June 18, 2010, Romans 4

Key Verse: 
Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 

(Romans 4:4) 

Central Truth: 

What does God owe us for the work that we do while we are on Earth? (Stay with me, I promise it's not as depressing as it sounds!) 

GETTING PAID 
I love when our kids get done doing something that we ask them to do, just regular routine chores at that. Just the other day, our son came in after brushing his teeth and held out his hand in front of us. I just gave him the traditional slapping of the hands, "five," but still there he stood. Again, I gave him the "five," and stood he still stood there staring at me. Finally, I just had to ask, "What is it exactly that you are holding your hand out for?" The classic six-year old response followed, "Daddy, you owe me a dollar. I brushed my teeth just like you told me to!" 

Wow!? A dollar just for brushing his teeth, and I surely don't remember telling him that I was going to give him a dollar for brushing his teeth. He just expected it to happen, and I can just imagine his thought process, "I do what you tell me, which means I obey my mom and dad like the Bible says, and that's my job. I should get paid for doing my job. Where's my dollar?" 

At this point, you can't help but to laugh. Poor thing. Even though we go to work every day to buy the toothpaste, the food, the clothes, provide a house, and pay for the dental appointments that help him keep teeth in his mouth, he should still get paid for brushing his teeth, shouldn't he? After all, it takes so much time and energy to brush your teeth. Right? 

See, my son was in the mind set that I owe him something for every little thing that he does. He tried to justify a reward with an agreement that I wasn't really buying into. But, he figured that he could talk me into giving him that dollar. And, I had to break his heart and tell him that isn't the way it works. 

As Christ followers, we can't do things and expect that God will reward us for each and every little thing that we do. We can't just do "Christian" things (go to church, read the Bible, etc.) and expect to earn God's favor and our admittance to Heaven. That is just not the way it works. I really like how The Message version of Romans 4:5-6 reads: 

If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we
don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for
you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you
could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—
well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by
God. Sheer gift.
You see, God doesn't owe us anything. We can work all day long down here on Earth, and it won't do us a bit of good if we haven't accepted Him into our hearts. God doesn't owe us anything, and you won't be able to talk your way into Heaven by listing out all of the wonderful things that you have done on Earth. All He wants to know is that you accept the gift that He sent when His Son died on the cross and that you put your trust and faith in Him. What a gift! That's the biggest pay day that you could ever have for not doing any work at all! 

If you haven't placed your faith in Him and you are still trying to work your way into His favor, stop right now and ask Him to come into your life. The hard work is already done!