The Gift of God

“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.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

Any good father or mother will love his or her children no matter what the children do.  God created man, knowing that man would disobey Him, but as our heavenly Father, He loves us no matter what we do.  But He can’t leave us undisciplined.  He knows how to correct us when we do wrong, but even if we strive to do better, our efforts to satisfy a righteous God are futile.  Had God been only a God of justice, He could have left us to suffer His wrath which is yet to be manifested on earth, but it is coming to everyone who has rejected Christ.  Because of His love and mercy for His creation, He gave man free will which enabled man to sin, but God paid the penalty for that sin in Christ as He suffered the sentence of death which we deserved.  The righteousness which God required from mankind, which was impossible for us to produce, He gave us freely and generously His Son so that His righteousness could be imputed to us, replacing our sin debt and stamping it with a “paid in full” across the volumes of our recorded sin.  Without God’s grace, there is no forgiveness, no salvation, no peace or mercy for mankind.

No one is saved unto eternal life on his or her own merit.  It is impossible for a person to live a holy and righteous life, never sinning or even having one corrupt thought by his or her own endeavors.  God required those in His family to be perfect (Matthew 5:48), but God gave men and women the ability to choose right or wrong.  Otherwise, people would only be like puppets or robots, loyal to God, but only because they were programmed that way.  That is not what God desires and neither do humans.  God desires that men and women love Him because they want to love Him.  He desires wholehearted devotion, and for those who do truly love Him and are committed to Him, He blesses them beyond measure, and I don’t mean riches, fame, power, or prestige.  Some believers have those things, but that’s not what one’s spiritual life is about.  It is difficult to explain the joy and the blessings which come when one has surrendered to Christ and is living for Him to those who have not yet repented and trusted in Him.  Having Christ within one’s heart makes the bad days bearable and the good days even sweeter.  Any success that we have as a believer comes from allowing Christ to live His life through us.

It is by God’s grace that people can come to Him and be forgiven of their sin and become one of His children.  Those who choose to reject God have also rejected His grace.  To reject God’s grace is to trample upon His love, goodness, kindness, and mercy, but to receive Christ by way of repentance and trust in Him is to receive the gift of God’ grace.  There is nothing that we can do to earn God’s grace.  The very definition of grace, the unmerited, that is, unearned favor of God is indicative of the fact that it can’t be earned.  Have you ever given someone a gift just because you wanted to show your love for him or her?  He or she didn’t do anything to earn that gift.  An inheritance works the same way.  Folks receive assets of a deceased person either because that person wanted to leave them something or because of a relationship that the heir had with the deceased person.  An heir can’t earn an inheritance, and he can’t force anyone to put him in his or her will.  It is the choice of the decedent.

One of my former pastors used to illustrate God’s gift of salvation by grace using a quarter.  He said he could hold the quarter out in his hand to the other person, but the other person would have to reach out and take it in order to receive it.  The quarter was freely offered as a gift out of the goodness of the giver’s heart, and not a payment for any good works.  Works do not enter the picture until after a person receives Christ by grace through faith.  A person who is saved has nothing to boast about concerning himself or herself.  They can’t even boast that they had the desire to receive God’s grace by their own initiative because that desire is also a gift from God.  He puts the desire into the hearts of people to know Him in all of His splendor and majesty.  As the old preacher said, “You can’t be saved just any old time you desire.  You must be offered the gift of salvation by God’s choosing”.  He may give many invitations, and He may give only one (II Corinthians 6:2).

When one repents and puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ, he or she is a new creation whom God has made to do good works.  We who are saved are designed by God to be a servant of Him and of others, not a slave in the way we think about slavery, but rather one who seeks to do good because it has been put into his or her heart to please the Lord and be an example before others in how we carry out our lives daily.  This is how God planned for His children to be, obedient, loving, kind, and generous, resulting in a life of joy and inner peace.  It makes perfect sense.  Why would God bless a person so that they could be selfish and greedy, pleasing himself or herself, and not sharing the light of Christ?  It is only natural that a good God would expect good, godly works from His children.