Morning Thoughts - by Elder Philip Conley

Morning Thoughts

Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This morning, people brainwash many of God's children into thinking that they are responsible for their eternal home in heaven. While they declare that Christ paid the sin debt, they completely nullify their message of grace in 5 minutes worth of works preaching. Paul declared that something is either grace or works, and the two cannot be mixed together. Oil and water will not form a mutual compound, and likewise, grace and works cannot be mixed together to form an amalgamate theology.

Paul closes this particular train of thought with the declarative statement of our work compared to God's gift. Many times, I hear people say, "We're all working to get to the same place." While I do agree with the statement, I do not agree with the implied principle that they affirm. Indeed, we perform our works (by nature) towards the same place, but that place is as far from heaven as it can be. Our natural efforts are our wages. Men receive wages as recompense for work performed. Our works receive wages that end in death.

When God told Adam that he would "surely die," Adam indeed surely died the day that he partook of the forbidden fruit. That very day, we all fell with him. Our actions after birth bear forth that we did fall. So, our just wage is that we die. However, the other side of the picture is very different. We do not earn eternal life as a wage for work performed. It is the gift of God through our Darling Redeemer. A gift is something bestowed out of love and not a just reward. We buy our loved ones gifts because we love them. Likewise, our God in heaven purchased us by the blood of His Son because of that everlasting love that He has for us. Therefore, by the death of His Son, He has drawn us with His loving-kindness.

Consider for a moment the nature of a gift. When the giver purposes to bestow a gift, the gift belongs to the recipient after the purchase. Whether the recipient ever knows about it does not change the fact that it is still theirs. While in eternity we will all know everything about it, the fact that someone is unaware of the gift in this life does not change the fact that it is theirs. The gift has been bestowed, and the utilization of it (or lack thereof) in this life does not change the status of ownership. But, how thankful we should be for the knowledge of this amazing gift of which we are most undeserving. Truly, knowing the just reward that was ours by nature and contrasting that with the beautiful work of our Elder Brother, we can then say, "Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

In Hope,

Bro Philip