Eternal Life: The gift of God in Jesus Christ

Romans 6:19-23

19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, if we are slaves no matter what – either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness – then why does it matter which pattern we follow? We are slaves either way.

Here is the difference, what is the result of our service to the one we serve, what is the legacy that our service leaves behind? Is our legacy adding to the stink of death in the world, the decay and destruction that sin has wrought in the world? Or will our legacy be one of which we will not need to be ashamed (vs. 21), a legacy of sanctification – of good works which flow from the free gift of God’s grace? We are invited to leave a legacy built on a commitment to the newness of life promised to us in Jesus Christ.

The legacy we leave in the world matters, and it flows from the decision we make about which path we will follow. The decision to choose life, the decision to leave a legacy flowing from the new life we have in Jesus Christ, leads us to sing with “Amazing Grace”:       

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

This is our highest calling as human beings. As the answer to the first question of Shorter Catechism says, “The prime purpose (chief end) of human beings is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.”

PRAYER:

Glory be to you, Lord God Almighty. To You all praise and honour are due. For you have redeemed to your self people of every tribe and language and ethnicity, that we might proclaim the wonders of your action in the world. You have given newness of life, and we rejoice. In Jesus’ name. Amen.