The Precious Gift

You have heard it said that you are saved by grace. You have heard phrases like “gift of salvation”, “the gift of God is eternal life” and the “gift of righteousness”. What does it mean that you are saved by grace and why is salvation a gift? Romans 6 v 23 says, “For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” From this verse we see that eternal life is a free gift. By definition a gift is free. No one has ever paid to receive a gift so calling eternal life a “free” gift is to emphasize how free it is. Isaiah 55 v 1-2 says, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Again these scriptures emphasize that eternal life is free and God goes on to ask why we labour for things that are not real and that do not satisfy our souls instead of just coming to Him to get the real life which is free and we do not have to work for it. These two passages of scripture teach the same thing. First, they show us that that which comes from God is free and second that which we get for ourselves we work for it. How? In Romans we learn that the wages of sin is death. For one to receive wages they have to have earned them and for one to earn them they have to have worked for them. In Isaiah God asks us why we work for things that are not good for us. So when we sin, we ourselves put in the time and effort and therefore we deserve the consequences thereof. Romans 3 v 23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Since all of us have sinned, we all deserve to die and to die is to be in the fiery flames of hell for eternity away from God’s presence. In short, we all deserve to go to hell because we earned it through our sinfulness.

On the other hand, because of God’s mercy, salvation comes as a gift. It is free which means we did not work for it. Ephesians 2 v 8-9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Clearly we receive salvation as a gift without us doing anything special to get it if only we believe in the complete works of Christ. One of the most famous Bible verses, John 3 v 16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” So all we have to do is to believe in Christ and through our faith in Him we are saved by grace. What am I saying? Christ did the work and you got the credit. It wasn’t you on the cross. It wasn’t you that went into the heart of the earth (Read Matthew 12 v 40). It is impossible for you to save yourself even if you tried. Psalm 49 v 7-8 says, “None [of them] can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the redemption of their soul [is] precious, and it ceaseth for ever :)” The Psalmist later tells us where he places his confidence for his salvation when he states in v15 of the same Psalm, “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.” So understand this, no amount of “good works” can get you into heaven.

Many people are under the deception that they have to do “good works” for God to save them from their sin i.e. they have to work for their salvation. That amounts to not trusting that Jesus did enough to save you and so you think you have to add on to what He did to make it complete. No, that is wrong!! After all Isaiah 64 v 6 says, “But we are all as an unclean [thing,] and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags.” So your so called good works are not good works at all. You have to admit your shortcomings and acknowledge that they are unacceptable before God and then place your confidence in the complete work Jesus did on the cross for your salvation. You will no longer wonder whether you have done enough to get saved because you will know that Jesus did enough for you to be saved. So you might then wonder if this means you can go on sinning just as long as you believe that Jesus died for you. By no means because the Bible in 1 John 3 v 8 says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” The very reason Christ came was to destroy sin and redeem His people. So when you believe in Him you become a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5 v 17 says, “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” You are born of the Holy Spirit and are now a child of God and so sinning is a no-no for you. When the Holy Spirit dwells in you He begins to sanctify you i.e. to make you holy and pure. This does not happen instantaneously. While salvation is immediate, sanctification is a process. While you do not partake in salvation, save for being in need of it, you take part in the sanctification work by working out your salvation. Here is a saying; you do not work for your salvation but you work out your salvation.

To work out your salvation is to partake in the sanctification work the Spirit works in you. Philippians 2 v 12-13 says, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.” From this verse we are told to work out our own salvation. Note, you are not working for it. You are working it out. The next verse says God works in us to will and to work, for His good pleasure. This means God is making us willing and able to obey Him and all we have to do is follow that through by actually doing it. Salvation is already in you and God is working in you to desire and to act according to His good purpose. So while He is working in you, you are working on the outside. For example, because you have submitted to God, He will work in you to desire to be generous and give you the ability to be generous and all you do is be generous to those that are needy.

So in conclusion what am I saying? We have sinned against God and so we deserve to go to hell but because God loves us so much and seeing our precarious state and our inability to save ourselves, He gave us the gift of salvation. Christ satisfied the righteous requirements of God, that if a man sins he must die, by taking the ultimate penalty on our behalf. So all we do is trust in Christ for our salvation rather than our own “good works” and allow Him to work in us to obey God. God bless you.