You Can't Work For It

By Our Daily Bread

Read: Romans 5:12-21

The grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. —Romans 5:15

On Wednesday evenings, the church my family attends becomes a busy place. We give away a truckload of food to people who are struggling to get by. We’re grateful to be able to help meet a physical need in their lives. Another important part of this ministry is visiting these folks later and sharing the gospel of Christ with them.

Understandably, we must have some guidelines for a ministry like this, and one of them is: You can’t work for this food.

The church has already bought the food, so nothing anyone does can pay for it. The only way a person can get the food is to accept it as a free gift. No one is allowed to unload the food from the truck, pass it out, or do anything else with the intention that such efforts will earn this food. It’s absolutely free.

Sound familiar? It should. Jesus bought our souls with His death, and He offers us salvation that is free and paid for (Romans 5:15; 6:23). We can’t earn it, no matter what we do (Ephesians 2:8-9). All we can do is reach out to Jesus by repenting of our sin and receiving His free gift of eternal life.

Have you accepted the salvation Jesus offers? Please do. Reach out and take it. It’s free.  —JDB

The righteousness of Christ
Is free to everyone;
But we must face our guilt,
And trust God's precious Son. —D. De Haan

Our salvation was costly to God, but it's free to us.