Life in Christ

Write From My Heart

August 14, 2020

Life in Christ

Romans 6:23 (NIV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            The hope of every Christian is eternal life in Christ. Unfortunately hope in Christ diminishes somewhat proportionally as hope in self increases. As our belief in self-sufficiency grows, Christ is increasingly relegated to “the back burner” as we might say, or our choice of comfort when things go wrong. Ironically, I strongly believe this is proportional to the downplay of sin and death. We don’t like to think about those topics. We don’t like to acknowledge the wages or price for sin. That makes us uncomfortable, and we’d rather just not have to deal with it. Besides, if we are already a Christian, why should it matter? We are saved anyway, right?

            The reality is sin entered the world because of failure to recognize the consequence of death. No, not immediate “struck by lightning” death, but future “loss of eternal life” death. Sin, in whatever form it may take, or to whatever degree, has a consequence and a cost—namely, death defined by loss of life—forever. When we downplay this fact we also minimize the glorious hope of what it will be to have life in Christ for eternity. We trick ourselves into the belief that all is okay just as it is and we can sustain ourselves pretty well.

            “Only in the Christian faith are the two factors seen as a unity—death and sin. And

            therefore in it [e.g., Christian faith] alone is the force which conquers sin also the

            force which conquers death: the redemptive action of Jesus Christ.”

            Brunner, Emil. Eternal Hope. Translated by Harold Knight, Westport, Greenwood

                        Press, 1972.

            If you desire to experience true joy of blessed hope, it is yours freely in Christ Jesus when you accept him as Lord and Savior. All humanity has earned the wage of sin which is death. But the gift of eternal life is just that—a gift—because Christ already paid the cost with his own life. You can do nothing on your own to earn it no matter how self-sufficient you may be. The cost to you is faith and trust, and the gift is the blessed hope of eternal life.