Does anyone want a free gift?
Since the Early Church, there has been an ongoing effort to understand the importance and necessity of “faith” and “works” in relationship to our salvation and the forgiveness of sin. There are those within the Church who tend to focus more on scriptures like John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” They would argue that belief in the Son, Jesus Christ, is the only thing needed for someone to be saved and forgiven from sin. Others within the Church might find their understanding and direction more in line with scriptures like James 2:14-18 where James describes a faith that must be evidenced by works for there to be any validity in it. As he states in James 2:18, “Someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’” I have written on these differing opinions in previous posts, but now I would like to suggest a possible cause for these differing points of view. Maybe, if we can understand why people tend to believe one way or another, we might be able to come to a complete understanding of the truth rather than only a part of it.
One of the biggest hurdles I have come across while sharing the Gospel of Christ with others is their inability to fully believe that His gift of salvation is free. While it does not require them to do anything other than believe to receive it, many people believe they have been too evil or too bad in their life to be able to simply have everything freely forgiven and wiped away as if it never happened. When God forgives us of our sins, He does not remember them anymore. Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, I alone, am the one who wipes out your wrongdoings for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.” God does not want to be reminded of our past sins and transgressions any more than we do. He wipes them out for His “own sake.” He does not want to see us in any way other than being righteous before Him. He wants us to forget our sins as He forgets them.
Every one of us who believes in Jesus has our own testimony of how He delivered us and forgave us. We do not want to forget that we once were lost and now are found, but He does not want us to dwell on the sins of our past. We have a testimony of His saving grace in our life, so we might be able to share it with the lost and unsaved to win them to Christ. We do not need to remind God, however, of our past, and we should not allow the enemy to continually be reminding us of our past sins to build back within us the identity of being a sinner. We are saved from sin and free of it if we are living in Christ. Our identity is in Him as children of God, no longer sinners. You can read more on this point in my previous posts as well.
Why is it so difficult for some to believe that the gift of forgiveness and eternal salvation is free to anyone who chooses to believe in Him? Why is it so difficult for some to believe that God wipes away our sins completely and never remembers them again? Why is it difficult for some to believe that God does all these things without any effort on our part? If we can understand this point, I believe we will be able to share the meaning of “faith” and “works” more clearly with those who desire to believe in Jesus. It will help us to understand why someone might struggle with the idea of a gift being freely given if we can understand why someone might feel like “works” must be accomplished to release the eternal life or sustenance being offered by Jesus. This difficulty of believing in the free gift of salvation goes all the way back to the beginning of creation. Before we go back to the beginning of all things, let’s first look at the time of Jesus since He is the one who is offering us this freely given gift. What does Jesus say about doing works while here on the earth?
We might understand “works” as something that requires an effort on our part, but if we understand the One who is actually performing the works, we will see the effort for those works comes from the Father, not us. Jesus said in John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works.” The Father does His works through us because He lives in all those who love and obey His word as Jesus said in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.” Since we are to be conformed to His word and transformed into the image of the Son, as it says in Romans 8, the works that James speaks of in James 2 are the works being performed in us by the Father. The Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, the Son and the Father are in us, and we are in the Father and Son. The scripture says in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” We are one spirit with the Father and Son, so His works are our works when we are aligned with His will or are joined with Him. The Father’s works in us are evidence that He lives in us. His works are the manifested fruits of the Holy Spirit who also lives in all of those who love and obey God. His works are not our own and cannot be of our own effort.
“Faith” in Christ requires no physical effort at all on our part. It only requires a heart that is willing to submit completely to the Father’s will. The grace required to believe or have faith in the Son comes from the Father. This faith does not originate internally from our own thoughts or minds. It is a divine faith given to us by the Father when He calls us to the Son. This faith is evident in us by the transformation process that occurs when we receive the gift of eternal life from God. He places us inside the Son who brings us along with Him from death to life, and we are resurrected and born again as newly adopted sons and daughters of God. We are newly adopted for now, but we look forward to the fulfillment of that adoption when the Father reveals His sons and daughters in glory when the Son returns to the earth.
If the “faith” and “works” mentioned in the scriptures are not from our own effort but freely given by the Father, why would anyone have a problem receiving any gift from God freely, even salvation? Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned.” The atonement for sin is from the act of One man as well. Romans 5:17 says, “For if by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Adam and Eve sinned when they disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit. God told them they could eat freely of any tree in the garden except for one. Up until that point, they had both lived free of sin and had free reign of the garden and all of the gifts God offered them. When they sinned, they brought a curse upon themselves. Eve would now give birth or bring forth life in pain. Adam would now suffer from hard labor by the sweat of his face to produce life or sustenance from the earth. They no longer were going to experience gifts freely from God. They were now going to have to do “works” for it. Everyone who has come into this earth since that moment has had to live under this curse.
