God’s Gifts
God gives three gifts to all His chosen people. He gives them: 1) eternal life, 2) faith, 3) purpose.
Eternal Life
What is this gift? It is the gift of life, eternal life with Christ. It begins immediately, here and now and continues for all eternity in a much better place. God who sees the end from the beginning chose all that would come to believe in Him and receive this huge gift before He made the world.
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)
So sad, God gave His Son to die for everyone that believed but no one believed. We all failed to recognize this gift of everlasting life. We were so blinded by Satan that we couldn’t see or hear God’s message.
Faith
What did God do then? He gave some of His creatures another gift, the gift of faith, faith to believe and accept the gift of eternal life. To whom did He give this additional gift and what was the criteria for receiving it? The answer is He gives the gift of faith to all that ask for it in true, heartfelt sincerity.
Our faith is not something we give God. It is a gift He gives to us. It is the gift of faith, faith to believe that God sent His Son to become a man and die for the sins of all that believe in Him. We have life through His death on the Cross.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:8-10)
We see here that our salvation is by God’s grace and through faith. Without faith we spend eternity in Hell, not heaven. We see also that even the faith to believe is not our own. It is an additional gift from God. It is not a gift He gives everyone but only those He chose in eternity past.
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Eph. 1:4)
Purpose
What purpose in life does God give to His chosen and so very highly blessed people? We are blessed with the privilege of being His representative’s ln this world. We are the means He has chosen to employ to communicate the good news of His salvation to the world. This is a huge gift, one that can fill our lives with meaning and purpose. We serve God as we go through life joyfully sharing the good news of eternal life with others we know or just meet on occasion.
Yes, the gifts of eternal life and of faith are free, without price, likewise the purpose God gives us to live for is itself yet a third gift. As a reward, we are given the privilege to do work for God. It is work that so rewards its workers that it is actually a great gift disguised as a task.
The purpose that is itself a gift is the privilege to communicate to others the story of God’s great and totally free salvation. It is the good news that Christ came and died on the cross in our place. He, the One that never sinned died in place of sinners like us! He saved us from the death penalty we earned and deserved.
You may ask, how can such a huge privilege be ignored and why do so many of God’s born-again people reject it? It is because they have lost their sense of responsibility to God in His Great Commission:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations .… to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: (Matthew 28:18,19)
Yes, many of God’s people have come to believe that what God commands them to do here is impossible. They reason that He couldn’t have meant what He plainly said. To twist these words, though, to deny what they plainly say, is to destroy the Bible and with it the entire Christian faith!
No, we cannot deny God’s command to His disciples (and to His people today) to make this world a Christian world. The faith has not yet covered the earth as it should have done long ago. It is our God-given responsibility and we cannot just ignore it. Especially so when we consider our own unworthiness and all God does for us.
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)
God tells us here that at a point in time, while the nations (kingdoms) of the world are still in existence as nations, they will have become Christian nations. This is nothing other than a Christian world! It is our assignment, not one that Jesus will do for us.
Wake up sleeping Christian! Your God has given you work to do here and now, work that must be completed, before Jesus returns. Will you be the faithful servant that obeys his Master, or the unfaithful servant that leaves the difficult work for others?