SALVATION: THE FREE GIFT

[Terry Scerine]

"Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Romans 5:18)

The Bible tells us that we are all sinners and the penalty of sin is death; but that we can be saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the Gospel, or Good News, of Jesus:

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. (Romans 3:10).
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
For by grace are ye saved through faith... (Ephesians 2:8)

What is grace? Grace is undeserved kindness or mercy. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He who was without sin paid the penalty for us that we, who were yet sinners, couldn't pay for ourselves. And still can't. In fact, there is no way for us to earn our own salvation. It's impossible. Since the very first time you sinned in your life, you are condemned to death.

In the Old Testament, God required the sacrifice of a perfect animal in order to forgive the sins of His people, the Israelites. He said that without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission (or forgiveness) of sin. Jesus is the Perfect Lamb who was sacrificed for the remission of our sins. This is why when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

What Is a Gift?

What is a true gift? A true gift is given freely with no strings or conditions attached. If a gift is later taken away by the giver, it wasn't really a truly free gift after all. A gift cannot be deserved or earned; otherwise it would be called a reward, right? A gift cannot be dependent some future action; otherwise it would be called an incentive or a bribe, wouldn't it? A gift can neither be earned nor obeyed.

But what about the one who receives a free gift? One does not receive a gift until he makes a decision to accept it. But one can also reject the gift. Or one can accept a gift and then abuse or neglect it. One can accept a gift and then throw it away. One can accept a gift and then carelessly leave it exposed to thieves. In other words, even though a true gift given freely will not be taken away by the giver, it can still be rejected or neglected or even thrown away after being accepted.

Can these things also be true of God's free gift of salvation to us?

A brief Old Testament event (read Numbers 21:6-9) foreshadowed Christ's redeeming sacrifice on the cross and exemplified a truly free gift from God. Jesus Himself referred to that event when He said:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:14-15)

And here is my brief summary of that event: The people of Israel were plagued by fiery serpents, and many who were bitten died. But God provided a cure: after being bitten, if they would merely look upon the serpent raised up on the pole, they would live.

The cure was unbelievably simple! But they did have to believe in the cure enough to accept the cure by looking upon the serpent on the pole. They had to trust in it. If they didn't believe in the cure after hearing about it, they probably wouldn't have bothered to look; but once they were bitten, if they remembered and accepted the cure by merely looking upon the serpent on the pole, they were cured of the deadly bite once and forever. Simple! And this is the event Jesus used as an analogy to help explain His impending sacrifice the cross in John 3:14!

Also, remember the thief on the cross who was crucified with Christ:

"But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:40-43)

It was that simple. The thief simply admitted his own guilt and being deserving of his own punishment; and not only believed who Jesus was, but also trusted in Him enough to ask Him for His mercy; and he got it right then and there in no uncertain terms! And I'm sure his hope in this assurance from Jesus gave him great relief and joy during those last painful moments!

It appears to me that Jesus' reply to him was an unconditional guarantee with full assurance of the future, even with time left on the clock, and clearly without any follow-up requirements on the part of the thief. Period. No magic formula, no follow-up work to do, no ifs, ands, or buts. Guaranteed by God Himself.

Accepting the Gift

Once someone admits that he is a sinner who deserves the penalty of death, and chooses to believe all the Truth about who Jesus is and trusts in His ability and mercy to save Him, and then asks Jesus for the free Gift of His forgiveness and His promise of eternal life, thereby puts their faith in Him for salvation and accepts Him as their Savior. Like the Israelites bitten by serpents or the thief on cross, when we realize our desperate need for salvation, and we decide to trust in Jesus for the cure, and we ask for His free gift of salvation, and we accept the gift and keep it and cherish it, then we have the same hope of the blessed assurance that Jesus gave the thief.

It would seem that there is nothing else we have to do except believe in Jesus:

"That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:14-15)

This, however, is too simple for the natural mind of man to accept. In this world, we know that nothing is ever really free. In this life, it seems that with any "free" thing, there's almost always strings attached. But beware of your natural mind, where it concerns the things of God:

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him..." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

And what about "believe"? What exactly does that mean?

