I could admire the gospel, talk about it, think about it, write about it, argue about it, even teach about it. I did all of that with exception to living the gospel. It was like looking at items for free from a newspaper ad. Until I had received those items from the donor, all I had was a newspaper advertising piece of paper.
The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. I receive it by believing the statement to be true. You can do as I did, and expect God to freely give you His life because He loves you. His love for us goes as far as having His Son crucified to render Sin his payment and buy us out of the chains Sin once had on us.
For a moment, think about it. We work our entire lives as inspired by Sin, causing harms to ourselves and others. And all we got at the end of our lives is death. This is what is meant when Scripture says “the wages of sin is death”.
Have you ever felt dead on the inside, knowing that someone so close to you had died? Knowing that Jesus died, someone we all could hope to have been, brings death to our own hearts. If Jesus died, then I’m just on stand-by. If Jesus was crucified, then who am I to think that I should suffer less? But knowing that he was brought back to life gives me hope that, I too even if I die, I will be brought back to life because that’s what God wants. I’m at peace because of what God wants, eternal life to be freely given to me. It has to be free to me because I could never afford it. To Christ, eternal life was rightly his already. He put it aside to prove his love for me by remaining dead for three days. What is rightly His, he freely gives to me to make me a child of His, a child of His Father. What a loving God!
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). That’s my rest.
Jesus is the well of the living water, the Holy Spirit. 