SALVATION IS A FREE GIFT - I

A question that bombed me out some years ago keeps looming large in my head whenever I take any evangelistic session. The big question is: What should one do to go to hell? And I am going to ask the same question here again, “What should one do to go to hell?”

Well, if the question has not bombed you yet, the answer surely will. The simple yet very true answer is “NOTHING”.

Doing nothing gives you hell as sure as doing wrong things because the Bible says in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” so much so that “There is no one righteous, not even one;... there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

Our God is a Holy God and He looks into our innermost parts and knows our every sin. The Word of God says through 1 Samuel 16:7, “...The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” We can deceive man but it is impossible to deceive the all-knowing Father as Bible says in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.”

He is so pure that our acts which we consider good are like filthy rags as the Bible says in Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags...” Filthy rags that try to hide our wrongs and short-comings but they can’t.

Many a times we slander each other and then give offerings. We do all these good deeds so that we can please God and console ourselves that we are good people but let’s see what God says about such offerings in Isaiah 1:13, “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me.” We disobey God and try to follow the rules and regulations that the church and society imposes to have the false security that we are saved.

But God in His awesomeness, greatness and goodness can see through all these covers of filthy rags and He knows all our secrets. Yet, inspite of our shortcomings, He wants to take us to Heaven with Him so that we can be with Him forever.

God saw through time that no amount of human effort could unite man with God because God’s standards of purity and goodness are unattainable especially because we are slaves to sin and are physically, mentally and spiritually weak to overcome evil. God saw that the law could not stop people from sinning, the multitudes of miracles that God showed His people could not melt their hearts and make them faithful, prophets and warnings could not make the people see the true Almighty God and neither did hardships prove fruitful.

Take a while and think of the good and the bad things you have done. Do you think that at this pace, we are ever going to be in Heaven? We may look at others and say that we are better than them. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were the only people in the entire Universe. Yet sin separated them from God. As we saw earlier that our God is a Holy God, He indeed is very Holy and sin cannot be around Him. Being better than others is not good enough. If you are a sinner, you will be remain separated from God till you remain a sinner.

So, how do you feel now? Rejected? Sad? Sorry?

I did not invite you here to give you the bad news. I called you here and for that matter I believe God Himself called you here to share with you the good news. And the good news is that SALVATION IS A FREE GIFT. See Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Let us open our Bible and meditate on Ephesians 2:1-10.

The Word of God says that you were dead in your transgressions and sins, you followed the ways of this world, you were disobedient, and you were gratifying the cravings of your sinful nature. It is time to think. Are we still there living godless lives? Where are our priorities? If you think that you have never been there in this condition of spiritual death, see what the Word of God says, “All of us also lived among them at one time...” meaning there is no one who has always lived a clean life and therefore as the Word of God says, “we were by nature objects of wrath”. We did not have to do anything to become sinners because we were “by nature” sinners and objects of wrath. We did not have a choice. But out of His rich mercy and grace God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. And it is not by our effort but by His grace.

Many a times, when we were kids we used to get gifts for coming first in the class or for winning some competition or things like that. In this case, we did not deserve anything because we were still sinners; we were still dead in our transgressions. God knows that man cannot attain salvation by his own effort and therefore God gave us Salvation as a gift as Bible says in Ephesians 2:8, “... it is the gift of God”. We should know now that a gift is always free and it is never asked for. God gave this gift to us not because we were well-behaved but while we were still dead as Romans 5:8 says, “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Thus, God has given us this gift of Salvation, of freedom from sins, of eternal life, free and this gift has been extended to all.

Many a times, we think that good deeds may take us to Heaven but we are as wrong about it as we can be for the Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Good deeds are not something we do to get brownie points or bonus points. We do good deeds because it is the only right thing to do. God detests when we brag about our good deeds because we were created to do good deeds as it says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” In fact, if we do not do good deeds, we sin as it says in James 4:17, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” This is why; Paul says that we have been saved not by works so that no one can boast because he is well aware of human nature that people boast about every single good deed that they do as if it were an added feather on their caps, forgetting or ignorant that good deeds are basic to life.

So, we saw that Salvation has been given as a gift. Now the question that arises is: Have you received it? Every act of giving requires two people – the giver and the receiver. Here, the giver that is God, has already given the gift once and for all as it says in Hebrews 10:14, “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” But, has the receiver, that is you, received it?

How do we receive the gift already given? Let us look to John 3:1-16.

This part of the gospel of John tells us of a famous incident where Nicodemus comes to Jesus and Jesus tells him how one can enter the kingdom of God. Even today, this gospel passage tells us the same: how to enter the kingdom of God; how to have eternal life; how to accept the gift of Salvation.

And the answer is there in John 3:15-16, “...that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we saw that all good things are with Jesus Christ. Accepting Jesus Christ is the only way to receive the good things with him. Salvation is with Jesus Christ, it is by His blood, it is in Jesus Christ. You receive it when you open the door of your heart and let Jesus Christ come in and be the master of you; when you let your body be God’s temple which you were created to be (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Let us Pray:
Heavenly Father, I believe in Jesus Christ and the living sacrifice He became for my sins. I offer my life to You. Let me be Yours and Yours alone. Make me new. Forgive my sins and cleanse me. Keep me under Your holiness and use me for Your glory. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.