{"id":44198,"date":"2017-02-21T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=44198"},"modified":"2017-10-22T13:07:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T20:07:24","slug":"eternal-life-is-not-easy-to-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/eternal-life-is-not-easy-to-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"
God’s offer of eternal life is simple … but it is not easy to believe.<\/p>\n
The simple offer of eternal life in the Gospel is that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ for it.<\/p>\n
Simple, right?<\/p>\n
But not easy to believe.<\/p>\n
It is not easy to believe that God\u2019s free gift of eternal life is by grace from first to last.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
True grace is something completely foreign to the way life works or to the way most people think. Humans are unaccustomed to grace. We are told almost from birth that nothing is ever free, that there is always a hidden catch, and that we should always read the fine print.<\/p>\n
So when the gospel is presented to us and we are told that eternal life is the absolutely free gift of God to anyone who receives it by faith in Jesus, and that there is nothing we need to do or even can do to earn it or keep it, most people start a get a little suspicious.<\/p>\n
They start to look for the fine print.<\/p>\n
They start to search for the catch.<\/p>\n
So we go looking for the fine print, the footnotes, or the hidden conditions.<\/p>\n
Sadly, there are far too many Christians who are more than willing to provide the fine print and explain the catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yes,\u201d they say. \u201cEternal life is free, but you have to love God in return and obey what He says in Scripture in order to prove<\/em> you have it.\u201d<\/p>\n Others say, \u201cWell, you need to understand, if you truly<\/em> are a Christian, your life will have the good works to back up your claim. If you don\u2019t have the good works, then this means you are not truly a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there is this argument: \u201cEternal life is free, but before you can receive it, you have to fix up your life, seek after God, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, prepare your heart for faith, and pray the sinner\u2019s prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n To all these sorts of teachings, and countless similar ideas, the gospel in Scripture says \u201cNo! Eternal life is a free gift of God.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Eternal life is by God\u2019s grace from first to last.<\/p>\n There are no works needed to gain<\/strong> eternal life, keep<\/strong> eternal life, or prove<\/strong> you have eternal life.<\/p>\n Eternal life does not require you to reform your life, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus, get baptized, seek God, or pray a prayer.<\/p>\n Just receive eternal life as a free gift from God by believing in Jesus for it. That\u2019s it!<\/strong><\/p>\n This is why the free offer of eternal life is a problem for most people.<\/p>\n It sounds too good to be true.<\/p>\n It sounds too radical.<\/p>\n It sounds like it’s taking grace too far.<\/p>\n Since the gospel of grace is opposite to the way the rest of life works, many people have great trouble accepting it.<\/p>\n So almost without fail, when people first begin to grasp the implications of the freeness of God\u2019s grace in the offer of eternal life\u2014that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it\u2014they begin to ask questions.<\/p>\n One of the most frequent questions is this: \u201cSo if eternal life is free and all I have to do is believe in Jesus to get it, does this mean I can go sin all I want?\u201d<\/p>\n A man recently posed the question to me this way, \u201cAre you saying that I can believe in Jesus for eternal life, but I can still sleep around, and steal from people, and even murder anyone I want to, but I still get to go to heaven when I die? I don\u2019t have to stop sinning? I don\u2019t have to read the Bible? I don\u2019t have to go to church?\u201d<\/p>\n While many Christians would answer \u201cNo\u201d to these questions, my answer is always, \u201cYes!\u201d<\/p>\n No ifs, ands, or buts.<\/p>\n Without qualification.<\/p>\n Absent of all fine print, footnotes, or hidden conditions.<\/p>\n Yes, I know.<\/p>\n If I say that grace allows you to go sin all you want, you now are beginning to wonder if I am a false teacher who promotes licentious living.<\/p>\n You have probably heard rumors that teachers like me exist, but have rarely (if ever) encountered one in public.<\/p>\n Pastors often preach against \u201cthose grace teachers,\u201d but few people have ever really<\/em> met one.<\/p>\n This is because most so-called \u201cgrace teachers\u201d still include a lot of \u201cifs, ands, or buts\u201d in their teachings about grace. So the true \u201cgrace teacher\u201d is viewed as a bit of a legend, sort like leprechauns and elves.<\/p>\n But I have now exposed myself as one of those mythical monsters that people are warned about by their pastors. Even still, you might be thinking I do not mean what I say.<\/p>\n But I do.<\/p>\n Since grace is free, you can go sin all you want.<\/strong><\/p>\n I will explain this idea more in future blog posts, but if you absolutely must know NOW what I mean, take my course on the gospel. It explains all this (and more) in great detail. <\/p>\n <\/a>Want to learn more about the gospel?<\/strong> Take my new course, \"The Gospel According to Scripture.\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\nIt’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe<\/h2>\n