Eternal life, salvation, God’s forgiveness of our sins, is
offered as a “free gift.” For those
trying to work their way to heaven these are truly sweet words. How is that
possible? Salvation as a free gift is offered to us by God on the basis of
Jesus atoning death on the cross. Jesus paid our debt of sin on the cross so
that when we trust in Him God justly forgives us. Something is free when you
don’t have to work for it. Jesus has done the work of salvation for us.
Therefore all we need do is turn from our sin to God by trusting Jesus as our
Savior. Salvation is a free gift to be received (John 1:12).
Some of you have been consuming the junk food of a religious
pursuit of God. You’ve been trying to earn
God’s favor by doing things you
think He’d like you to do. You are trying to work your way to heaven. The problem with that is you never know if
your work is good enough or just simply enough. There’s no certainty; no
assurance of your standing with God. All there is for the worker is an
uncertain, unsatisfying, even fear of the future.
If you believe in and respect the Bible, (and there is a ton
of evidence proving the Bible is no ordinary book but is in truth God’s
revelation to humanity), then you should know that God’s recipe for salvation
is the health food of salvation. This salvation comes by His grace as a free
gift through faith in Jesus Christ. That alone is the dish that truly
satisfies. Your salvation can be as
complete, certain and sure as Jesus cross work. And He said, “It is finished!”
(John 19:30).
Let’s turn to a less palatable metaphor. The crust of food
can be delicious. But when you use the word crust in regards to your skin or
the earth’s surface you are speaking of some aspect of disease or the hard jagged
surface of our planet. Sin is like cancer, even the smallest cell incident of
sin will spread and become unmanageable if left unattended and untreated. Sin hardens
the heart; it hardens the sinner. Sin makes the sinner crusty. That’s
not good.
But
there is a cure for this crusty condition. And that cure is offered as a free
gift. That cure is provided in Christ. There is a chapter in the Bible which
three times states that salvation is a “free gift” from God. Romans 5:17
states, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much
more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will
reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” This verse introduces us to
Romans 5 where we see The Crust of Sin and
The Cure of Christ. I encourage you to get your Bible out
and turn to Romans 5 where we will see our crusty condition of sin and God’s
amazing free gift cure.
The Crust of Sin. When we
look at this passage we see the marks of a patient with a potentially fatal
illness. If left unattended the patient will die. There is a cure, but as an
early church father stated, “Before you can prescribe an antidote, you have to
know the poison.” What does this chapter tell us about the crusty cancer of
sin?
It isn’t a pretty picture. The
first symptom is guilt. We wouldn’t
need to be justified unless we were guilty in some way (5:1a). There is unrest. We wouldn’t have to be put at
peace with God unless we were first in a position of unrest toward Him (5:1b).
There is a lack of Godlike love (5:5).
There is weakness (5:6a). There is ungodliness; disobedience to the first 4
of the Ten Commandments (5:6b). The Bible calls this being sinners; breaking God’s Commandments in heart and deed (5:8). This
leads to a sentence of God’s wrath.
If this were not true, we wouldn’t need to be saved from God’s wrath (5:9a).
This crusty nature makes us enemies of God (5:10). We become so hard
by sin that we are separated from
God. Proof of this is our need to be reconciled to God (5:11). There is actually
a genetic predisposition, (a sinful
nature passed down from Adam) to sin (5:12a). This condition leads to death
(5:12b). And it involves personal responsibility; “all sinned” (5:12c-13). We
all break God’s holy and just Law. Therefore we are justly condemned (5:16) and destined to an unfavorable final judgment by
God (5:18). If we die in our sin, God will put us in a place where the fires of
His wrath will burn and incapacitate our contagious sinful crustiness forever.
Whew! That’s a pretty gruesome
and ugly diagnosis. And what is even scarier is that every human being is born with this crusty sinful condition. Every
person has this cancer of sin. Cancer by nature grows; it spreads. If left
unattended or we deny sins reality in us, it will take us over. This is the
most serious of conditions because it’s end does not lead to mere physical
death, but can lead to eternal death; separation forever from God in a
tormenting place called hell (Mat. 25:46). Is there a cure? Can we be saved and
healed of this condition? YES!
The Cure of Christ. The
cure for our sinful condition is not something we can work our way out of. There’s
no physical therapy to fix this problem. But there is a cure. The cure is
something we receive and must take in. The cure is a most precious commodity.
It is the most expensive antidote in existence. In fact you cannot put a price
tag on it. You can’t buy it. It can only be received and taken from God who
offers it for free!
The effects of this cure start
with justification (5:1a). Justification is a state of standing
before God just as if I’d never sinned. This
cure is so thorough, so deep, and so complete that it permanently removes the
crust of sin. This cure provides peace with God (5:1b). And all it asks
of the patient is to trust in Jesus (5:1c). This cure in Christ gives us access
to the greatest health plan of all time. This plan gives us access to God’s
grace medicine (5:2a) and that is reason to rejoice (5:2b, 11). Hallelujah!
So effective is Christ’s cure
that we are enabled to persevere through future trials (Oh yes, we may still
encounter difficulties) (5:3-4). The able Administrator of this cure is the
Holy Spirit who gives us an ongoing intravenous supply of God’s own brand of
love (5:5). But it is Jesus Christ who pays the price for this cure. This
saving cure is offered freely as a gift, but it wasn’t cheaply obtained. It
cost Christ His life (5:6). It certainly wasn’t deserved by any of us (5:7).
But God prescribed the curing treatment even if it did cost Jesus His precious
blood offered on the cross (5:8-9).
And so we are saved from a wrathful
end of the crustiness of sin (5:9). With the cure received and in place, we are
reconciled to God and saved from death to life (5:10). The cure is centered on
and provided by One Man, Jesus (5:15-18). The cure is “much more” than anyone
could have ever imagined (5:15, 17, 20). With this cure we can now “reign in
life” now (5:17, 21). With this cure we have “eternal life” forever! (5:21).
And all of this provided by and offered to all as a “free gift” (5:15, 16, 18).
That is a free gift that not only exceeds all other free gifts. But it is a
free gift exceeds all other gifts of any kind; period.
Have you received this free gift
of salvation? I encourage you to turn from your sins right now. Come humbly
before God and turn over your life to Him. Receive forgiveness for your crusty
sinful life through faith in Christ. Open your heart to the Holy Spirit and His
love. You’ll never be the same. From death to life. Your crustiness cured! It’s
a free gift! Receive it!
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