Romans 5 is about God’s great gift—becoming a member of His forever family through Christ—that He gives us by grace.
Everything about our adoption into the family of God and His declaration of us as the righteousness of Jesus Christ is because of who He is in spite of who we are. God proved His love for us by rejecting and judging His Son—Jesus—in our place. In doing so, God gave us the gift of His undeserved, unconditional righteousness.
From Romans 5:6 to the end of the chapter, the words “grace” and “gift” are used five times. These two terms underline God’s total work in making everyone who says, “Yes,” to Jesus a part of His eternal family through His righteousness.
As I contemplate the writings of Paul, I also think about what he said about the prize and how it relates to and differs from this gift.
At the end of Paul’s life, he summed up his life in terms of effort, discipline, and hard work that resulted in the prize given for his efforts and suffering during his race of faith. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 to understand the reward ceremony where believers are honored for lives well lived.
“So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” -2 Corinthians 5:9-10
Let me say that this has nothing to do with the gift of eternal life; that is a free gift given by faith. The prize has to do with living a Jesus-honoring life. Scripture gives us several pictures of this as a person running with all his physical strength to win the race.
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 3:14
So what about the prize?
The prize is related to the effort we put into working out our relationship with Jesus over our lifetime, which results in a heavenly prize. This is what the Apostle Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians that we reviewed earlier. There will be a time when Jesus will pass out rewards for the life well lived, the race run well, and the fight fought to the end.
Always remember that new birth is a free gift. All we have to do is receive the gift of God to become a child of God.
But growing in Christ—learning to obey and walk with Him in daily obedience—results in receiving the prize or reward. The prize we receive is directly correlated to our obedience and work done to God the Father through Jesus Christ, who lives in us through the Holy Spirit.
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