There Must Be Something More

49 | Welcome To The Family

I watched Meredith as if I were one of the listeners as well.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." She continued, seemingly unfazed by the sea of stares all trained on her. I wished I had that kind of confidence, but in the meantime, I was standing just beside her.

"For you," she said, "what does wages mean?"

Everyone blinked as if just realizing she was talking to them. They started to turn their heads, looking for someone brave enough to answer. I didn't know if they were too stunned or bewildered to speak or just looking for a diversion.

Finally, Trey Mullins spoke, "Wages means payment."

"That's right," Meredith flashed a warm smile. "Payment. In the very first words of that verse, it says that the payment for sin is death. And since we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, we're all destined for death. And death here does not mean the earthly death, like getting buried and stuff. The death talked about in the passage means hell. Hell means eternal death, eternal suffering. And that's what we all deserve because we all sinned, human as we are.

"And God knew that. He knew it even before we were made. And just like I told you, He knew we could never pay it ourselves. That's why Jesus freely paid for it Himself. And that's where I can complete the whole Romans six, twenty-three: but the gift of God is eternal life. I will start explaining by the word gift.

"A gift is something that you don't pay for, you don't work for, and it's something that's not forced. It's just offered freely. And it's up to you to receive it or not. That is a gift. I bet you certainly don't wake up on your birthday and ask your mom how much your gift costs because you have to pay it back. You already know your mom loves you that's why she's given you a gift.

"That's what it's like for God. He loves us so much that He freely offers this gift of eternal life. It's a gift. You don't pay for it, you don't work for it, you don't follow a bunch of religious rules to get it. It's free, it's a gift. So how do you get this gift? It says there 'The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord'. That means the gift of eternal life is in Jesus. He holds it. And what does that mean? That means you have to have faith on what Jesus did for you on the cross.

"You have to understand that He died for you on the cross to pay for every sin you did and will ever do. He did it all for you. Actually, He paid for every turbulence and every bad thing that might come into your life. And all you have to do is receive it for yourself. The reason why you're so confused as to why this world is falling into chaos and you're doubting if there really is a God out there--oh, there is! And God would love to rain His peace down on us, the very problem is that we don't know about it or we don't accept it.

"And that's why I'm telling you right now about this eternal peace that I received from Him. I'm telling you right now of this grace that has no limits. I'm telling you right now of this love that will forever pursue you, but is never forceful. It's real love.

"In Romans chapter five verse eight, it says: But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's how much Jesus loves us, He died on that cross knowing you may or may not love Him back. Now that's real love. And I know a lot of you might have though this: After all, isn't Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords? Why did He have to die on that cross to pay for our sins? Why did He have to hurt Himself? He could have just snapped His fingers and declare us all saved.

"And the answer is yes, He can. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, He could have just snapped His fingers and saved us all. But that would not have been a representation of His love. If He simply did that, we wouldn't think He really loved us. We would think He's obnoxious or prideful. He died on that cross to let us know how much He loved us. And He loved us that much. And He still does!"