SALVATION, GIFT OF

A group of believers was meeting by a river when one of their group fell into the water. It was obvious that the poor fellow couldn’t swim, as he thrashed about wildly. One of the believers was a strong swimmer and was called on to jump in and save the man before he drowned. But though able to save the drowning man, he just watched until the wild struggles subsided. Then he dove in and pulled the man to safety.

When the rescue was over, the rescuer explained his slowness to act. “If I had jumped in immediately, he would have been strong enough to drown us both. Only by waiting until he was too exhausted to try to save himself, could I save him.”

It seems to be all too easy for us to be like that drowning man. Our self-efforts can actually prevent us from being saved! Unfortunately, some people must reach the point of being too exhausted to continue trying to save themselves (by dealing with their own sin) before they become willing to trust in the Savior and accept his gift of salvation.1167

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. He 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. 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” (Eph. 2:8–9, niv).1168

The story has been told of a wealthy man who became a Christian. He tried to reach his friends for Christ and told them, with tremendous enthusiasm, what had happened to him, how the Lord had changed his whole life and even saved his marriage. But he found that his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. His friends were not interested.

Since this man had great wealth, he developed a plan that would use this wealth to reach his friends. First he wrote out a check for a million dollars, which everyone knew he would easily be good for. He then visited his friends in turn and said, “I have always highly regarded you as a friend and have wanted to do something for you. Would you receive this check as a gift from me?”

People would look at the check and, when they saw the amount of it, they would hand it back and say, “I can’t take that from you.” He tried to give the check to many of his friends, but no one would take it, although it was a valid and sincere offer. Finally the man realized that people are not willing to receive great gifts without having some part in it.

That may be why some people hesitate to accept God’s offer of eternal life as a free gift.1169

The story has been told of a missionary who became a good friend of an Indian pearl diver. The two had spent many hours together discussing salvation, but the Indian could not understand anything so precious being free. Instead, in making preparation for the life to come, the diver was going to walk the nine hundred miles to Delhi on his knees. He thought this would buy entrance into heaven for him. The missionary struggled to communicate to his friend that it is impossible to buy entrance into heaven because the price would be too costly. Instead, he said, Jesus had died to buy it for us.

Before he left for his pilgrimage, the Indian gave the missionary the largest and most perfect pearl he had ever seen. The missionary offered to buy it, but the diver became upset and said that the pearl was beyond price, that his only son had lost his life in the attempt to get it. The pearl was worth the life blood of his son. As he said this, suddenly the diver understood that God was offering him salvation as a priceless gift. It is so precious that no man could buy it. It had cost God the life’s blood of his Son. The veil was lifted; he understood at last.1170