But the Gift of God is Eternal Life
Â
If there is anyone that God can reach with His Truth, He wants to do so. “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth” (1Timothy 2:4). “The LORD is not slack concerning His Promise, as some men count slackness; but is Longsuffering to us-ward, not willing [not wanting] that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2Peter 3:9), for “the Longsuffering of our LORD is Salvation” (3:15). The LORD gets “no pleasure” in the stiffnecked wickedness that refuses Him. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51). “As I live, saith the LORD GOD, I have NO PLEASURE in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and Live” (Ezekiel 33:11). But, if there are people who still CAN repent, even if they are “murderers, and whoremongers” (Revelation 21:8), God wants to get them for Himself. “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth” (1Timothy 2:4). And if He is given the opportunity, through their submission and our intercession, He will get them. “Therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have Mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of Judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him” (Isaiah 30:18).
Â
The method by which the LORD GOD secures people unto Himself is anchored in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. “What saith the Scripture?” (Romans 4:3).
Â
- (John 3:15) “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Eternal Life.” Â
- (John 5:39) “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life: and they are they which testify of Me.” Â
- (John 6:68) “Simon Peter answered Him, LORD, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life.” Â
- (John 10:28) “And I give unto them Eternal Life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” Â
- (John 17:2) “As Thou [the Father] hast given Him [the Son] Power [the Spirit] over all flesh, that He should give Eternal Life to as many as Thou hast given Him.”Â
- (Romans 5:21) “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our LORD.”Â
- (Titus 3:7) “That being justified by His Grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life.” Â
- (1John 1:2) “For The Life [Jesus] was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” Â
- (1John 2:25) “And this is the Promise that He hath promised us, even Eternal Life.” Â
- (1John 5:11,13) “11 And this is the Record, that God hath given to us Eternal Life, and this Life is in His Son… 13 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.” Â
- (1John 5:20) “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is True, and we are in Him that is True, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God, and Eternal Life.” Â
- (Jude 1:21) “Keep yourselves in the Love of God, looking for the Mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life.”
“The Gift of God is Eternal Life
through Jesus Christ our LORD“
(Romans 6:23).
“Sin is the most expensive thing in the universe. Nothing else can cost so much. Pardoned or unpardoned, its cost is infinitely great. Pardoned, the cost falls chiefly on the great atoning substitute; unpardoned, it must fall on the head of the guilty sinner.”
 In the most complete sense possible, Eternal Life is gained “through Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:23). He, “being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God… 7 made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). Jesus is God, and yet was sacrificially born as a Man, “4 made of a woman, made under the Law, 5 to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ“ (Galatians 4:4-7). For “Abba Father”, “the God of all Grace, Who hath called us unto His Eternal Glory by Christ Jesus” (1Peter 5:10), even Himself suffered the Painful Sacrifice as a Loving Parent, in that He “spared not His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). The Father’s Supreme Gift of “His Own Son” and the Son’s Supreme Gift of His Blood, secure a plan for man’s Redemption that is uniquely executed by Divine Authority. “We have Redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace” (Ephesians 1:7). So, it is from the Father, and by His Son, that we inherit the Heavenly Kingdom. “12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in Light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His Dear Son” (Colossians 1:12-13).
- (John 10:9) “I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Â
- (Acts 2:21) “Whosoever shall call on the Name of the LORD shall be saved.” Â
- (Acts 15:11) “But we believe that through the Grace of the LORD Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” Â
- (Acts 16:31) “Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Â
- (Romans 5:9-10) “9 Much more then, being now justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the Death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His Life.”
Only the LORD Jesus Christ has the ability and the right to save us. “We see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of Death, crowned with Glory and Honour; that He by the Grace of God should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). Only the LORD Jesus provides ALL that we need, “Who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption” (Hebrews 12:2). Again, from Mr. Finney:
“All is done already. You have only to consent to the proposition, give your heart right up to it at once. This is all. Just so it is. All Christians and sinners ought to understand that the whole plan is complete, that the whole of Christ — His character, His work, His atoning death, and His ever-living intercession — belong to each and every person, and need only to be accepted. There is a full ocean of it! There it is. You may just as well take it as not. It is as if you stood on the shore of an ocean of soft, pure water, famishing with thirst; you are welcome to drink, and you need not fear lest you exhaust that ocean, or starve anybody else by drinking yourself. You need not feel that you are not made free to that ocean of waters; you are invited and pressed to drink — yea, to drink abundantly! This ocean supplies all your need. You do not need to have in yourself the attributes of Jesus Christ, for His attributes become, in practice, yours for all possible use. As saith the Scriptures, He is of God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What do you need? Wisdom? Here it is. Righteousness? Here it is. Sanctification? Here you have it. All is in Christ. Can you possibly think of any one thing needful for your moral purity, or your usefulness, which is not here in Christ? Nothing. All is provided here.” –from “God’s Love for A Sinning World”, “The Oberlin Evangelist”, Lectures of 1853.
Love is His Motive. “God commendeth His Love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Love is His Means. “Herein is Love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the Propitiation [Mediation] for our sins” (1John 4:10). Love is what God is. “8 God is Love. 9 In this was manifested the Love of God toward us, because that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (4:8-9). Love is the End Result God achieves. “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He Ever Liveth to make Intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
“For I determined not to know any thing among you,
save Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified”
(1Corinthians 2:2)
Â
