“The payoff for a life of sin is death, but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King.” (Romans 6:23 The Voice Translation)
In a conversation with a young man who is deservingly climbing the ladder of success, we started talking about bonuses. One of our topics was the fact that employees at various levels, at many companies, but not all companies, receive bonuses of some type. We started listing them in our conversation. We mentioned signing bonuses, relocation bonuses, performance bonuses, retention bonuses, and year-end production bonuses. We talked for a while, all the talk about bonuses.
I made the comment, “Oh how I remember those good old days.” The young man asked, “Do you miss those bonus days, now that they are a thing of the past?” With honesty I answered, “I sure do!” I went on to comment that with the end of the calendar year and/or fiscal year approaching, employees at all levels are putting forth extra effort, pushing hard to ensure that they meet the preset targets, the key performance indicators that had to be achieved to be paid the bonus. My young friend agreed. We were about to end the conversation and go our separate ways when all of a sudden, a thought came to my mind that I wanted to share. The thought made me feel, dare I say. blessed and privileged. The timing was appropriate because all the talk was about bonuses.
Here is the thought I shared with my friend as all the talk about bonuses continued. “We who are saved can look forward to the bonus of eternal life, and that bonus cannot be described in its fullest until we get to heaven. We hint about it when we sing, “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing it will be,” but we will not understand the breadth and depth of our bonuses until we, believers, reach our heavenly home. Wait now, I have more to say! Don’t overlook the bonuses we receive here om earth, being one of God’s children. Jesus did come so that we could have life and have it more abundantly…in this life. But focus on the bonus of spending an eternity in the Father’s house, the place where Jesus went to prepare a place for us! And get this, while we strive to live a righteous life; while we strive for perfection and achieve excellence in living holy and living right, we don’t have the pressure that is anyway close to the pressure that is experienced by employees at the end of the year.” I ended our conversation, all the talk about bonuses, with some words that the young man agreed with wholeheartedly! “Our eligibility was satisfied when we came to Christ, not by our good work, but by God’s grace.” See the closing verse. Be blessed!
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Romans 2:8-9 KJV)
Mark L. King