Having eternal life is similar in a lot of ways to having natural life. God gave us natural lives as a gift. We never earned our natural lives.
We never contributed anything to God to make it happen. We never worked for it.
Our natural lives are not rewards for something we did before we were given it. God never said: "I am going to create you and give you life because you were religious, you did a lot of good works, you did charitable deeds etc."
How could we do these things when we never existed in the first place?
In the same way, eternal life is a gift from God. In the eyes of God, a sinner is spiritually dead. He can never contribute anything to effect it. He can never work for it. It is not given as a reward. It is offered free. And you can have it by faith in Christ.
Ro 6:23 ...the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes/trusts in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
