Colossians 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

By this verse we consider the Grace of our Savior and God, Christ Jesus, and the good works He has called us to walk in… because He has given us the Free Gift of His Life.

We are continually saddened by church leaders who have not been able to grasp this basic Truth and have not realized that Everlasting Life is The Gift of God bought by the precious blood of The Savior. They do not acknowledge that if we stumble and fall in our Christian walk with Him, our Everlasting Life is never in jeopardy, for we have been forgiven ALL trespasses past, present, and future. Some ‘teachers’ present their non-scriptural views with “authority” in the face of many clear Scriptures that reveal how “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29), they are forever secured by the Cross-work of Christ on our behalf… such that we have been securely sealed with the Holy Spirit.

“[Christ] In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” Ephesians 1:13 (KJV)

I never use terms like “Once Saved, Always Saved,” rather I simply believe Scripture is the best teacher saying, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by The Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). I do believe all who have called upon The Name of The Lord have already been given The Gift of Life Everlasting and that this Free Gift cannot be lost, forsaken, or forfeited in any way because God’s gifts are age-abiding.

The word translated “freely” in the New Testament is dorean, and like dorea, dorema, and doron is derived from didomi, “to give.” We cannot stress too strongly the blessed fact that justification is an act of God’s Grace as a gift, which as a genuine ‘gift’ must be undeserved and unmerited. The word “freely” occurs in The Gospels, the Epistles, and Revelation:

“Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8).
“I have preached to you the gospel of God freely” (2 Corinthians 11:7).
“If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21).
“The water of life freely” (Revelation 21:6, Revelation 22:17).

Romans Chapter 5 places great emphasis on this gratuitous (undeserved) act of God:

“But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.” (Romans 5:15-16).

Here, the Holy Spirit uses not only dorea in Rom. 5:15 and dorema in Rom. 5:16 but also charisma, a gift in grace (or gracious gift), translated in both verses as “free gift.” We doubt whether any definition of Grace is complete that does not include this element of a gift that is the antithesis of something “earned” (Romans 6:23). A genuine gift is without repentance [irrevocable] on the part of The Giver (cf. Rom. 11:29). Thus our “grace-by-faith-salvation” of Ephesians 2:8 “is not of works,” but is “The Gift of God.”

“God is love” and it is the very essence of love… to give. Even sinful men and women manifest their mutual love by the exchange of gifts. Children, parents, and friends seize upon birthdays, weddings, and almost any festive season as opportunities to manifest their love through gifts. The Love of God has been shown forever in The Gift of His Son (John 3:16), and it is a repeated characteristic of The Love of Christ that gives and gives freely gifts and Life to all who will accept That Gift (cf. Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2 and Eph. 5:25).

We have been “justified freely,” gratuitously, without a cause, “by His Grace.” Here, we need to pause so that we may receive the double emphasis upon the “Grace” element of The Gift. Grace is of such a nature that it is entirely negated by the intrusion of any requirement of “works” or as “wages.” ^- “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Galatians 2:21 (KJV)

“And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Romans 11:6).

“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal (aionion) life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

“For by grace are ye saved . . . it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Let not our own simplistic sense of right and wrong rob us of The Truth of this wonderful Gift of Grace. Romans 3:24 states we are “being justified freely by His Grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” What it does not say is that this freely given justification is because the Lord Jesus earned a legal righteousness for us by His obedience to the law of Moses. Such an idea robs the Grace Gift of its Glory and brings God down to the level of a bargainer with His Son, whereas it is God Himself Who loved the world, God Who sent His Son, God Who justifies us freely, God Who provided the ransom which is payment in full for all sin, past, present, and future.

Justification Through Redemption:

Where some schools of theology teach justification through “imputed obedience” under the law, God declared that it is through the “redemption” that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24). The same truth appears in Romans 5:8-9 where we read: “Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood,” and again in Romans 4:25: “Who was delivered up [at the cross] because of our offenses, and raised again for our justification.” Christ’s death dealt with our sin. His blood at once redeems, atones, and brings us nigh. Redemption sets us free, and long before The Dispensation of Grace dawned, David realized that God would reckon righteousness where He forgave sin.

“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:6-8).

It was necessary that sin should be righteously dealt with, and that has been done, but it is The Glory of The Gospel that the same Love that prompted our redemption and our deliverance can provide gratuitously, freely, and without cause (except in the Great Love of God) “a righteousness of God apart from the law.”

Shall we reject this Loving Gift because we do not see just how God could give it to us freely and without some external moving cause on our part? We undervalue far too much the initial movement of God in our Salvation. Who constrained God in the first place to provide a ransom for us? What works of righteousness were accomplished, and by whom, before He would send His Gift of Love down to die? And all that to a world that rejected Him and was dead in trespasses and sins. Our blessings were initiated and borne by His Love alone. If we take God at His Word and do not add to it or remove it from its context, do we not begin to experience a knowledge of Love that surpasses understanding? Here the Scriptures in this Pure Light imparts a much fuller enlightenment, for example, the words of Romans 8:32:

“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Here is God’s own argument. The “Free Gift” of righteousness to the believer in the Lord Jesus is freely covered and provided for in the one Greatest Gift of all, His Own Son. Let no believer ever think that their righteousness is not resting upon a firm enough foundation. All our Everlasting Lives rest on the uninfluenced Grace of God. Its bedrock is The Love of God that changes not and The Truth of The Precious Gift from God, Who is Christ Jesus Himself.

The Father gave The Perfect Gift to fallen, undeserving mankind. And having given His Son, God will freely give with Him, not grudgingly give, or have to be persuaded to give, all things that are necessary for the believer’s life and ultimate glory. This does not only refer to the act of justification but covers also all our needs and our eternal blessings.

The doctrine of ‘justification by faith’ depending, of course, upon exactly what is meant by “faith.” It is good, therefore, to be able to express what we mean concerning the freeness of this Gift, and the fact that faith has no merit in it by quoting, insistently, the language of Titus 3:7:

Justification by Grace is what we believe and what we intend when using the more common expression “justification by faith” as “it is the gift of God.” Our salvation is first unto “Everlasting life.”

Yes, the rewards we may earn by faithful service after salvation may be lost, but never … The Gift of His Life (Gk. zoe, Christ’s Resurrected ‘Spirit of life’).

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, ³⁹ Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 (KJV).