"His Gift" -3

"Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh". (Jude 23b) As we ponder what His gift to us really means, let us not forget what a gift even is, and that it is not something that can be purchased. The grace of God is nothing that can be worked for, because it is something that can only be provided to us by God Himself though Jesus Christ our Lord. That is why He had to come and die for us, because we were hopeless to attain salvation on our own! Only God was worthy enough to pay the price for our sin; "for there is none righteous, no, not one". And yet He made a way for man to be redeemed unto Himself, by providing Himself as a sacrifice for our sin!!! Now then; seeing the great price involved in the provision for His grace to us, do we really think that anything we have done, or that we can do, can even come close to measuring up to that gift which He has given? Therefore, the only thing left for us to do, is to receive His gift to us with a heart of thanksgiving; accepting His free gift knowing that it is by nothing that we have done, nor nothing we can do, by which we are saved. As earnest as someone might be in there desire to work their way to heaven, or for righteousness, anyone who tries is the same as a thief and a robber. Cain too, was earnest in his sacrifice unto God; believing that God would have respect for his sacrifice, as he offered up the fruit of the ground of which he had tilled. As a matter of fact, it was his earnestness that cause his heart to hate his brother; not because his brother had done what was right and acceptable before God, but because his earnest sacrifice was not looked upon as acceptable, even though his involved more effort on his part to bring it about. This is why God warned Cain, when He saw that he was wroth, saying, "Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door: and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." (Genesis 4:6 & 7) There is an attitude that is developed in the heart of a man that says, I've come to far, and worked to hard for this to be worth nothing! Yet, if we consider for a moment what God has done for us; something which He had planned and worked on since the very beginning; before even man was created, God had established the way to redeem the man which He knew He was to create, and which He knew would fall in sin. Now that's a lot of hard work!!! "Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eight day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I count loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as dung, that I might win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." (Philippians 3:4-11)