Have Fun!

Scripture

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 6:23

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”—John 10:10

Devotional

Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death . . .” Whoa, wait a minute. I thought the title of this was Have Fun! It is, but I want you to think about that for a second. Everything that you have ever done wrong and everything that you will do wrong has a cost: death.  

You still don’t see where the fun is? Well let me finish the verse for you, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Think about that for a second! The cost of our sin, the bad things we’ve done, the mistakes we’ve made, the lies we’ve told, the times we’ve been disobedient to parents and teachers . . . the cost of even one of those things is death. It sounds harsh, but when you realize that God is perfect and good and holy and cannot leave any sin unpunished, it begins to make more sense. BUT here’s where the good news, the gospel, comes in: God loves us so much that He gave us this beautiful gift of eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus was perfect, Jesus IS perfect, and He came to earth, lived a perfect life, and literally died in your place. He died for everyone, but more than that, He also died personally just for you!

So, even though every person on earth deserves death and destruction, we can instead receive salvation and eternal life. We can rejoice because not only do we not get the death and destruction, but we get a gift of God through Jesus Christ. And all we have to do is believe in Him. But wait, there’s more . . .

You might be thinking, “That’s cool. When I die, I’ll go to heaven, but what about now?” Jesus told us, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). So, it’s not just a promise of heaven that we have through the gift of Jesus; we also have received the promise of a full life on earth, a life of joy, blessings, satisfaction, purpose, and fullness. Some other translations say that it’s “life abundantly.” That word abundant means above and beyond, rich, generous, overflowing, amazing!

This is where the fun begins! Without Christ, our life has no purpose, but with Him, there is purpose in everything we do. That, my friend, is fun! 

God has given me the fullest life I can imagine ever since I got serious about my relationship with Him. The only way I can explain it is God. Through every trial, through seasons of grief in the family, sickness and other things, God has filled me with so much joy. I'm able to look back and see He uses the good times and bad times and you can find full life in each of them. I’ve had people approach me in public and ask what is different about me. There’s no way you can have this much fun or be filled with this much joy. 

To that, I share with them a little secret: I was a person destined for hell, but because God loved me so much, I not only get to go to heaven when I die, but I get to live a more full life than I ever did without Him.