Gift of God

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 6:22-23 ESV

Yesterday we spent time meditating on the gift of God’s salvation. We were reminded that in any situation, we can pour our hearts before the Lord and learn to trust him despite what we feel or see. At the end of the day, we have great reasons to trust and rejoice in God’s salvation.

But what is this salvation? Paul explained it perfectly in this passage and reading all of chapter 6 will bring better revelation to what he is talking about.

The message is that when we give ourselves over to the desires of our flesh, it might seem like freedom because we do not feel that strict obligation to righteousness, but the fruit is more brokenness, destruction, and ultimately death. Paul shows us here that when we follow Jesus, we are set free from the bondage to sin. When we become submitted to the Lord, we produce the fruit that leads to holiness and life.

So when we meditate on God’s salvation and practice rejoicing in his goodness (perhaps during worship wherever you gather today), we are not giving lip service to a good song. It gets really simple when we consider God’s faithfulness.

Where would we be without the salvation of God? We have experienced the life of Jesus, if only a taste of it, and our eyes are opened to just how good he is and just how free we can be in him. Consider how painful it was to experience all the broken fruit that was produced after being a slave to sin. Consider how powerful and pure the fruit of the Spirit is in your life!

Jesus is better than anything we think we need to satisfy our flesh. The enemy wants to draw our attention away from the eternal reward and get us to focus on the momentary pleasure and satisfaction we think we need, but the gospel message brings us eternal hope. God has clearly and freely laid out a path to everlasting life and renewal. Let us lean into that today.

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