GOSPEL NUGGETS
Ro 6:23 ... the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The word "gift" in the original Bible means a "free gift." All gifts are free but God wanting to emphasize the absolute gratuity of eternal life said: "free gift."
Why is salvation/eternal life free?
1. It is free because salvation is by grace (see Eph. 2:8). Grace means undeserved favor to those who deserve the very opposite. And all undeserved favors are given for free. Favors that are earned or deserved are by that very fact not free. But salvation is by grace and so it is given for free.
2. It is free because Christ already paid for it. His death on the cross was the payment provided to pay for all our sins. When a thing is completely paid for you, then that thing is free. All you have to do is receive it freely.
3. It is free because salvation is too priceless and too valuable to be bought or earned by someone. To trade it for something is to lower its value and preciousness. There are some things in this world that cannot be bought or earned. It can only be ours if the owner decides to give it to us for free.
Salvation is too valuable and precious---it costs God the life of His Son. But He in grace decided to give it to us for free.
4. It is completely free because it is the only way in which God can receive all the glory. If salvation was a 50-50 transaction wherein man gives his 50% and God gives His 50% then both God and man can congratulate themselves for a job well done. God and man can share the credit equally.
But if salvation is wholly the work of God, with man being helpless and powerless in himself to save himself and God decided to give it to us for free, then all the praises of our lips will go to God 100%. And this is exactly the scheme of salvation.
Think: If God gave us physical lives for free. It would not be impossible for God to give us eternal life for free as well.
And this eternal life can be yours by trusting in what Christ did on the cross for you. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever trusts in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
