“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” Eph.2:8,9 NLT

“You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world. Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Eph.5:5,6 NLT

I’m going to ask you a very serious question, I have quoted you two scripture portions both from the book of Ephesians. Number one from chapter 2 and number two from chapter 5. The question is which is it? Is it the first one or is it the second one? Or is it both? How can it be both.

How can salvation be a free gift from God with no strings attached and the Bible turns around and warns us if we don’t behave in such and such a way we will be thrown into hell forever?

Is God giving us something and then turning around and taking it back from us? Back in the day we used to call someone who did that an Indian giver but I suppose in this day and age we don’t say that anymore. Too bad, I like my language to be colorful, colorful but not offensive. Google just instructed me to use, “insincere giver” so I’ll use that.

Is God an insincere giver then? We probably should not make accusations against the most holy God. He is perfect and He is perfect in all He does and says. So, the problem is not with God, we will have to look elsewhere.

Let’s try to square these two scriptures. We must figure out how they both can be true even though they seem to contradict each other. Could we say that the gift of salvation is free, that we don’t earn it because we can’t possibly earn our salvation but… there are conditions attached to this free gift that we must meet or else the free gift is taken away from us?

Does such a thing happen in real life? Yes it does. Think of a father giving a precious gift to his son, say a brand new shiny candy apple red Ferrari. Wow, nice gift hey? The gift is free but there is a condition, “If you get 3 speeding tickets within one year’s time, I’m taking the car away from you and selling it.” And the son says, “okay, I promise to behave and not speed, just give me the friggin keys dad, yahoo!”

And in the course of the first year he does indeed get 3 tickets and the father takes the car away and sells it. And the son is back riding his bicycle to school. Was the father an insincere giver? Nope. The gift was free but there was conditions that the son had to meet.

This solves the apparent contradiction. The gift is free, we did not earn it, but there has been some conditions that have to be meet in order to keep it. If we misbehave badly and don’t repent, God will take away everything good he has given you. And even worse you will have to face his anger, and you don’t want to go there, like I have said before, don’t mess with God.

The bible has a parable that teaches us the same thing, it is found in Matt.18 starting in verse 23. It is the story of a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. He forgave the one who owed him a lot but then that servant went out and demanded a fellow servant to repay him what was only a little amount. He would not forgive, so the king called him back and told him he is taking away his forgiveness and is now sending him in debtors prison until he repays the debt in full. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is just like that. 

This I have come to call the kingdom economy, it is different up there than what it is down here sometimes. We would do well to learn the kingdom economy.

What about boasting then? If we end up “earning” or I guess we could say if we end up “keeping” our salvation by our good behavior, wouldn’t we then have something to boast about? Hmmm I don’t think so, read this verse.

“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants ; we have only done our duty.’” Lu.17:10 NIV

To children who desire to please their parents they only have to be told once. Disobedient children have to be told over and over again and still sometimes they don’t do what they are told. Be an obedient child, do what you are told, this pleases our Father in heaven. On the other hand do not be like a disobient child who has to spoken to sternly and even spanked

In summary, we are not earning our salvation by keeping the conditions set by our heavenly Father. If we do all that we are told the Bible says, we have only done our duty. If we have only done our duty and nothing above and beyond that then we have nothing to boast about.

To think we have a license to sin, even in a limited way or somewhat, you have perverted the gospel. Please get this through your head, the gospel does not give us a license to sin even in a limited way. Scripture says that God is love, that is certainly true hallelujah but… you don’t want to mess with God he can be your best friend or your worst nightmare.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may he lift up his face upon you and be gracious to you, may he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen