What is the gift of God?...

Eternal life in Christ our Lord.

God has freely given us eternal resurrection life. Such life is based on acquittal from the condemnation of sin and the development of righteousness and holiness in personality and behaviour. The Spirit of God implants in us the Virtue, wisdom, and energy of Christ—His love of righteousness and hatred of lawlessness.

Christ covers the one who places his faith and trust in Him with His own robe of righteousness. The Father in Heaven accepts this ascribed righteousness. Then the Lord Jesus gently and skilfully begins to direct His new servant into paths of righteousness.

Jesus leads each of His sheep in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. How wonderful is the love of the good Shepherd for His little ones!

Romans 6:23 often is preached to the unsaved. In context it is directed toward the Christian. It applies also to the unsaved individual because he already is spiritually dead and his continuing unrighteous behaviour is proof of his spiritual death.

Every human being on the earth is eligible to receive eternal life through Christ because Christ has died for the sins of the whole world. By virtue of being human we are eligible to receive total, complete reconciliation to the Lord God of Heaven (I John 2:2).

Let us keep in mind, however, that Paul, in Romans 6:23, is not addressing the unsaved. He is reacting against "Christians" who might interpret his teaching of the grace of God to mean our conduct upon the earth is not directly related to our salvation; we can continue to sin and Divine grace will increase, or at least not be diminished in any manner.

Paul asks the Christians of our own day: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound"?

Paul’s answer shows that such a conclusion is unthinkable. If we choose to yield to the demands of our sinful body after having been baptized into union with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be paid in death. Our wages will be death.

When we receive Christ we are given a choice. For the first time in our life we are free to choose between behaving righteously and behaving sinfully. The spiritually dead, those who have not as yet received Jesus, have no such choice.

If we choose to continue to obey sin we will die spiritually as a natural consequence—Christian or not. We, not God, have broken the terms of the new covenant.

We can choose to receive the Life of Jesus such that our behaviour is transformed into righteous conduct. The result of righteous conduct is eternal life in the Presence of God. This is the true grace of God wherein we are to stand.