As
I sat down in my office this past week and began to compile of all the various
things that I had read about our verse for today, it dawned on me that I had
missed a very important piece of information.
A few weeks ago we talked about the gift of Jesus that we have received. Last week we talked about how we are to share
that gift with others. However, there’s
something very crucial to our study of the True Gift of Christmas that I have
completely overlooked. I’ve overlooked
the concept of what a gift is; what is a gift?
A gift is something given to someone without payment. It’s a present. Another definition of a gift is a natural
ability or talent. In other words, it’s
something that you’re not owed, but you’re given anyway. It’s something that you didn’t earn, but you
still received. Y’all, I had a hard time
when we first moved down here because I have always referred to someone getting
older as them turning a certain age. For
example, here in about a month and a few days my daughter will turn six. However, down here, y’all (and unfortunately
some in my house have started to say this too) will say that she made six. I have to admit that that always throws me
off, because saying that someone made a certain age almost sounds like they did
it themselves. To make something implies
that you create something or that you cause something to exist that didn’t
previously exist. Well, Ashby didn’t
have a thing to do with her coming into existence. The only thing she has really contributed is
staying alive (and she constantly tests that reality every day). I guess it’s one way of phrasing it so that receiving
and giving presents at birthdays seems to be in celebration of some
accomplishment.
Now,
obviously, I’m just having a little fun with y’all about the language barrier
exists, which the longer I’m here the wider I find it to be. But I want us to turn back to the concept of
a gift being something that we are given and not something we earn; a gift
being something that we receive or have received without any payment on our
behalf. “For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In other words, what we should get because of
our sin is death, but what God chooses to give us as a present, something that
we don’t pay for, is eternal life. Just
let that sink in for a second. Let that
one float around in your mind as you try and comprehend the magnitude of that
verse. What we deserve is death, but God
gives to us, free of charge, eternal life.
However, it’s not really free of charge is it?
Well,
to us the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ is free, but to God it most
certainly wasn’t free. You see, there
was a debt that was owed because of the sin of mankind, and that debt had to be
paid somehow. The biggest problem for us
is that we, as fallen human beings, stood totally incapable of repaying that
debt. Only God could pay the debt, and
that’s exactly what He did in the death of Jesus, in the death of His Son. In other words, God paid God for a debt that
was owed to Himself. Notice that I
didn’t say that He absolved that debt, but that He paid it. Tim Keller in his book King’s Cross, which is a wonderful look at the gospel of Mark, does
a beautiful job explaining the substitutionary atonement in the death of Jesus
upon the cross. Keller uses an analogy
of someone breaking your lamp. The
breaking of the lamp creates a need for a replacement so that light can be
restored to an otherwise dark room. Now,
there are two options for how that lamp is to be replaced. Either the person who broke the lamp replaces
it, thus costing them something, or you replace your own lamp, which costs you
something. Now, even if you were to
replace your own lamp, there is still a cost.
The person who broke the lamp doesn’t pay anything, but the restoration
of light to the room isn’t free. It cost
the offended party instead of the offending party, but there’s still a
cost. Friends, that is exactly what God
did for us in Jesus Christ, the good and perfect gift that we looked at in
James 1 a few weeks ago. God provided
the means by which light could be restored to the dark room that was our
standing with Him. It costs us nothing
to have that relationship restored; it was a free gift from God. The wonderful relatively new Christian hymn In Christ Alone points out this
substitutionary nature of Christ’s death upon the cross perfectly: Til on that cross as Jesus died; The wrath of
God was satisfied; For every sin on Him was laid; Here in the death of Christ I
live.
Now,
I want to take a second and clear up what I mean by the word free for just a
moment. German theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, in his book The Cost of
Discipleship, makes the distinction between what he refers to as cheap
grace and costly grace. Now, I don’t
have enough time to read you the entirety of what he says on this distinction,
but I want to give you a few bullet points on this. Bonhoeffer says that cheap grace is the enemy
of the Church. Cheap grace is grace
without price, without cost. Cheap grace
is the notion that because Christ has paid the price, that we are left to run
up as big of a tab as we would like knowing that our sins are forgiven. Cheap grace means “the justification of sin
without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from
whom sin departs….Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the
cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” In other words, cheap grace is that view of
this gift of eternal life in Christ in which our debt was simply absolved and
not paid, and paid in full.
Bonhoeffer
goes on to describe costly grace by saying, “Costly grace is the gospel…the
gift that must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to
follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life,
and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and
grace because it justifies the sinner.
Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son…and what
has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.
Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a
price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
Far
too often, we use the concept of grace and sayings like “justified by grace
alone” as excuses to do whatever it is that we want to do. We very casually throw out the notion that
we’re all sinners and so it’s okay to sin.
Now I’m not denying that we’re all sinners, but our response to this
gift of eternal life in Christ cannot simply be to go about our lives as if it
is some trivial matter. There has to be
some change, some transformation, some acknowledgement of that gift on the part
of the recipients. Imagine if you would,
that you had the ability to give someone who was completely broke a
life-changing amount of money. You were
able to give them so much money that it was virtually impossible for them to
spend it all in their lifetime. Imagine
if after giving them that money, that person went out and spent it on frivolous
things without any recognition of what they had been given. Imagine them acting as if it was their right
to have that money without so much as a thank you to the one who had given them
that gift. Imagine them spending their
money the same way in which they did before being given this life-changing
gift, buying everything they wanted and have no self-control when it came to
their spending. Why, we would find this
absolutely apprehensive and appalling.
