For sin’s payment is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.  Romans 6:23, TLV

This is one of those verses we memorized in school. It scared me as a kid. With my reading and comprehension issues, what I heard in my head was, “Girl, you’re gonna die because you definitely sin.” But, that’s the trouble with memorizing just one verse. And that’s the trouble with not understanding there are different ways for children — and adults — to process and comprehend.

I couldn’t get past the “wages of sin is death” to the God’s gracious gift. Perhaps my instructors wanted it really clear that we kids were sinners. At nine, I knew I was. It kept me up at night with my vivid imagination.

All I wanted to do is for the teacher to “think” I was good. Maybe that was enough.

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching under which you were placed; and after you were set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. (vss. 17-18, TLV)

There’s a fine line between explaining what sin is so that we can understand — so that the Holy Spirit can convict us — and beating into a child that they are sinners. (This is not a statement on the pros or cons of spanking, by the way.) Really, it applies to anyone, don’t you think?

A teacher presents God’s truth. The Holy Spirit convicts. We repent. And then the miracle happens, we’re set free because of the precious atonement of our Savior. And, because we’re, well, let’s face it, still made of flesh, we’ll need to be taught how to live a life of righteousness. Not so we don’t get the bad wages, but because we are learning how to walk righteousness out.

Sometimes we learn the easy way. Sometimes not. But living a life in pursuit of righteousness becomes an intimate, personal relationship between us  and our Father.