Before Christ, people had to offer up sacrifices to make atonement for their sins. There was a physical interaction that occurred within that process. They would have to toil and sweat to earn enough money to buy the animals needed for the blood sacrifice, or they would have to raise the animal themselves. Either way, they were going to have to work to produce the blood for their atonement. The animal would have to be killed and cut up into pieces. A fire would have to be built, and the animal would have to be offered as a burnt offering on an altar unto the Lord. According to God, the foundation for the atonement of sin was in a blood sacrifice, and it would require a physical effort. Because of the curse brought on by sin, man would have to toil and sweat to earn his forgiveness. This form of atonement went on for thousands of years until Christ came into the world.
When Jesus died for us, He paid the price for our sins once and for all, but we still must live in this cursed world until He returns and brings His kingdom to the earth. Romans 8:18-24 says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only that, but also, we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our body. For in hope, we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, through perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” Until that time, we are waiting to be set free from this physical realm where the earth is cursed and man toils for bread. Our spirits do not have to fully abide in this cursed place though because “the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him,” and we are seated together with Christ in heavenly places as it says in Ephesians 2:4-6. Since our flesh still lives here in the earth, we must remember Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Until Jesus returns to free His creation, we are His flesh in the earth for the Father’s works to live in us.
God told Adam the ground would be cursed because of him. We still live on the same earth as Adam did. We gain eternal life when we believe in the Son, but we must still live in a cursed world until Jesus returns and reveals the sons and daughters of God. Since Adam sinned, man has been having to work to produce life for himself in this world. When Jesus died and rose again, He offered us a new life in Him, but because we have been conditioned to work for our life and existence, it is difficult for some to separate what they have known from what Christ offers us now. It is not our spirits that struggle with receiving the free gift of salvation and forgiveness. It is our flesh and our minds that struggle. Our physical bodies feel the need to work for our salvation and struggle with forgetting our past sins because we are living in a cursed world and in bodies that still feel the need to work and toil for its survival. This is one of the reasons the scriptures tell us to confess our sins one to another. By confessing our sins out loud, we are engaging our physical minds and bodies, so we might physically receive the forgiveness and gift of salvation offered by Jesus. This is also why the physical manifestation of sorrow and repentance is important. There are many people who believe they must work for this new life as they have always worked for their old life. Some people in this world have an easier time of receiving the free gift of eternal life and forgiveness because it is how they have always received things. Others have been conditioned to not take anything without working for it. Jesus spoke to this point while He was here on the earth.
In Matthew 19:23, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why? What makes a rich man different from a poor man other than his wealth? I always thought it was because the rich man wouldn’t want to give up their money, but wealth is relative. Almost everyone in this country would be rich by world standards, but this nation can be broken up into different classes of wealth as well. I believe Jesus was referring to the difficulty a rich man would have when trying to receive a gift without having any ties to it. Most people who are rich have become rich because they either worked hard or found a way to barter or trade their way to the top. Most people have heard the statement, “Nothing in this world comes for free!” While that might be true because of the curse of sin, it is not true when it comes to the heavenly gift of salvation. The poor and destitute seem to understand this better than most because they have spent a portion of their life freely receiving their sustenance from others. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to share the gospel of Jesus with someone who is poor or needy? Someone who is sick and cannot afford a doctor will respond to Jesus more easily when they are healed. Someone whose life is falling apart will respond to Jesus because they cannot work hard enough to get themselves out of their needy situation. The poor and needy are better at receiving freely because it is how they have lived. Those who are rich, healthy, and physically strong are not as open to receiving freely because they have always produced life for themselves. If they have received anything from another, they paid for it or worked for it. I have never been poor, and I have often found myself even having difficulties receiving a Christmas gift from someone without feeling obligated to return the favor.
If we can understand that all gifts are from the Father and are free to anyone who chooses to believe in the Son and if we can understand that there is no way to work our way out of this sinful world and into eternal life on our own, we might be able to forget our sinful past as the Father does for His “own sake” and help others understand His love and forgiveness as well. When we understand it is the Father’s “faith” and “works” that are being lived in us, we will stop trying to do anything other than love God with our whole heart, mind and soul by allowing Him to perform His works in us according to His perfect will. We will love others perfectly because it will be the Father loving them through us. There will no longer be any reason to argue “faith” and “works” because it will be the Father’s works of faith in us. When the Father’s love is working through us, we will be as Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”
You can read more about this and other truths by obtaining a copy of “Prodigal to Prince” by Beau Walsh at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com.