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." (James 2:19)

Satan knows and believes all about Christ, but his fate is sealed in the lake of fire:

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Rev 20:10)

Therefore it must not be enough just to believe about Jesus. There are many who believe about Jesus. So what's the difference? There is a difference, and that difference is faith. Faith is believing in, and having hope and trust in Jesus, not just believing about Him.

·Now the just shall live by faith... (Hebrews 10:38)
·Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
·But without faith it is impossible to please Him... (Hebrews 11:6)

So here's your quiz: What does it take for you to have Christ's blessed assurance of your certain salvation? You have just read the answer.

What Other Requirements?

As I said, nothing in this world is ever really free. But the key phrase there is "this world". God only gives perfect gifts, and a perfect gift has no strings or requirements attached. Too hard to believe, or just too hard to understand? There's a BIG difference there. We don't have to fully understand something in our own mind in order to accept it and believe it in our heart:

·Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. (Heb 3:12)
·Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (Pr 3:5)
·Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, (Lk 24:45)
·For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (1Cor 1:19)
·The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, (Eph 1:18-19)
·Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart (Eph 4:18)
·And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7)

If it is true that salvation is a free gift offered to us by God, and that we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus, is there anything must do to complete or ensure our salvation? Just before Jesus died, He said, "It is finished." His blood was shed, and His death for our sins was complete. It is a perfect gift; there is no requirements for us to do to complete it; but just to accept it and cherish it.

The Lord is our Shepherd, but only if we are His sheep.

Remember that a truly free gift cannot be taken away later by the giver. But also remember that if one does not value a gift he has accepted, he might forget it, or abuse it, or deliberately throw it away, or let it be stolen by a thief.

But if one considers a gift to be priceless, he will treasure it like a "pearl of great price". He will accept it with gratitude and keep it, and treasure it, and be mindful of it, and protect it, and guard it from thieves.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." (Mt 13:45-46)

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Now go and find what are His commandments, the two commandments He gave in the New Testament. Start reading at the beginning of the New Testament in the book of Matthew, the first of four accounts of the life of Jesus. If you love Him, really love Him, then you will want to read all about Him. You will want to know Him, really know Him. He is your shepherd, but only if you are one of His sheep.

[maggie hancox]

Isn't it amazing how well this represents the kind of faith that we have.
We know we are not worthy of his love yet written on our hearts is his nature, we know he loves us, so regardless of our unworthyness we still look expectantly to him.

Your writings have been such a refreshment for me, it is so easy that we forget the kind of fight that we are in.
Unlike any human way of fighting it is principalities and powers.
As non-christians there are so many curse words, yet none so powerful as the only curse word for a christian.
DOUBT!!

If satan had a second name, I bet it would be Doubt.

Yet our Father right from the time of the sin of Adam has planned to empower US HIS CHILDREN against satan, right to the very end!!
By showing us his true nature, quashing the slander against him, forever in our hearts by taking us to the very limit of any test!
He gave us the most precious thing in his kingdom and allowed us to curse it, throw it away and break it. Still turning to us and giving us his unconditional love and forgiveness, should we just accept it! The very limit!! what greater could he have done to proove how deep, how wide and how long his love?

And then he gave us his word!! to wheld as our sword against DOUBT!! lest we forget (as i so often do!) because he knew that even still we would become subject to it from time to time.

And Joy to help us to be strong and endure!

I know I am rambling really, but it is wonderful to find someone of like mind who gets it!

I beleive we all need this kind of encouragement, everyday! to strengthen and uplift each other.

Keep writting! :)

[Terry Scerine]

Maggie! Your words (quoted below) were like a tall cold drink of water to a thirsty man for me!

"It was faith that the theif could even dare to ask, for in asking we believe that there is a chance we may have what we ask....this is called 'hope'.

