A Gift or a Bargain?
Jim Woodell・02/07/22
My wife likes “Flea Markets,” and is always looking for a bargain. She has found some, but always pays something for the bargain. They are not free!
Check out the following two flea market finds:
NORTH CAROLINA – A man bought an old cowboy photo at a flea market for $10, which is estimated to be worth more than $5 million. A *49,000,000% return on his $10 investment.
UNITED STATES - A scrap metal dealer bought a gold egg at a flea market for $14,000 because he believed he could melt it down for a $500 profit from the gold. Thankfully, he researched it first and discovered it was a rarity worth $33 million. Making a *235,000% return on his $14,000 investment.
There are eight more bargains, reported in the top ten, that are worth more than $100,000. All bargains, but none are a gift. Something was paid to secure the possession.
A gift is “a thing given willingly to someone without payment.” You have two choices when it comes to being saved. Accept or reject. Receive or decline.
Notice these verses:
Ephesians 2:8-9 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. (Compare Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.)
Romans 5:14-17 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
Acts 8:20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!
Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.
2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Salvation is a gift that cannot be earned with works or bought with money. Salvation can only be accepted or rejected. We can choose. You can choose.
How?
Galatians 3:26-29 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The Plan or The Man?
It’s ALL about Jesus! Salvation is found in “no one else” (Acts 4:12), or anything else.
Jim Woodell, retired
Searcy, AR 72143