“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
This may be a familiar verse to you. I know it’s one of my favorites. I think it’s one of the best “but God” verses in the Bible. What do I mean by “but God” verses? How often do we read in the Bible of times when the people of God were sinning and deserved punishment, but God . . .? Or maybe they find themselves in a situation that seems hopeless, but God . . . Perhaps they were plunging straight ahead, thinking they were serving God when in reality they were going in the opposite direction from Him, but God . . . He always finds a way to break into the situation and bring us back to Him.
The first part of the verse is pretty self-explanatory. We sin, therefore, we deserve to die. It may be self-explanatory, but it sure seems harsh, doesn’t it? I mean, all sin should have a death sentence? I can see a death sentence for something like murder, but gossip? Or judging others? What if my judgement is only on the inside? Is that still a sin? Maybe, but not a bad one, right? But that’s looking at it from a human perspective. We are incredibly talented at downplaying the depth and the seriousness of our sin and rationalizing our own motives. It wasn’t really my fault. Someone else was gossiping and I didn’t want to be rude. So it’s really the other person’s fault. Or, I can’t help it if I have an opinion about another person and that opinion happens to be a negative one. Right? Wrong. These are the very sins that separated us for eternity from God.
But God. God knew we can’t keep from sinning. He knew what helpless, hopeless creatures we are. So He gave us a gift. Some versions say a “free gift.” That seems a little redundant to me. All gifts are free. That’s what makes them gifts. But the original Greek uses a different word than at any other time in the Bible. This is a gift that is a “gracious gift.” It’s not a wedding gift that’s given because you got an invitation so you kind of have to take a gift. This gift was unasked for, unexpected, and definitely undeserved. And it’s a gift we could never repay. Never. Not if we spend the rest of eternity trying. Here’s the irony: we can spend eternity trying to repay this un-repayable gift only because this gift has given us that eternity with God.
If God has broken into our world to solve this dilemma for us, how much more is He able to help us with the wildernesses in which we may find ourselves? And He may even do it in ways we could never imagine or foresee. What is your situation today? Are you sad? Depressed? Lonely? Hopeless? Convicted? Shamed? Angry? Hurt? Wherever you are and whatever you’re experiencing, I have just two words for you: But God . . .