“But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 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” (Rom 5:15-18, KJV).
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).
Who wouldn’t want a gift? Especially a “free” gift? And that’s what salvation is, isn’t it? The free gift of God, given, like all free gifts, with no strings attached?
Well, let me tell you about “free gifts”. Or, rather, let my brother Wesley (natural and spiritual) tell us about free gifts.
You see, Wesley was a school teacher, a group that hasn’t exactly taken a vow of poverty, but they’ve come close. And it certainly was close enough some years ago, when Wesley discovered that, according to a special set of federal guidelines, his beginning teacher’s salary qualified him for a particular government give-away program.
It seems that the federal government, through one of those high-level bureaucratic management decisions, had somehow financed a vast nationwide overproduction of cheese. Millions of pounds of the stuff was stacked up in warehouses around the country, where even with all the proper refrigeration and other precautions it could only be stored for so long.
So what to do? After some consideration, the federal government let it be known that individuals and families falling below certain levels of annual income would be eligible for free cheese. And sure enough, Wesley’s full-time teacher salary qualified for this special benefit. Ten pounds of free cheese! What could be better?
Now comes the interesting part.
All you have to do, it turns out, is show up at a certain government building at a certain time, with all the proper paperwork (pay stubs, past years’ tax returns, two photo identifications, etc.), wait in line for what seems an interminable time, answer a number of questions satisfactorily… and then the “free cheese” can be yours… if you have met all the qualifications.
In due course Wesley finally returned home with the free cheese and, as he told us, a valuable lesson: Very few things in life, certainly very few things of any value, come with no price tag. Even things that are “free” cost something!
So it is on the infinitely grander scale of human interactions with the Almighty. And so it is with what Paul called the “free gift” of justification, or righteousness, or salvation.
What does this “free gift” really cost?
- First, we need to know that we qualify for the “free gift”. So many actually qualify, who never know about it. They perish for lack of knowledge. How terribly sad!
- Secondly, we need to know where the “free gift” will be dispensed. They don’t just give it away anywhere: you have to know the location. In this case, the “location” is Christ, the mercy-seat of God: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, NIV).
- Then, of course, we need to know when the “free gift” will be dispensed. Furthermore, we need to be in the right place at the right time to receive it. Fortunately, there are many “right places” to receive this gift, that is, wherever other believers are gathered together, raising their petitions to heaven, through the one mediator. Or even if the single believer is all alone, on a mountaintop or in a closet, he or she can still find the way to the throne of God: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:19-22).
- And we must not forget our proper support documents — not, in this case, pay stubs and tax returns, but rather our names, through confession and repentance and baptism, properly inscribed on heavenly “documents”: “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God… to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven” (Heb 12:22,23).
- Finally, if we are willing to be patient and wait, and wait, and wait some more… then, at last, we will receive our “free gift”: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Rom 12:12). “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm” (James 5:7,8).
Now here’s the marvelous thing. Despite the “price” that must be paid — despite the knowledge, the time, the place, the credentials, the waiting — despite all these “qualifications”, the gift when it finally comes will still be a “free gift”. No amount of knowledge, no amount of “good works”, no amount of patient waiting, will ever be enough to “earn” such a gift!
When it comes, it comes from the blessed hand of a loving Father, who desires that we share all His bounty. But it does not come to those who do not know, it does not come to those who do not act on their knowledge, and it does not come to those who do not wait, patiently and prayerfully, for it. In that sense, it has a real “price tag”! In that sense the “free gift” of eternal life will cost us our whole life:
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his life? Or what can a man give in exchange for his life?” (Mark 8:35-37).
But who would not gladly pay over his whole life to “buy” such a “free gift”?
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One