It would seem that grace is a good deal, and absolute grace would be a really good deal. If salvation is free, unearned, unmerited, and undeserved, then this means that absolutely anyone can be saved. What could be the catch?
Well, the catch is that these terms mean that anyone can be saved by Christ alone. Being saved by grace alone means that we don’t have to contribute anything, we don’t have to pay for shipping and handling, and we don’t have to be better than the sweetest Christian we know. We just receive what Christ has done, acknowledging that Christ has done it.
But that is where the problem lies. We want a piece of the action. The carnal human heart wants at least some of the credit. In contrast, the Bible teaches that the only thing we can earn is damnation, and the only thing we can receive as a gift is salvation. Hell is a paycheck, with every penny counted. Heaven is a gift, a sheer, absolute gift.
This means that Heaven and Hell are not symmetrical. Scripture does not say that the wages of sin is death and the wages of righteous life. Neither does it say that the gift of God’s raw sovereignty is death, and the other half of His gift is life. No—the wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life.
In order to be damned you have to work at it. In order for you to be saved, Christ had to work at it. This is what He did—setting His face like flint to go to the cross. And thus it is we can gather now to worship Him.
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