Have you heard of the saying:
Nothing is for free, something is always for something at least in the long run (my edition)?
Who of us today, would comfortably take an iPhone X (phone) randomly given to them by a stranger on the street? Am sure none of us (sober ones).
We live in a world where free things are deadly. Women (sober ones) will always be suspicious of the love and care from a man.
Inside us, there is a need for a favour and a free thing but we know that a free thing has an interest of the giver tied to it and therefore we cannot risk to take it for we know, we will be at loss eventually. And unfortunately, we are right.
Today, in the business world, the best marketing strategy is: IT IS FREE.
Companies capitalize on our internal need of help and free things to lure us by so-called free things as they make more sales at our expense.
Let me give you an example: In Uganda, telecom companies have succeeded in making Ugandans think that there is something known as FREE-CALLS. I load airtime and the first two calls I make after loading, I receive a message from the company that says: This call was completely free.
When you check your airtime, it is absolutely intact and not touched. The logic a gullible head will see in this is: I have made a call and my airtime is intact, but a few will ask, why they couldn’t make any calls before they loaded airtime.
I load a weekly bundle and my workmates at the office have the audacity to ask me: Do you have free calls? I want to make a call. Wait a minute: which free-calls!! The ones I paid for on Monday? Uhuh!!
The danger of free things is twofold:
1. Cost: Free things are costly because they pose an unfair transaction. A free lunch or dinner offer from a man to a lady might result in a nine months pregnancy for the lady, or an incurable disease for the man. So free things in our world are a trap and that is why we are cynical.
Secondly, free things are costly because they rob us of the esteem of earning them. We are engineered achievers and rarely do we appreciate things that are, but not because of us.
We desperately say: So and so DID IT FOR ME. We want to tell the world I DID IT myself. This is not just ego, but safety. We are sure of what we invented or contributed to than what we are given.
2. Quality: The other danger of free things is their quality. Rarely are free things authentic, original and reliable. When you don’t have a fare on a commercial bus, it is hard for you to actually take a seat of your choice. Free things might be quantitative but they are never qualitative. Europe dejunks and sends second-hand clothes to Africa and I can tell you that the quality of second-hand clothes is second-hand period. (I hope you understand).
Apart from Sin, the second reason as to why many people will end up in Hell is because eternal life is free as exhibited in this Gospel of Righteousness by Grace through faith.
First of all, this salvation is not free, it had and has a cost that no man could pay, so the creator became a creature, God-incarnate (Mathew 1:20, John 1:1-3, 14, Philippians 2:7).
Secondly, the eternal God, had for the first and last time died and died eternally (John 3:16, Romans 8:32, 1Peter 1:18-19, Isaiah 53:3-5, Luke 23:23).
Finally, this God paid a cost returning from eternal death back to life through resurrection (Mark 16:6, 1Thessalonians 4:14, 1Corinthians 15:21, Mathew 28:6).
Look at the three-phase costs of salvation,
1. Creator becomes Creature = The Incarnation,
2. Eternal dies eternally = The Cross,
3. Life comes out of eternal Death = The Resurrection.
Now let me ask: Why would God invest that much due to our guilt and then give all that for free to us? I mean who does that in this world? I will tell you who does that: GOD. It is only God who gives free things and only him, can.
The reason is that God is the only INDEPENDENT GIVER. Only God will give a costly and quality product like salvation for free. Because it is unbelievable, many will end up in hell.
All other givers are dependent and will give you things at least to contribute to their esteem, but only God will give a valuable thing like salvation to a people he essentially does not need and can live without.
Since we are accustomed to interest oriented givers and beneficiary givers, we tend to think that we must do something to God to be saved.
False teachers will tell you that we are saved by grace but after we are saved, we must obey to retain that salvation. This is not true, for salvation is not a loan from the bank of heaven that we get for free to earn and payback later through our good works.
The good news is too good to be good news when you are told that upon believing in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven past, present and future. Stop doing something for something and assume that it is still a gift.
A gift is not just a free thing, but something which has no iota or thread of your contribution.
The Bible says:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Salvation is a gift, not a reward. Eternal life is not an achiever’s award. We are not saved based on how we perform before or even after but it is by the goodwill of the saviour that we are saved.
We cannot and will never earn God, it is God who earns us. Fasting and Prayer are good for you, not for God. We should keep the Law not for the good of God but for our own good. Attend church, do pilgrimage as much as you can, donate and help the poor, but remember salvation is FREE and has nothing to do with what you do BEFORE or AFTER for it.
No one will be congratulated in heaven but only God, and like Apostle Paul, we will all say:
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. (2Corinthians 9:15)
God bless you, I invoke TRUTH REASON and FAITH
Pr. ITM WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 