As I have pondered the idea of "free gift", I can not help but wonder if our human reasoning is causing some of us to stumble. Could some of our thoughts about "free" be in vain?

For example, it may seem "illogical" or "un-reasonable" to our human logic to consider salvation as a "free gift" with stipulations and conditions.

Is God bound by our "logical" concept of "free"? Is it possible that our own human logic is faulty or vain?

Who says that just because God calls men to repent and believe in order to receive the "free gift" of salvation - this in and of itself would mean that salvation is not truly free? What if it is really our own thoughts about this that are vain?

We already concede that the "free gift" is limited to the few who will find it. We also know that only those who "believe" will receive it.

If God has chosen to require men to repent and believe the good news as a stipulation for receiving the "free gift", who are we as humans using a logic as far below His own glorious mind as the earth is below the heavens to argue that any stipulation or requirement placed upon the recipient is contrary to the true idea of the gift being free?


Can God consider His gift to be completely free and still set the terms and conditions upon which His free offer must be accepted? Will we accuse Him of being unjust if this is how He chooses to offer His free gift?

Could it be that our thoughts about what we consider to be genuinely free are vain in His eyes. Is it possible that our human wisdom in this regard is futile?

Perhaps we should be careful not to place too great a confidence in our "logic" about what we consider to be "free"?

Has not God chosen the foolish things to confound the wise?

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Alan and Dina Martin

I thought I'd try to take a shot at explaining how God can offer His saving grace freely as a gift while at the same time requiring repentance and faith in Christ.

I believe that the two-sided coin of repentance and faith is the channel through which God bestows his free gift of eternal life to us. The two-side coin of repentance and faith in Christ is like a hand that we extend to receive God's gift.

What is debatable among believers is whether or not a lost person can choose to repent and believe the gospel from their own will. But regardless of where one stands on that, I believe both "traditional" views (whether reformed or not) say that we need God's enabling grace to help us to repent and believe the gospel unto salvation. So in the end it's all of grace and there is no room for boasting. God begins a good work in us and completes it by the power of His Spirit. And it's all because of the cross of Jesus Christ, because if His shed blood for our sins and His resurrection from the dead.

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Oracio

I can guarantee this truth: No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. (John 3:5 GW)

No one has ever yet been "volitionalized" into the kingdom of God; that is, so appealed to in their wills to make a decision, and to determine to be in the kingdom of God, as by the strength of that decision and that determination to have got through. It cannot be done. A great deal of mistake has been made in that connection, and an entirely false position has been brought about for multitudes of people because the effort has been made along those lines, and they have been appealed to along those lines to exercise their own reason, and their own feelings, and their own wills, as though that would regenerate them.

Thus interest and activity in Christianity is one thing, but being in the kingdom is quite another. Multitudes of good-meaning people are interested in Christianity, and are active in Christianity. They see the value of the Christian standard of life, and Christian teaching, and have thought if only it could be applied, how different the world would be. So they have become busy in Christianity, and have thought they were in the kingdom of God. Not at all! You can have all the interest in Christianity without being in the kingdom. This is what the Lord Jesus said, in effect, and in other and more concise words, to Nicodemus. The only way in is by our receiving Divine Life as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ, and that becomes the new basis of the new creation, the basis upon which everything begins and is carried through, the basis of Divine Life. That Life has in it all the qualities and energies of the new creation. It constitutes our being in what is called the Kingdom of God.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Meaning of Divine Life - Chapter 1

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R. Evan Gombach

makrothumia wrote: "Who says that just because God calls men to repent and believe in order to receive the "free gift" of salvation - this in and of itself would mean that salvation is not truly free? What if it is really our own thoughts about this that are vain?"
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Absolutely agree! We need to accept what God reveals as required and lay down our reasoning.

However it is not that strange a concept to us. Consider the prodigal son story. He was freely accepted back by his father and freely given his inheritance. However he had to first turn away from his rebellion and return back home. This included humbling himself and admitting he was wrong before his father. Had he not, he would still be in the pig pen, despite the fact that the father was waiting to forgive and give freely.

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Dave

To us that believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the gift of salvation is free, because the Giver paid the ultimate
Price, to Him it was certainly not free. Repentance is for one thing and one thing only and that is if God grants it, that is to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

1 John 5:10-13 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

The son that returned to the father from the pig pin was already a son and when he remembered it he returned to his father still as a son. His worldly inheritance is not the Grace inheritance we have as by the Son of God birthed in us
making us fellow heirs of the Father by the Christ that is in us, for He is our Glory.

Colossians 1:26-29 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

It is by His working not mine and my repentance is by Him because the Father has Granted it.

Acts 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

Who gives repentance and why?

2 Timothy 2:25-26 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

In Christ: Phillip

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Phillip

Peter declared - "The God of our Fathers raised Jesus, whom you siezed and crucified upon a tree. This one God exalted to be both ruler and savior, in order to GIVE REPENTANCE unto Israel and the forgiveness of sins."

God through His Son sought to give repentance unto His own people Israel, but they rejected God's purpose and will for themsleves. By this rejection, they judged themselves unworthy of eternal life in the same way that the stubborn and jealous Jews in Antioch did when Paul preached to them.
This was the point of the parable of the prodigal. Tax collectors, drunkards, and prostitutes had repented when John preached, but the Pharisees like the proud older brother were proud in their self-righteousness.

Jesus said that these same men - "rejected God's purpose for themselves." Luke 7:30 God's purpose was to grant repentance to ALL Israel, but just like their fathers before them, many stubbornly refused God's purpose because of their evil unbelieving hearts and the love of the praise of men. They were broken off because of their unbelief , but even this would not damn them if they did not persist in it - because by faith they could be grafted in again.

It is by faith we have gained access into this grace wherein we stand. This grace has appeared to ALL men, because God wills for ALL men to repent and this is why Paul commanded. ALL men, EVERYWHERE, to repent and prove their repentance by their deeds.

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Alan and Dina Martin

Thanks makrothumia for giving the context for the parable of the prodigal son.

This parable of the lost son was given by Jesus along with the lost coin and the lost lamb, all to make the point that the Father's heart is to seek and to save that which is lost! He even says at the end of the parable that the prodigal was lost and now found, was dead and is now alive.

It is a simple truth that God seeks the salvation of all those who are lost. If we try and look too deeply into details of the parables to make something of them that was never intended we miss the simple point they were given to teach. The fact is, all men are made in the image of God and were created for Him and so He seeks all men to come to repentance and be saved from sin and death.

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Dave

Amen makrothumia, excellent and convincing post on the issue of man's responsibility and accountability before God. Indeed, if we refuse to receive God's salvation through repentance and faith in Christ our blood will be upon our own head; we'll have no one to blame but ourselves for rejecting so great a salvation.

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Oracio

I think SonsofLevi also brought up a good and important point with that Sparks quote. Being born again is nothing less than receiving God's Divine Life through repentance and faith in Christ. I believe repentance and faith and the new birth all occur at the same time, they are all connected. So if the new birth is a gift of God's grace, genuine repentance and faith in Christ are also gifts of God's grace. Again, leaving no room for boasting in ourselves but only in Christ. As Paul said, "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."-Gal.6:14.

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Oracio

Oracio,

Sorry to take so long to reply, have other things on the go.

Its all about Jesus, every last thing, its not about repentance or the lack thereof, or any other thing that seems so important. Its Jesus and Jesus alone. If 'free gracers' that you know do not preach that then they missing the point.

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Zeke Oosthuis