The Romans Road pt.3
Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23
Freedom vs. Failure
Dear Family,
Last week we saw God's heart break in two because of the betrayal He witnessed in His own creation, the creation meant to be in a relationship with Him forever. When Adam and Eve took the fruit from the tree in the garden of eden, the only tree that God said not to eat from, there was a rift created between God and man.
You see, God is perfection, He is everything that is perfect. He's like a can of white paint, it's the purest white paint you can ever imagine, not eggshell, or cream... God is a can of WHITE paint. And when he created Adam he made a can of white paint just like his own (in His image). When Adam decided to betray God, it's like Adam took a cup of black paint (or any color of your choosing) and poured it into the White paint. Now, as I'm sure you can imagine, Adam's can still looks white to the naked eye. It still bears a simbilance to how it was created. However, when you place it next to God's can of white paint, it's color is off. It won't mix with the pure WHITE paint any longer.
This is the reason why God told Adam to leave the garden, why Adam couldn't live with God any more. God looked at Adam and said, “your paint doesn't mix with mine anymore” it's as simple as that, our imperfection doesn't mix with God's perfection anymore.
In Roman's 6:23 we read that “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus or Lord”. Pretty straight forward isn't it. You see, there is a very distinctive difference between the two halves of this verse. And they are this, the first is that when sin entered the world mankind all of a sudden owed a debt, and that debt was death. Man could no longer commune with God anymore, man could no longer live forever with God, and man was cursed to the ground he came from. In light of eternity in a garden paradise with God almighty, I'd say that's as much death as death can be in anyone's eyes. And that death is the debt we as humans owe, it's our “wages” that we all must pay regardless of how good of a person we are.
But the flip side is this, the gift! The second half of this verse says “but, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord... how amazing is that? When we all were born into this debt that we'd have to pay at some point, Jesus steps in and takes our ticket. He pays the tab on our bill. What Jesus did was take that fruit from the garden, that sin, and rip the price tag off of it, take it to the register and said “I'll pay for this”!!!
What!? That's what the Cross was all about, it was about Jesus taking our debt and paying it off. It's a gift, and the only way to claim that gift is by coming to Jesus for it, acknowledge what he did, and accepting it. How good does being cursed to the ground we came from/eternity as a broken, off white can of paint compare with being purged of that impurity and being made right, the way we were created to be?
Jesus never wanted anyone to become a baptist, presbyterian, catholic, methodist, or whatever... all He wants is for His creation to be made pure again, to be in communion with Him again, to Love Him again... to understand what it meant for Him, when he died on the cross and paid our debt... the bible says to believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth and you will be saved... it's like with your family, they know you love them, they know you care about the things they do... but it's so much better when you tell your mom that you love her, when you tell your siblings thank you for the things that you do for me.
Jesus knows your heart, but he wants to hear it. Tell Him that you love Him, that you are thankful for the gift he gave us on the cross...
Until,
Hunter S. Brewer
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