God is Your New Boss (Lent 17-2013)

Have you ever resigned from one job and taken another?  If so, you will understand today’s analogy.

Let’s say the new job offered you better pay, a nicer boss, and greater job security, would you even consider going back to work for the bad boss who stressed you out, threatened to fire you all the time—all for a job in which you were constantly abused?  Even after you started your new job, if your old bad boss called you on the phone and threatened to make your life miserable if you didn’t come back, would you leave the good job and go back to the bad one?

This is the argument that the Apostle Paul is making in today’s passage (Romans 6:12-23).

He says you previously had a bad job.  Your boss was Satan.  Your cubicle was a filthy, foul place.  Your job description included sinning, doing all kinds of bad things to yourself and others, and at the end of the end of your work week, you had a paycheck that was nothing but death.   Your coworkers were the Grim Reaper, Satan’s henchmen, and probably a few evil clowns.  Clowns can be creepy.

But now, look!  You resigned from that job. 

You’re never going back.  Good for you! 

Your new boss is God.  Your office is clean. Your job description is to serve Him; do good stuff; and obey His wise instructions.  He cares about you and your welfare.  It’s Friday and you and all your coworkers get paid for the random and planned acts of kindness that God paved the way for you to do.

 Your paycheck? Wow! Righteousness and holiness!

But then in your envelope, you see it: God gave you a wonderful bonus that you didn’t (and couldn’t) earn.  It’s eternal life and it starts right now and continues forever.   

So would you really take the gift of God’s presence and favor and trade it for being Satan’s whipping boy all over again? (I didn’t think so).  You might hear Satan calling like the telemarketer from Hell trying to sell you on his brand of relationship saying, “Come back, I’ll make you a deal.”  But you can say like the Dave Edmunds song,

“You better get back to your use-to-be
‘Cause your kind of love ain’t good for me
I hear you knockin’
But you can’t come in
I hear you knockin’
Go back where you’ve been

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

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Give it up for Lent: Looking back, longing for the sinful days to return

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For further study:

1. How is it that you resign from the bad job of sinning?
2. What does God’s job application process entail?  Is this job something you deserve or earn?
3. Read James 4:1-10.  What does this say about how to get rid of the old boss?