So, why is it that we live this way when it comes to God’s grace? Why is it that we use the gift of grace as an
excuse to sin instead of responding to it by trying to imitate Christ?
Several
years ago, when I was in seminary, this verse became the center of a disagreement
between myself and the church that I grew up in. The pastor of my parents’ church, who came
well after I had moved away, wrote me a letter with this verse as the
theme. Without going into too much of
the details of the disagreement, I was supposed to preach at the church of my
youth one Sunday, but because of some circumstances that existed between that
church and the church that I worked for at the time, I was unable to fulfill my
agreement to preach. In the letter the
pastor of that church wrote to me he stated that he found my backing out of
preaching to be a poor reflection of my character and he quoted to me that “the
wages of sin is death.” Now, y’all know
me. I don’t typically do things without
good reason, and there was a very pointed reason why I couldn’t preach at the
church of my youth. Y’all also know that
I don’t tend to take kindly to attacks at my character, especially when they
are unfounded. In a moment of weakness,
I wrote a response to that pastor which read:
“First off, I’m sorry that I cannot preach on the agreed upon Sunday,
but the denominational strife between our two churches might place my current
church’s status of moving from the PC(USA) to the EPC in jeopardy. Secondly, just so you know, while the wages
of sin is death, the gift of God’s free grace is eternal life in Jesus
Christ. While I do not see my actions as
being sinful, I’m thankful that even if I cannot recognize my own sin that the
death of my Savior is great enough to cover the price that is owed for my indiscretions. If your copy of God’s Word does not contain
the second part of Romans 6:23, I suggest that you rush out and buy yourself a
newer Bible. If you don’t have the money
for it, I will be happy to take care of it for you.” Like I said, it was a moment of weakness, but
I felt it important to point out that this verse cannot be divided in
half. Yes the wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ.
Now,
really quickly, I want to point out one more really amazing thing about this
verse as it pertains to our relationship with God. We’ve well established that while this
eternal life in Christ is a free gift of God as far as we are concerned, that
it cost God dearly. It cost God His one
and only begotten Son. Now, we can
relate to sacrifice. We maybe can’t
relate to a sacrifice of the same magnitude as we’re talking about here, but we
understand sacrifice. However, we tend
to hold on to the cost a little bit more than God does. Let me explain what I mean by that. You see, we tend to remember exactly how much
any gift cost us. Y’all I can go down
the list of things that I have bought for people over the years and I can
almost tell you within a few cents how much it cost us. I’m not bitter about it, I just have a mind for
numbers and it’s one of those weird things (one of many) about me. My kids are going to get Christmas presents
from Amy and I and I’m going to watch them play with them and be excited that
they love them so much. However, when
the first one of them (probably Thomas) turns something into a sword that
wasn’t made to withstand collisions, I’m going to remember how much it cost us
as parents and I’m going to have that moment (all be it brief) of thinking of
my son as an ingrate. “Don’t you know
how much that cost me and you’re just going to break and destroy it by using it
how it’s not meant to be used?” Well,
actually, no; he doesn’t know how much it cost us, because he doesn’t really
have an accurate concept of money at four years old.
The
funny thing is that we’re like kids in that regard when it comes to the free
gift of God that is eternal life in Christ.
God could look down upon us and say to us, “Don’t you know how much that
cost me? You’re just going to destroy it
and use that gift how it’s not meant to be used?” And you know what? Our response would be that of a child. No, we have no clue what it really cost you. We can say that it cost God His Son the same
as my own son could tell me that something cost me $20, but do either of us
really know the extent of that price?
But here’s the amazing thing. I’m
sinful; I’m fallen. There’s a chance
(and pretty good one) that I’m going to hold my son’s breaking of his new toy
against him. I’ll think twice before I
buy him something else. I won’t forget
it. However, when it comes to our sin
and our deserving death, God forgives.
God won’t withhold that gift of eternal life in Christ from us because
of our misusing it. Once He grants to us
that gift, then it is everlasting. Once
we have truly been claimed by God then nothing can separate us from Him. Once we are found in Him, He does not hold
over our heads what we deserve. “If you
don’t start acting right then I’m going to give you death and not the free gift
of eternal life.” This isn’t some simple
punishment or threat that we use to get children to act appropriately. This is the gift of eternal life in Christ, a
gift that cost God dearly.
So,
as we get ready go out into the world, how should we respond? Well, walking back through our Advent series,
we know that Jesus is the gift, that we are to share that gift, and that we
have received that gift not because of who we are but because of who God
is. We’ve been given the gift of Jesus
to both cherish and share with others by God at a great cost to Himself, yet it
cost us nothing. Friends, when you think
about the gift of Christmas this year and you think about all of the wonderful
things that you enjoy, think about the cost.
Think about the price that God paid.
Think about what this table represents before us. Think about the fact that you have been given
this gift not because of anything good within you but because God has chosen
you as His own possession. Think about
what a wonderful gift we have in Christ.
And think about the fact that we have a God who loves us so much that He
willingly sacrificed His one and only Son on our behalf. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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