Mythical Monday: Reward & Punishment

Happy Mythical Monday! Today’s myth is that God rewards your obedience & punishes your failure. Your relationship with God is not transactional. The once for all, final transaction, was made in the sacrifice of Christ (Heb 10:10) and it lasts forever (10:14). Your relationship & righteousness are rooted in Christ’s faithfulness (Phil 3:9). So, I guess you should consider, how faithful is Christ? Does He keep up His end of the contract between Him and God? The old contract terms of the Law said that we got rewards when we behaved and punishment when we failed, but now, we are benefactors of a new contract, signed in the blood of Jesus (Heb 8:6) and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14).

You have every spiritual blessing in Christ; there are no more rewards for you to earn (Eph 1:3). All your sins have been paid for and wiped from God’s memory banks; there are no more for you to pay for (Heb 8:12). You cannot out sin God’s grace; it will already be there waiting for you at rock bottom. You cannot out earn Christ’s finished work; it will already be waiting for you at the end of your effort. You, child of God, have a heart that wants to obey and everything that you need for life and godliness (Rom 6:17; 2 Pet 1:3). Trust that the One who started the work will finish it (Phil 1:6). You don’t have to.