To Encourage You

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do you realize that there are really only two religions in the world?  They come in many forms, but in their basic essence there are only two.

One form is rooted in human efforts to reach God, or at least a god.  What that god is called and how that effort is made varies, but it is always rooted in an effort to please a higher power.  There is never any confidence that this deity is actually pleased, for there’s no way to know on this side of eternity.  It’s the religion that is trying to earn favor with God through various religious rituals, modes of dress, dietary laws, and other outward acts of one sort or another.  If you wonder about whether this is your religion, ask yourself if you can know that you will be welcomed into heaven someday.  If you don’t know, or believe that you can’t know, then the religion of human works is yours. You may call yourself Amish, Methodist, Jehovah’s Witness, Muslim, Buddhist, or Mormon, but it’s all the same, if you think you might be able to earn favor with God. 

Sadly, however, you need to know that you can’t.  That’s what the first part of the message in the verse above is telling us.  It speaks of “wages” and wages refer to things that are earned.  Any human effort to approach God – whether deemed “religious” or not – is doomed to failure because it is tainted by sin.  One of the definitions of sin is “to miss the mark,” and that’s exactly what any of these efforts does; it woefully misses the mark.  These things will never win favor with God because they fall woefully short of his perfect and holy standard.  As we are told in James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law (and absolutely no one does this, by the way) but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” 

This brings us to the other “religion,” which is the only religion that the true God has established. It’s the religion that rests not on human works but on the work of God.  It’s the religion based on the fact that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  It’s the religion that is based not on man’s efforts to reach out to God but God’s efforts to reach out to man.  It’s the religion of the condescension of the God of heaven coming to earth as a little baby to live with us and die for us. It’s the religion of faith in Jesus, “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  And it’s a religion that is not based on efforts to earn God’s favor, but rather of receiving a free gift of eternal life.  That’s exactly what the verse above calls it, for it says,  “the gift of God is eternal life” and that life is only in “Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

So, is Christ Jesus your Lord.  Have you received the free gift of eternal life that comes to us in only one way, i.e., by faith in the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6)? 

Yes, there are only two religions in all the world – the one based on the futile notion that one can earn his or her way to favor with God, and the one that is rooted in the Truth that “For our sake He (God the Father) made Him (God the Son) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Is this truth the root of your religion?  If not, your religion is a lie and you are not saved.  But you can be, if you will only receive the free gift of eternal life from the One who did all the work that was necessary for you and I to find favor with God.