How We Change To Please God

This is the Sixth Post in a series from Chapter 3 of Friends With God: “The Joy That Was Set Before Him”.

In the Fourth Post we showed that the idea of “Christ came to pay a death penalty on our behalf” is not in scripture, but was invented by Anselm of Canterbury in 11AD.

This post will examine the main scripture that is often quoted to support the idea that Christ paid a death penalty for us.

Wages Of Sin Or Penalty For Sin?

There is nowhere in scripture that God states that Christ paid any kind of death penalty for sin. Yet, many claim that Paul said that the penalty for sin is death, when he said: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life’? (Rom 6:23)

But this verse does not say that the penalty for sin is death, but rather the wages of sin is death, which is not the same thing.

Wages are what you want to earn from your work, a penalty is what you do not want to get for doing what you know is wrong. This is not mere semantics, as we will see from examining the previous two chapters of Romans.

If you take any verse out of the context in which it was written, you can make it mean almost anything you want. We must read the contextual setting of the verse, in order to fully understand what is actually being spoken about.

All of Romans chapter 5 is discussing the role of sin and death, compared to righteousness and life- and concludes, with something similar to Romans 6:23:

That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 5:21)

It is through doing righteousness, by turning away from sin and its outcome of death, that we imitate Christ and are then granted the gift of eternal life.

Paul then asks: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Rom 6:1-2) We are required to live a life of righteousness, not a life of sin and unrighteousness.

Paul then concludes chapter 6 by talking about the fruits and outcomes of our actions. Following is my commentary within these few verses:

“Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to him whom you obey; whether it is of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness. (We do righteousness when we obey God)
But thanks be to our God that you were the slaves of sin, but you have obeyed (in righteousness) from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. (The doctrine of the way of Christ) Then being made free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness. (We now obey God’s way of righteousness)
For when you were the slaves of sin (when we acted without the knowledge of God, and we were subject to sin), you were free from righteousness. (you were not able to know what is righteousness)
What fruit did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? (fruit is the outcome of our actions) For the end of those things is death. (the logical outcome of sin is death)
But now, being made free from sin (having become aware of sin, by God opening your eyes), and having become slaves to God, (yielding your actions to the will of God) you have your fruit to holiness (your actions produce the outcome of living a holy righteous life), and the end (outcome of living this holy life is) everlasting life. (we are granted everlasting life by living a holy life of following Christ)
For the wages of sin is death, (the outcome of living the way of sin is death) but the gift of God (we don’t earn it, as it’s God’s gift) is eternal life, through (following the example of) Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:20-23)

All of chapters five and six of Romans is talking about the outcome of our actions in living a life of holiness, and therefore being granted the gift of everlasting life, and comparing this to the outcome of living a life of sin that produces death because we are mortal.

The Results Of Sin

The outcome of sin is death because we are mortal, and we will die eternally without being granted the gift of eternal life by God.

God does not pay us our wages of death, for we are already going to die, as we are mortal. We choose death by living the way of sin and rejecting God’s way of life.

There is no mention in Romans chapter 6 about a penalty being paid for us. It is talking about actions leading to outcomes. Our actions of obeying God, by living a righteous and holy life, will lead to him granting us the gift of eternal life.

If a penalty being paid by Christ is how it all works, then this discussion by Paul would have been the appropriate place to mention it. Yet there is nothing mentioned here. What he has said is complete in itself, and totally logical, we don’t need to add anything to it.

These verses are talking about the normal natural process of change- how one thing leads to another in a sequence of outcomes:

You commit sin, and it produces the fruit of death, or you live a holy life, and the outcome is everlasting life. Yet, we only are given eternal life if God grants it to us, as we can’t naturally produce eternal life, no matter what we do.

It is actually God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom of God- if we love him, and live by every word of God. (Luke 12:22-34)

God won’t grant us the gift of eternal life unless we love His way of life. Why should he want to live with someone who doesn’t want to live the way of love and peace and kindness? We demonstrate in our life that we love his way- by living righteously in our physical life.

