"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
The gift; its main component is love. Love is also the driving force behind the gift. Everything in this world will perish, even our earthly bodies, but with God our spirit shall never die. The two key words in this verse are ‘God … gave’. Like any loving father would give a gift to his child, God gave us all the gift of salvation; forgiveness from the sin that weighs us down. Our sin will destroy us someday if not for the gift. In its simplest form, the gift is the ‘key’. We are bound in our own sins; as if a huge millstone had been chained and locked around our necks. Salvation is the ‘key’ that unlocks the chains and sets us free from our sins … each and every one of them. It is not a blanket pardon for all of humanity, but rather, a blanket pardon for all who ask for it. We must humble ourselves to the point of admitting that we are sinners in need of redemption. Until we admit we have a sin problem there is no salvation for us.
That is how deep God’s love is for His creation. That He would reveal that love to us in the form of His own Son dying on a cross is hard to fathom. It’s not simply believing as one would believe that the sun would rise in the morning. It’s believing in such a way that our life is changed. Scripture tells us that even the demons believe in Jesus (James 2:19), so believing isn’t the point of the exercise. Belief to the point of giving to God your life to use as He so chooses is. God gave … we give back. We allow His Holy Spirit to permeate our souls and make the alterations needed to be useful to God. It starts with a request and ends in submission. In exchange for our surrender we receive eternal life. It’s a fair exchange. We give up our own will to follow God’s will for us. His will leads us to peace, joy and fulfillment. We can walk away at any time, for we have a free will; however, the person who truly accepts, believes and trust in God will find it impossible to turn away for He provides the only way to true happiness. All other means of achieving happiness are temporal and will come to an end. God’s love for us is so deep and so strong that we should feel compelled to serve Him willingly all our days. In Him lies the gift of a lifetime. The gift is eternal life with God.
WALK WITH THE KING TODAY AND BE A BLESSING!
