Romans 4:1-9
In this passage, Paul is articulating an important distinction for any church goer to consider. There are basically two lanes the common church-goer can fall into: The Lane of the Worker and The Lane of the Believer.
Workers earn wages. Believers receive blessing.
Brick masons lay brick and their bosses pay. Workers perform agreed upon tasks for agreed upon compensation. This mentality poisons our relationship with God causing many church-goers to view the Bible as a job description, God as their boss, and heaven as their compensation.
Brick masons lay brick and their bosses pay. Workers perform agreed upon tasks for agreed upon compensation. This mentality poisons our relationship with God causing many church-goers to view the Bible as a job description, God as their boss, and heaven as their compensation.
Believers, on the other hand, are less task driven and more God driven. They trust, seek, and love God. For them the Bible is a book that reveals God, not a job description.
Workers operate by duty. Believers operate by delight.
Would you go to work tomorrow if you knew there was no money in it? No. But you have to go if you want to eat. Would your boss pay you if you didn’t work? No. But he has to pay you because you put in the time.
In a working relationship, all parties are obligated to each other to do things they don’t really want to do. Workers are obligated to their bosses to do their tasks. Bosses are obligated to their workers to compensate them. Spiritually speaking, Workers feel obligated to go to church, have their quiet times, serve on church committees, smile politely, say a prayer before meals, etc. And in their minds God is obligated to compensate them accordingly. He owes us!
But God has no obligation toward us. And he does not desire mere fulfilment of duty from us. He delights to save sinners and believers delight to seek him.*
Workers die. Believers live.
Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Workers earn wages. Their wages are death. Believers receive the blessing of eternal life.
Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Workers earn wages. Their wages are death. Believers receive the blessing of eternal life.
The stakes are high. Do you need to switch lanes? Do you need to put down your work and look to God, maybe for the first time?
*Deuteronomy 28:47-48; Psalm 16:11; 37:4; 43:4; 90:14; 100:2; Matthew 5:11-12; 25:21; John 15:11; 2 Corinthians 1:24; 6:10; Philippians 4:4; Hebrews 12:2; James 1:2. As C.S. Lewis said, we are far too easily pleased… (Scripture references and Lewis quote drawn from John Piper’s The Dangerous Duty of Delight, a great little book you should read.)
