THE GIFT THAT NEVER STOPS GIVING

 

 

Salvation is a gift that keeps giving, as Jesus had explained to the Samaritan woman at the well:

 

·       “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

 

Salvation is like the gift of water, but it is far more than that. It is a “spring of water” which never runs dry. It is a gift that the Giver continues to nurture. It is like the gift of a car with a lifetime guarantee. This gift guarantees that the Mechanic is always present to make the repairs:

 

·       And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

 

This means that our gift of salvation will eventually bring us home to be eternally with our Savior. How does the Giver do this:

 

·       Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

 

The Giver maintains the gift of salvation through the gift of faith:

 

·       For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

Faith is part of the gift. Why must He maintain our faith? Because if we do not continue in faith, we cannot be saved:

 

·       “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:22)

 

If the salvation and faith depend on us, it is no longer a gift from God but an occasion to boast in our ability to maintain it. Instead, this gift of an unending spring of water will continue to flow:

 

You...he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope...(Colossians 1:22-23)

 

If we do not continue in the faith, it means we never had the faith, the never ceasing spring of water. We had been reconciled to our Savior only if we “continue in the faith.” If we depart from the faith, it means that we never had the unceasing flowing water:

 

·       They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. (1 John 2:19-20)

 

Those who left the Church had never been in the Body of Christ. They never had the Spirit of God, the anointing that never stops giving, teaching, leading, and forgiving (Romans 8:28).

 

·       ...Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. (Hebrews 3:6)

 

If we do not continue, we were never of His house. If salvation is a gift which keeps giving, then it will never cease, because it is a gift from the Giver of gifts. Consequently:

 

·       For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

 

If we have the gift of unending faith, we will continue in that faith, by the grace of the gift-Giver.