A. Gaining life after death is a “Do-it-yourself” Program
DO this, DO that, pray these prayers, keep certain days holy, receive certain sacraments, be a good person, be baptized, confess your sins, do unto others, offer up your sufferings, et cetera.
It doesn’t matter which religion you pick, they all have a list:
- Catholicism has its DOs.
- Protestantism has its DOs.
- Eastern Orthodoxy has its DOs.
- Jehovah’s Witnessism has its DOs.
- Mormonism has its DOs.
- Judaism has its DOs.
- Islam has its DOs.
- Hinduism has its DOs.
- Buddhism has its DOs.
They all tell you what you have to DO (or must not do) in order to qualify for life after death.
What’s ironic is that not one of them will ever tell you…
When you’ve DONE enough.
But the Bible is different. According to the Holy Bible…
Eternal Life Is a Free Gift
You can’t:
Earn it.
Merit it.
Buy it.
It’s a free gift.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
I’ll bet no one ever told you that eternal life was a gift. For 28 years no one ever told me. As a Roman Catholic, I was taught that you had to DO certain things to get it.
And yet eternal life is a free gift according to the Scripture—not something I was required to merit or earn by a combination of faith plus good works, like I was taught.
Eternal life is promised to anyone who comes to Jesus Christ.
Think about it, how can any gift be earned?
If you have to work for it at all, it’s no longer a gift. Imagine how insulted you would be if you gave a gift to someone and they turned around and asked you how much they owed you or what they had to DO in order to receive it.
That’s exactly what happens with God.
He offers eternal life as a free gift to any sinner who repents and trusts Christ as his or her Savior.
Don’t get me wrong, “good works” are commendable, and the Lord is pleased when anybody does them. It’s just that they are not conditional to getting eternal life. Clearly, it’s a gift. You end up doing “good works” out of a grateful heart––not as a prerequisite to earning what is offered freely.
Want to stop trying to earn your way to heaven? It’s easy. Receive the free gift that has been freely given to you…
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)
Like the Scripture says…
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)