I believe that faith is not in the actions or the words of our Father, or of Jesus, but faith is the beleif in the very nature of our Father!"

My all-time favorite Bible story ever is when the Canaanite woman (in Matthew) approached Jesus to heal her daughter. I just love how she pressed Jesus to it, even after He said, "I'm sent to the lost sheep of Israel" when she replied, "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table." Her faith in Him was so incredibly strong that she wouldn't even take "no" for an answer from Him!!

Then Jesus told her, "I have not seen such great faith in all of Israel!" That passage speaks volumes to me, and you know exactly what I'm talking about, Maggie! That is soooo cool!

Love you! In Christ, your brother Terry

[maggie hancox]

Hi Terry, love your blog!!
As for my comments you noted, that is the wonderful love that my Father revealed to me in my own desperate need.
I agree to all that you have written, which only further extends my belief in all that I have said.
In talking of the snake, and of the theif on the cross, both representing faith.

It was faith that the theif could even dare to ask, for in asking we believe that there is a chance we may have what we ask....this is called 'hope'.

I believe that faith is not in the actions or the words of our Father, or of Jesus, but faith is the beleif in the very nature of our Father!

You see, when we beleive in the very nature of our Father, our decisions and our thoughts reflect as such.

If we beleive that we are to be provided all that we need, and all that we need to be happy under the understanding that our Father knows more greatly what our real needs are,more then even we can fathom, then we have no need to act in sinful ways. In fact we act in accordance with his will.
We are then like children. (my analogy of such below.)

You see it is so easy to be a teenager in our love, a teenager truely beleives they know what is best for them, what they need and what they want.
Even though the parent can see that what they ask is not good for them and as a parent we know will not lead them to be truely happy.

You see as parents we usually know better what is best for your children.
How much more does our Heavenly Father know of what we truely need for our wellbeing and our happiness.(plenty of scripture on that subject!)

Remembering his ways are higher and his thoughts are higher...LOOK UP!!!! like a child to his father in faith that all will be well in his loving security.
Where does a child stand when he/she fears?
Behind thier father!
Because they know that there they are secure and safe.
What does a child do when they are afraid?
They cling to their father,their rock and their strength.


I have recently had a fall of sorts with my faith, it is so easy it is to see ones own self in the mirror and recoil in horror, thinking that we are unacceptable to our Father.

We forget that we never where!!! it was by accepting Jesus that we became acceptable and by the work of our Fathers spirit within us that we are given any power at all to change.

So I stand again in awe of my Fathers love and greatly appreciate the directions he provided me, back to his arms through the use of people like you, and the gentle reminders of the knowledge of his nature I once had and can have again just for the choice to accept it.

I believe my Father revealed to me my reflection for a reason, and I know he will change me for his glory and I know as his child it is for my own benifit that it is done, as this is the love of a perfect Father.

May the joy of the Lord be your strength as it has been mine.

:)

[Terry Scerine]

I'm glad it rings true to you! I need to know I'm not all wet. There are so many "scholars" who oppose each other - one says we cannot lose our salvation, the other says our salvation is conditional. I know there's only one truth about it, though, because God doesn't talk out of both sides of His mouth. He is not divided on any doctrines.

Yes, the verse in Hebrews, in my opinion, is about one who hears the Word and receives it, then throws it away.

[SavedYouzer]

That comment i just Posted is for everyone to read after they read your well put together Article up top. GOD BLESS YOU ALL WHO LOOK FOR GODS WORD FAITHFULLY!

[SavedYouzer]

Thanks for the feedback on my blog, Walking in TRUTH,and walking in DECIET. I Totally agree with what you said but may i ask you to consider a verse? Hebrews 10:26-27 what he is saying there is look you can lose your way with God and end up in a Firey judgement if after you have recieved his Word, You continue to sin! i learn something from or about the word everyday! So i tottally agree with whatyou posted on my blog and am relieved to find others who CLARIFY what my and MANY other pastors teach. Yea so just thought id give you a heads up on that verse. God Bless you Brother!