacrificially, in our place. And then in his resurrection, Jesus gave us his very own power OVER death, such that He now offers us NEW life, ETERNAL life, a hope that transcends the grave.
But here’s the thing: the best gift in the world does you absolutely no good… UN-OPENED. And it is not enough to merely recognize your NEED of the gift - God’s gift of LIFE, forgiveness, SALVATION from our sin… or even to acknowledge God’s PROVISION of the gift, in His Son JESUS…
NO, friends, we must RECEIVE God’s gift.
That’s why Romans 6:23 ends with those two MASSIVE words: “OUR LORD”.
Jesus isn’t just “our GIFT”. He’s not just “our SAVIOR”. Our “ticket into Heaven”. He is ALSO “our LORD.” He’s GOD! He’s the One by whom and FOR whom you EXIST! That means we can’t just pray a prayer and get our ticket punched. You can’t just get BAPTIZED and be good to go. Jesus said there are gonna be folks who believe that he died and rose again, who even do MIRACLES in his name, who will be DENIED eternal life because he was never their LORD. They never surrendered their LIVES to Him, in faith. Which brings us to the OTHER word:
“OUR”. Jesus has to be YOUR Lord, friend. Jesus is God; but he wants to be YOUR God.
“Come then to Him Who lies within the manger,
With joyful shepherds, proclaim Him as Lord.
Let not the Promised Son remain a stranger;
In reverent worship, make Christ your Adored.
Eternal life is theirs who would receive Him;
With grace and peace, their lives He will adorn.
Fall on your knees! Receive the Gift of heaven!”