Each month, we’re releasing chapters from Dylan DeMarsico’s upcoming book “Made Perfect”. Due out by Christmas 2020. The following is chapter three…enjoy!

The Gift

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.”

Ephesians 1:3

Before the universe began, the Father, Son, and Spirit decided to create us. There was no higher power forcing God to do this. He is the highest power and He decided within the friendship of the Trinity that He would give us the most amazing gift—the gift of being alive. Being created in God’s image is a pure blessing for us to enjoy.

Paul explains how the Father already gave us every spiritual blessing through Jesus (Ephesians 1:3). This was God’s plan in creating us. We were created to be the receivers of all God’s blessings. Not just some. All. Everything that God has, He decided to share with us.

Going back to the devil’s lie … we were told that God was holding out on us, that maybe He gave us some of His blessings, but not everything. This created a sense of distrust, which is the exact thing the serpent wanted. But the truth is, God has truly given us everything and He’s not holding out on us at all.

This was the same thing that the father told the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. After throwing a huge party for the younger, rebellious child—who had just returned from a wild but failed experiment of personal freedom—the older brother complains that the father never did anything like that for him. The response from the father in the story is stunning. He says to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31).

This is the gift of God. Everything that is His, is ours. This is the greatest gift in the universe. God created the universe to be the place where He shows His incredible generosity to you. Just humble yourself and accept that God loves you and that He loves to give you everything.

Of course, there is still a process to understanding it all. We still have to learn from the Holy Spirit how to live life with this wonderful gift. Paul wrote, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). God has freely given us everything. The Holy Spirit is the One who helps us to understand how it all works.

In the Corinthian church, when people were trying to spiritually compete with one another, Paul corrected them by reminding them of the extremity of God’s gift. He wrote, “So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:21). God has held nothing back in creating us and redeeming us through Jesus. All things are ours.

Paul explained further, “Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas (Peter), or the universe or life or death, or the immediate and threatening present or the (subsequent and uncertain) future—all are yours, And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:22-23 AMPC). The universe is ours. It’s a gift from the Father!

This is why the devil tries to deceive us into thinking we are lacking something. The serpent whispers do you really have everything you need? Did God really give you everything? He wants us to question God’s gift for us. But the devil is a liar. Don’t listen to him.

You Can’t Earn God’s Love

One of the main themes of the New Testament is thatthat we are no longer living by the law, but we are living in the gift of grace. Paul wrote, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law” (Romans 3:21). The law of the Old Testament and the writings of the prophets were pointing to a new covenant—a new promise and blessing from God—where we are “justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

The love, peace, and righteousness of God are not something that can be earned through law. It’s only something that is revealed as a gift. Paul asked the Corinthian church, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Paul knew the answer to that question. Everything that we have is a gift from God! The Father is so generous! There’s nothing that we have earned by our own efforts (which is what the law is all about).

The prophet Zechariah once wrote, “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). God’s gift cannot be earned through human willpower or strength. Nobody has the power to create life, peace, joy, and righteousness. These things cannot be earned, because they are already freely ours through Jesus! Perfect!

The Galatian church fell into the lie that they had to try and earn their salvation. People were telling them the gospel was a free gift but they also had to be circumcised to really have everything that God gives. Paul was upset about this. We cannot add to God’s perfect gift. He’s already freely given us everything.

Any attempts to create new rules that try and give us “extra blessings” are wrong. It gives the impression—the lie—that God didn’t already give us everything through the death of His Son. It’s a way of life built on the wrong foundation. On the other hand, faith is built on the right foundation … because we are simply believing that we already have everything from our Father. It is leaning on what He has done and not on what we have to do.

After saying he boasts in the cross alone, Paul continues: “Neither circumcision counts for anything, nor circumcision, but a new creation” (Galatians 6:15). He was making it clear that salvation could not to be earned through the Jewish rite of circumcision found in the old covenant law. Salvation could only be realized as a gift from the Father who graciously provided the new creation through Christ.

Paul got so frustrated with people who were teaching the law of circumcision that he offered them some advice. He said if they were going to circumcise themselves, they might as well go all the way and castrate themselves (Galatians 5:12)! He was so upset, because he had preached the gift of Christ crucified to them, and now they were turning to the law to try and earn something that was already theirs. Paul was articulating how stupid this was!

He also wrote, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2:21). The whole point of Christ dying on the cross for us was to realize God’s free gift of salvation. If we could acquire God’s gift in our own strength, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Paul said, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God” (Galatians 2:19). Paul considered himself dead to the law because he understood that it was impossible to live for God while trying to perform for His blessing. The only way to successfully live for Him is to live in the gift of life that He freely gave to us.

In another one of his letters, Paul said, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). We have died to the law through Christ. We are no longer trying to perform for God, or trying to earn His blessing. Instead, we have freely received every spiritual blessing as a gift through His grace.

Paul said, “To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due” (Romans 4:4). The good news is that we don’t have to work for God. God doesn’t owe us anything. We get to live for Him out of gratitude that He already gave us everything as a free gift.

Peter’s Pride

This temptation from the devil to try and “earn” from God was seen incredibly clearly at the Last Supper with Jesus’s lead disciple, Peter. Jesus wanted to display the fullness of His love to His disciples by washing their feet (John 13:1). He was offering His heart. He was pouring out His love as a free gift to His friends. It was a picture of the cross that He was about to endure for them.

But Peter was having a hard time accepting this gift. He told Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). Peter didn’t want to receive the gift of Jesus. He wanted a different way. But there is no other way to receive the gospel other than being like a little child (Luke 18:17).

This is how most of us live our lives. We are too proud just to accept the gift of Jesus. Instead, we try and prove ourselves to the Lord. We try to earn something that’s already freely ours. Jesus responded to Peter’s pride, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with Me” (John 13:8). The only way to be in relationship with Jesus is to receive the free gift of His sacrifice. He loves you. He died for you. He gives you everything.

The apostle John had it right. On that same night of Jesus’s foot washing, John referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23). We should all be like John and understand ourselves in the same way. We are the disciples who Jesus loves and adores. We are those He longs to pour His blessings upon.