August 14, 2019 -- Romans 6:21-23 God's Pensioners

20-21 As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.

22-23 But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.

Romans 6:21-23 The Message

For those of you who read these devotions on the regular basis you’ll immediately notice the language is so different today than the language of the bible translation which is usually posted. The Message is the translation done by Eugene Peterson—it is a modern translation that seeks to capture the idiom of the language—the stark originality of the underlying Greek. Normally the English Standard Version is the “go-to” version for these devotions. The ESV is a translation that seeks to be more of a word for word translation.

What is striking today is the contrast between the former way of life for Christians and the new life that is ours in Christ. The former way of life is a dead end. The person who is not living for Jesus is earning this pension: death. The Christian and the non-Christian both work hard in life. Both have to pay bills. Both have to make choices. Both have to be in various relationships with family and neighbours and friends, juggling the complexities of hurts and joys these bring. You get the idea, but only the Christ-follower has fullness of life now: the delight of knowing God now and the eternal life which begins now and is real life.

This “real life” is honouring to Jesus in these ways. The Christian’s sins have been punished on the body of Jesus at the cross. He voluntarily took the place of the Christian in receiving God’s punishment. So there is a freedom for the Christian to know death is done with and eternal life is started here now. Those who are living a dead end life, are about to receive a pension in hell where they’ll be wishing for death that will never come, such persons can not honour Jesus by their living because with Jesus it is all or nothing. Either you are wholly submitted to Him and leave the dead end ways of living, or you are under Satan’s thumb. You can’t be ‘sort of Christian’. You can’t serve more than one Master—none of us can.

“Real life” is honouring to Jesus in that the Christian is not perfect, still sins—but sin is becoming more and more hateful. The Christian confesses his sin to God and is forgiven. Jesus takes the life of the Christian and prays to God the Father on his behalf saying: ‘Father, credit to him My perfection, as I lived in holiness before You on the earth, credit him with that holy living, because You have punished all his sins when You punished Me in his place.” You can see what freedom Christians enjoy to live for God and to live free from the fear of punishment and the fear of what happens after we die.

The real life is one where Jesus’ honour increases and the Jesus follower focuses less and less on himself and his own accomplishments. The Jesus follower knows all his possessions are gifts from God the Father, given because of the work of Jesus. The Jesus followers knows that his circumstances, when they’re easy they are for God’s glory. When the circumstances of life are tough, these are still for the benefit of believers given so that believers are stretched and have greater capacity to know God and trust Him. Our lives are not meaningless, our suffering is never lost—it is used of God for holy ends and reasons that we know nothing of now will be revealed to us in eternity—so real life now is filled with confident hope no matter what happens here God is working in the life of the children He loves.

Thank You God our Father that in the trenches of our every day existence You know us completely. Thank You God for the work of Jesus which is applied to those who believe in Him 100% as their Savior and Lord. Spirit of the Living God continue to conquer our hearts for the glory of Jesus and toss out every inclination to sin. As Jesus-followers we ask for those who do not love Him as we do—show them the emptiness of sin living and its pension of death and hell—so that while there is still time they may turn from their sin, and instead anchor their life in Jesus. Thank You, God, for the men and women you put in our lives who clearly show a love for You and show that a life of following-Jesus is truly a delight. Amen.