04/11/2021
Salvation Is A Completely Free Gift
EPHESIANS 2:8-9 NLT 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
If salvation is based on our performance -- on what we do -- then it is not by grace. Our salvation is based on what Jesus Christ did. Our part is simply to receive the gift!
ROMANS 4:1-4 NLT 1 Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? 2 If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way. 3 For the Scriptures tell us, "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." 4 When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned.
Salvation cannot be a free gift and also be something we must earn. Either we earn it, or it is a gift. It cannot be a mixture of the two.
If you claim to give me a gift, but you ask me for any payment -- no matter how small -- then it is not a gift but something I am buying for a reduced price. Buying something on sale does not make it a gift. If there is any payment involved, by definition, it is not a gift.
ROMANS 11:6 NASB 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Today, just as in Bible times, there are those who teach that being right with God can only be achieved by keeping their list of rules. But this is not the true teaching of the New Covenant.
ACTS 15:5,10-11 NLT 5 But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, "The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses." 10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus."
ROMANS 4:14,16 NLT 14 If God's promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. 16 So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the father of all who believe.
TITUS 3:5 NLT 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
Those who present a plan of salvation based on your performance are not rightly dividing the Word. Yes, many Scriptures give instruction on what we are to do. But they are instructions for how to live, not how to be saved and enter the family of God.
Will there be rewards and consequences for our actions? Yes! Scripture makes that clear. But our entrance into God's family and our home in Heaven is not based on our performance, but on our faith in what Jesus performed.
SAY THIS: I don't have to work to earn the free gift of God's salvation.
