The Greatest Gift • Romans 5:6-11, 18-21
By Melody Mercer
When I think about the greatest gift I’ve ever been given, I’ll be honest, my mind goes to Christmas. There are two years that stand out from the others — get ready because I’m about to date myself.
One Christmas I awoke to three 8-track tapes from some of my favorite artists, and the other was when I got my Atari console. I had been asking and asking, and my mom kept telling me she just didn’t think she could swing it. However, Christmas morning, Santa had worked his magic, wink, wink. I couldn’t believe it!
Another wonderful gift was godly Christian grandparents and parents who had me in church every time the door was open. My beautiful children and wonderful friends are also a gift.
The great thing about gifts is that they are usually a surprise and always lift the spirits. You don’t have to do anything to earn it or work to keep it. I love to get gifts, and I love to give them. I try hard to listen to friends when they talk about what they like or what they would buy themselves. It doesn’t matter how big or small, it’s just the thought.
When considering this week’s lesson title, “The Greatest Gift,” how would we feel if we were told that we were going to receive the literal greatest, most important gift of our lives? Would we be on our best behavior? Would we be on pins and needles making sure we didn’t mess up before we received it?
Unfortunately, people think they could never be good enough for such a gift. They could never get their lives together enough, or be a good enough person. You don’t try to clean up before you take a shower. That’s what the shower is for — to make you clean. We don’t have to get better before we go to the doctor. Jesus wants us just the way we are. He is there to cleanse us, to help us be a better person, and to help us put our lives back together.
Our scripture this week starts with God loving us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. How crazy is it that Jesus gave His life for us even though we were sinners and deserved death? Would you die for someone who didn’t even like you, someone you didn’t even know? That is what is so unbelievable about our gift. Jesus loves us so much that even if it had just been you or me, He still would have given His life.
I use this illustration when I’m talking to children about how much Jesus loves us: “Imagine that you’ve gotten in trouble by your parents, and you’re waiting in your room for the punishment. Instead of you getting punished, your brother or sister has said they would take the punishment for you. What in the world? They didn’t even do anything to deserve it. Is that not the craziest thing you’ve ever heard?” This is a scenario that gets a child’s attention. No one in their right mind would ever step in and take someone else’s punishment, except for Jesus. He paid the sin debt that we would never be able to pay.
Our last scripture passage this week is a parallel between Adam and Jesus. Little did Adam know what just a bite of that fruit would mean for all of humanity. Adam’s disobedience brought sin and death into the world. Every person born from that time on would have a sin nature.
But just as one man’s sin was condemnation for everyone, one man’s (Christ’s) substitutionary death made possible justification leading to life for everyone (CSB Study Bible). “For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19 CSB). My study Bible explains that since Paul knew many would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus after he wrote this, it was fitting to use the future tense (CSB Study Bible).
“So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45 CSB).
Mercer is a member of First Church, Jackson.
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