A tale of two gifts by Gary Rose

 

Christmas day, a day of giving and receiving gifts. Imagine that you received this pair of “rat slippers” for a gift – I wonder, would you even bother to keep them (or maybe re-gift them next year)? Well, it looks like someone not only kept them, but is actually using them! Yuk!

It seems to me that when a person gives another a gift, the gift in someway either reflects the nature of the giver or the receiver. So, in this case, I can only imagine what the character of the parties involved with these slippers may be like.

Question: What if God gave you a gift? Answer: He did, and was named Jesus. The Bible says…

Romans 5 ( World English Bible )

¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.

¹⁵ But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

¹⁶ The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification.

¹⁷ For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.

¹⁹ For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.

God’s gift is righteousness, through the sacrifice of Jesus. To my way of thinking, it is the greatest gift anyone could ever receive; to be accounted free from sin and inherit eternal life as the result.

Now, realistically, some people will reject God and his gift, but for them, they just as well might go right out and buy a pair of “rat slippers”. They may keep your feet warm- but, they won’t help you get into heaven!