SHIFT WEEK 5 MONDAY Pastor Chris

MONDAY

Scripture Reading: Romans 3:21-26

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)

I love the television show LOST, and recently I saw an excellent illustration as to what the apostle Paul was talking about in this passage. A recent episode of LOST showed a flash-back to the childhood of Kate Austen, who is one of the show’s main characters. Kate decided that she wanted to shoplift a “New Kids on the Block” lunch pail for whatever reason. As she made her exit out of the store, Kate’s arm was grabbed by the store clerk who caught her in the act of theft. He told her he was going to call the police. In the middle of his phone call, a man by the name of Jacob handed the clerk a $20 bill, and said “I’ll pay for it.” The clerk looked at the money, hung up the phone and professed “Well as long as somebody paid for the lunch pail, there’s no harm done.”

Kate thanked Jacob for his help, and Jacob leaned down to Kate tapped her on the nose and asked her “Now you’re not going to be stealing anymore, are you?” She shook her head so as to reply “no.” Jacob left her with these words “Be Good now Kate.”

Jacob paid the price for Kate’s sin. Kate deserved to be punished for her wrongdoing, but Jacob had mercy on her and took the brunt of her sin. All Kate had to do was accept the act of grace, and her sin would go unpunished. She had the option of telling Jacob to put the $20 bill away and accept whatever punishment that was to come, but she allowed for Jacob to cover her sin and promise to steal no more.

When one fully accepts Christ Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins in spite of our lack of merit or worthiness and realizes Jesus‘ sacrifice of dying upon a cross made this forgiveness a reality, we should desire to make good on his sacrifice and turn from our life of sin.

If you have yet to experience this grace of God in your life, realize that the punishment for your sins have already been paid for. All you need to do is accept this grace from God freely given to you is believe that Christ is your Lord and Savior and accept that Jesus had paid the price for your sins so you may live a life pleasing to God and free from the bondage of sin