Righteousness means to follow God’s way, not our own:

• As righteousness leads to life: so he that pursues evil pursues it to his own death. (Prov 11:19)

• There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Prov 16:25)

Natural Process Of Spiritual Growth

God’s way of giving us eternal life is similar to any natural growth process, evident in everyday life. It’s about the consequences of the actions that we choose to engage in.

To glibly state that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” means that a “penalty is imposed on us by God”, is to totally misrepresent the contextual meaning of the paragraph.

Paul is not talking about a simplistic “Action produces Penalty” letter of the law perspective. The topic being discussed in Romans 6:23, as is shown by the preceding verses, is that we gain everlasting life through the more complex process of living a holy life- where we overcome sin through following the example set in Christ’s own life: but the gift of God is eternal life through (following the example of) Jesus Christ our Lord.

It’s only when God opens our eyes to the fact that our sinful way of living leads to death, that we can appreciate that his righteous way of living is the only way to eternal life.

We can then begin to see the overwhelming enormity of our incredible human potential. And then we can comprehend the blindingly obvious essential need for us to turn from our chosen way that leads to death, to living God’s way of life, so that he will graciously grant us forgiveness of our sins.

Then we can start on our new life, of walking in the way of righteousness, toward eternal life.

This process is not one of “earning our salvation”, for salvation means we are saved, and there is nothing we can do to be saved from death. Only God can grant us eternal life.

He gives us life, but only if we love him and obey him. That is his promise. Yet, he will also test us, to see if we truly do love his way of life. That is his promise too. (1Cor 10:13)

Being Saved From Death

It’s like if you fall overboard on the open sea, and someone throws you a floatation life saver- that person has saved your life. However, if you refuse to grab hold of it, but instead push it away, and try to swim to shore, then you have chosen not to be saved.

We have a similar part to play in our own salvation. God needs to see if we actually want to be saved, in order to live his way of life, or if we push it away, and choose to live according to our own desires and rules by relying on our own strength and ability, and consequently (because we are mortal) we actually choose to die.

If we rely on our own resources, which can never give us eternal life, then we are going to die forever, for we are mortal. We need to believe he can give us eternal life, and that we are mortal.

However, in order to be saved we must use all our resources, as well as those God has given us, to grab hold onto eternal life:

Lay hold on eternal life, to which you are called and have confessed (expressed) a good confession before many witnesses. (1Tim 6:11-12)

We express a good confession by showing God and many other witnesses (through our righteous actions) that we truly love him and his way of life.

While we don’t earn salvation by how we live, we can be worthy of being saved, if we grab hold of his life saving gift with all our heart, mind, and soul:

Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and (that you should act to) fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, (if you enjoy obeying what he tells you is good) and the work of faith with power. (2Thes 1:11)

We have lots to do in order to be worthy! It’s not a passive life of just saying “I accept Jesus”, and that’s it.

He has not “done it all for us”, such that all we do is just accept that his blood has somehow paid for all our sins, and then we simply roll on into the Kingdom, without doing anything else!

God will not give you eternal life if you are not worthy of living his life now, through overcoming sin in your life by doing those things that you believe are the righteous and true way to live. (Luke 20:35-36, Eph 4:1, Col 1:10, 1Thes 2:12, 2Thes 1:5)

God expects us to demonstrate that we are worthy to be granted the gift of eternal life, by overcoming our difficulties in this physical world:

You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments. And they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes, this one will be clothed in white clothing. (symbolic of righteous people having been forgiven of their sins) And I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, (symbolic of being given eternal life) but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (Rev 3:4-5)

See also Revelation 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:26 3:12, 3:21, which reiterate and emphasise the necessity for us to overcome and live righteously in this life.

Nobody paid any penalty to make you worthy, but you must work to overcome the sin in your life, through the trials you encounter, to demonstrate your worthiness, as discussed in previous posts. (Prov 2:1-5)

The idea that “Christ paid our penalty for sin” abrogates our responsibility to live a righteous life. This is simply supported by the fact that the requirement for us to live righteously is clearly spelt out in scripture, whereas the doctrine of a penalty for sin is nowhere to be found.

In the next post in this series we will continue in Romans, where Paul explains the Spiritual intent of the Law of God, and explore what he means when he says: “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.  (Rom 7:12)