“THE gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). Suppose God charged one thousand dollars, or one hundred, or one, for eternal life, would it be a gift? Nay, suppose He charged only one cent, would it be a gift? Suppose He charged so many prayers or so many good works, or so much love, to the man who needs eternal life, would it remain what He calls it “the gift of God”?
And is He not true to His word? Will He deceive as men do? Will He, can He, mock man’s need? Ah not He. The One who loved man enough to give an only Son for man is not the One to mock man.
Reader, whatever else God may have put conditions upon, He has put no conditions, no price to bring, to obtain eternal life. It is His prerogative to give it, and He freely gives it to every man who comes to Him for it.
Do you know what eternal life is? It is the very life of God Himself. Christ is the Eternal Life; and by His settling, through His atoning death on the cross, the whole question of our sins, He can give, and does most gladly give, eternal life to every one that believes on Him. Yes, to such He gives eternal life―the very life and nature of God; so that all who have eternal life are really the children of God―as truly His children as any child born of a certain man is the child of that man, possessing that man’s very life and nature.
Think of it; the man, or the woman, or the child, who has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a child of God. Read 1 John 3:1, 21Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1‑2) and again, 5:1, and see for yourself. That man has in him now a life which cannot see death, which is like God from whom it springs, and which thrives and grows only in the things which God loves and enjoys.
It is not at all an improvement of the old thing. No, that was born of the flesh, and is still flesh; but this new life is born of the Spirit, and it is spirit. It is not a restoring man to his innocent state, as in Eden. No; it is making him “a new creature” in Christ Jesus.
It is not gradually cultivating him till he gets up to a high standard of goodness. No; it is an immediate, absolute passing from one thing to another, “from death unto life,” from the wild tree to the grafted tree: one stroke of the knife cuts off the old, and implants a new tree into the old. Glory be to God for such grace, which can thus stoop to us in our ruin, and degradation, and helplessness, and hopelessness, and operate such mighty things Reader, once more we exultantly repeat, “The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” If you perish, it will be because you were too good in your own eyes to need eternal life; or too blind to perceive the grace of God; or too proud to confess your need. And what will you do in the day when such grace has ceased, and you must face the eternal realities of sin and judgment?
P. J. L.