Suppose your best friend came by one day with a special gift for you. How would you respond?
Would you immediately pull out your purse or wallet for some money to help pay for the gift? Of course not. To do so would be a great insult!
A gift must be accepted for what it is—something freely given and unmerited. If you have to pay for a gift or do something to deserve or earn it, it is not a gift. True gifts are freely given and freely received. To attempt to give or receive a gift in any other manner makes it not a gift.
So it is with our salvation. God offers us salvation as a free gift. God does not attach strings to it, because to do so makes it something other than a gift. In addition, any attempt on our part, no matter how small, to pay for our salvation by doing something or giving up something is an insult to God. A God Provide
No one in heaven will ever be able to say, “Look at me! I made it! With a little help from God, I made it!” Salvation is all by God. Not even the smallest part of it is the result of what we do or do not do.
As God says in his Word, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians.2:8–9).
How cool it is that the same God who created mountains and oceans and galaxies – looked at you and thought the world needed one of you too.
