Free Gift

Free gift with purchase – a $9.95 Value! In an effort to entice you to buy one of their products, some product manufacturers will offer you a free gift. The gift, which they will often tell you the value of, is yours free, as long as you spend money to purchase one of their products. The free gift is offered to get you to part with your hard-earned cash to buy something that you probably had no intention of buying to begin with. But, hey! You got something free in the bargain! Never mind that it cost you $59.95 to get that gift worth $9.95.

In the world, free gifts often come at a price. But in the kingdom of God, there is a gift that truly is free to all. That gift is the gift of eternal life. Romans 6:23b (NLT) tells us that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The free gift of eternal life doesn’t cost us anything. That’s because the price of this gift was paid by someone else. The cost of this gift was paid by Jesus Christ. And the cost was high. Because of sin, eternal life was not something that we could attain on our own. The price had to be paid, and the price was death (Romans 6:23a). Jesus paid that price for us. He gave His life so that we could receive freedom from the penalty of sin and have eternal life. Jesus paid the price so that we could receive this free gift from God.

So, what’s the catch? There must be something in the small print. There must be strings attached, some hidden cost. Ephesians 2:8 (NLT) says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” To receive the gift of eternal life, all that is required of us is faith. We must believe that Jesus came to the world and died for our sins, we must turn from those sins, and choose to follow His ways. That’s all there is to it. Because of God’s grace, our faith in Jesus Christ is what we need to secure the free gift of eternal life. And, considering the alternative, the fact that the cost of sin is death, that’s quite a bargain!