for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Romans 3:23-24, ESV
There was a man in England who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and went across to the continent to go on a holiday. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car. He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, “I’m having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?” Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his holiday. As you can imagine, the driver wondered, “How much is this going to cost me?” So when he got back to England, he wrote Rolls-Royce a letter and asked how much he owed them. He received a letter from the office that read: “Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with your Rolls-Royce.” That is justification.
All of us are sinners. None of us can attain the perfection goal that God has set. Any sin, whether big or small, is punishable by death. God knows that we would never be able to pay it ourselves. Thus, He paid it Himself, so that we are justified by a single act of grace by God Himself.
Christ’s work on the cross is complete. It was not halfway done. It was not 99.99% done. It was finished. It doesn’t require us to do more work to earn eternal life. Everyone who wants to receive God’s offer of eternal life may do so by simply and only believing in Jesus Christ for it. That is a gift. If you have to work to receive a gift, it is not a gift anymore, is it?
Let us ask ourselves if we have trusted Jesus alone for our eternal life. If we have, rejoice and praise the Lord for the eternal life He provided.