Minimum Payment, Maximium Reward

Joke about the lottery

Why do people play the lottery?

Most things that require a minimum payment have a small chance of maximum payoff.

Yet, the Grace of God takes that which is true of humanity and inverses that truth in relation to God.

Minimum Wage

Notice the subject of this verse. It is not “sin,” and it is not “death!” The main idea of this verse is “wages”

First, let use grasp the word’s meaning:

It only appears four times throughout the New Testament and each time it is used to describe the payment or due someone is owed!

In fact, John the Baptist uses the term in Luke 3:14 in reference to soldiers grumbling about their minimum wage!

Second, see the character of these wages:

What kind of wages are they? They are the wages of sin!

Also, see the plurality of these wages. You are not paid these wages all up front, but they accumulate over time!

The accumulation of these payments leads to one goal, and that is death!

Marvelous Gift

Let us, move on to the marvelous gift Paul speaks of

First, we recognize the word finds its origins in the word of grace!

Second, we use it in the modern sense to speak of someone’s “charisma.”

The “but” here is very distinctive. What we should expect to follow out of Paul’s mouth is the fulfillment of sin’s due!

The Bible speaks of a place called hell where sinners are condemned for eternity!

The Bible speaks of a Great White Throne upon which the Judge of the Earth will reside!

The Bible speaks of a record in which God has either sealed your name or blotted it out!

The expectation of the wages of sin is death at the minimum and hell as the maximum!

Yet, Paul does not follow sins minimum wage with its maximum penalty. That “but” transitions us to a free pardon of sin with the payment of eternal life!

Reminds me of the old song: Rock of Ages

Rock of ages cleft for me Let me hide myself in Thee Rock of ages, cleft for me Let me hide myself in Thee

Let the water and the blood From thy riven side which flowed Oh, be of sin the double cure Cleanse me from its guilt and powerMatchless Savior

Matchless Savior

Where can this grace be found! Paul says through Jesus Christ our Lord. Some translations have “in” Jesus Christ our Lord!

I want you to see how Paul builds to this moment within the book of Romans:

Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”

Romans 5:11 “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

Romans 5:15 “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”

Romans 5:20-21 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:3 “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”

Romans 6:11 “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The gift of God is not merely bestowed to you through the work of Christ, but it is solely found in the person of Christ!

Conclusion:

Malachi’s desire to always be with me.