Subject One Hundred Forty-five

REWARD AND GRACE

Scripture: Rom. 4:4-5; 6:23a

1. Wages are justly received
   1. Wages are earned through working.
   2. Wages are a payment according to righteousness, according to the work a person renders.
2. Grace is freely received
   1. Grace does not require working.
   2. Grace is freely bestowed, and not earned.
3. Man’s sin earns him the wages of condemnation and death
   1. In the eyes of God, all of man’s behavior is sin, and this behavior is man’s work. Man does no other work but to sin. Therefore, before God we have done only the work of sin.
   2. Man’s work of sin earns the wages of death. Thus, the Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.”
4. God’s grace is freely bestowed through the righteousness of Christ
   1. Through the righteousness of Christ, grace came to us. The redemption of Christ has already fulfilled the righteous requirement of God, thus enabling God to bestow grace upon us.
   2. Grace is bestowed upon us through the redemption of Christ. This is possible because His redemption reckons us righteous.