God’s Free Gift | GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL by Andrew Wommack

God’s Free Gift

God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 is often taken out of context to make the point that God loves the sinner. That is a true statement. But in context, Paul was drawing a comparison. If you accept the fact that God loves the sinner, “Much more

then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:9).

This shows that when Paul was speaking of the Gospel being the power of God unto salvation, he was talking about more than just the initial born-again expe-rience. In verses 8 and 9, he said that if God loved you and died for you when you

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were ungodly, how much more does He love you now that you’re born again.

The Drunkard

You are not only saved by grace, but you also maintain your relationship with God by grace. This means you are healed by grace, delivered by grace, and prospered by grace. None of the benefits of salvation come to you based on your performance. If you could understand that, then how much more would the love and faith of God abound in your life? Faith works by love (Gal. 5:6). If you understood how much God loves you, your faith would abound and you’d start seeing the benefits of your salvation manifest more.

If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Romans 5:10

Since religion has been preaching a performance-based relationship with God instead of preaching the Gospel, most people believe that the Lord loves them when they were a sinner, but He gets harder on them once they’re saved. They may not use those exact words to express it, but let me give you an example to consider.

What would happen if someone came into your church service drunk? Most Christians would go up to them and start

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When it comes to our daily relationship with God, most people try to maintain it according to their performance.
GOD’S FREE GIFT

ministering God’s love, mercy, and grace, saying, “Jesus loves you and died for your sin. He wants to forgive you and change your life.” They would minister the Gospel to a total sinner—relationship with God based on His grace, not their performance.

What would happen if that person became born again and came back the next week drunk again? Those same people who ministered grace, forgiveness, and mercy, would turn around and say, “If you don’t straighten up now that you’re a saint,

God is going to get you. Change your ways or the wrath of God will come upon you!”

Can you see how inconsistent that is? While they were a sinner, God would extend grace toward them. But after they’re saved, they have to straighten up or face God’s wrath. “Well, brother, you correct your own children harder than you correct somebody else’s. Before you were His child, God may wink at certain things. But once you’re born again, He’s going to clamp down on you.” That’s not what God’s Word teaches.

Maintained by Grace

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
Colossians 2:6

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The same way you were born again is the same way you should continue walking with Him. Sad to say, most people don’t do that. Upon salvation, they sing, “Just as I am without one plea,” and come to the Lord in the midst of sin—adultery, lying, stealing, all kinds of ungodliness. They receive the greatest gift ever—the initial born-again salvation experience. But then, after they’re born again, they’re in big trouble if they have the slightest little sin in their life. They think that God is liable to let them die of some disease just because they didn’t do this or that. Let me ask you: How much did you read the Bible before you were born again? How much had you fasted and prayed before you were saved? How faithful were you in paying your tithes? The answer for nearly everyone is that you weren’t faithful in any of these areas. You were just a rank sinner—“Just as I am.” But see, you believed the Gospel!

“Salvation”—the initial born-again experience—has, by and large in evangelical Christianity, been preached by grace. But when it comes to our daily relationship with God, most people try to maintain it according to their performance. That’s not the true Gospel. Remember, that’s what Paul called a perversion of the Gospel. (Gal. 1:3–9.) It’s not what Paul was preaching, nor the comparison he was making. According to Colossians 2:6, we should be maintaining our daily relationship with God in the same way as we were first born again.

This inconsistency—grace to be born again and works for daily maintenance—is the very reason why it’s harder for many

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If you can accept that you were by nature a sinner, then you must also accept that now that you’ve been born again, you are by nature righteous.
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Christians to receive healing than salvation. Technically speaking, it ought to be easier to receive healing after you’re born again than it was to receive salvation when you were lost. If the devil had any right to stop you from receiving anything from God, he should have stopped you from being born again. You had no righteousness, no holiness

whatsoever. But now that you’re saved, your born-again spirit is always righteous and holy in God’s sight. Even at your

worst, you’re better now than you ever were before you were born again. Yet, if you don’t do everything just perfect, you’re totally convinced that God won’t answer your prayer because you don’t deserve it.

Receiving healing isn’t harder than receiving forgiveness. It’s just that most Christians aren’t trusting 100 percent in the grace of God for their healing the way they did for forgiveness of sins. Neither are they trusting 100 percent in the grace

of God for His benefits like deliverance and prosperity. Instead, they’re trusting in their own effort and hoping that Jesus will make up the difference. Wrong! This is falling for the devil’s deception and putting our faith in our own performance. We must place our entire faith in the Gospel!

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A Sinner by Nature

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Romans 5:12

Through Adam, we all became sinners. It wasn’t our indi-vidual actions of sin that made us sinners, but this propensity for sin—this sin nature—that we inherited. We were born in sin. That’s what makes us commit the individual actions of sin.

Most people recognize and can agree with being born with a sin nature—a sinner. My religious upbringing certainly ground that into me. However, in the latter part of Romans 5, Paul made another very important point. When you were saved, you were born again with a brand-new righteous nature. By placing your faith in the last Adam—the Lord Jesus Christ—you immediately received His holy nature. (1 Cor. 15:45.) If you can accept that you were by nature a sinner, then you must also accept that now that you’ve been born again, you are by nature righteous. You are no longer—by nature—a sinner. You’ve become righteous through what Jesus did for you.

Salvation isn’t Jesus just forgiving you and pointing you in the right direction, saying, “Now I’m giving you another chance. Do it right from now on!” That’s not what salvation is.

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Salvation is coming to God, admitting that you’ve done it all wrong and that you can’t save yourself, asking Him for His gift of salvation, and receiving it. And at the very moment you do, you become a brand-new person who is righteous in your born-again spirit (new nature).

Again, I’d like to encourage you to get hold of my teaching entitled Spirit, Soul & Body.1 It’s a more in-depth look at this than I am able to give here.

Born Again Righteous

You need to understand that when you were born again, your spirit instantly became righteous. It’s not something you work at. It’s not given to you based on your performance, but “It is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

Notice that it is a gift, something you don’t pay for or earn.

Not as the offence [Adam’s fall], so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Romans 5:15

Through Adam’s fall, sin passed on to everybody. I didn’t

do anything to become a sinner. I was born into it. (Ps. 51:5.)

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But when I was born again, I was born again into righteousness.

I didn’t do anything to earn it. I received it as a free gift.

Not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

Romans 5:16

Adam’s one sin produced many offenses throughout the human race. All of our actions of sin came out of the fact that we were by nature sinners. But having received the free gift of salvation—right standing with God—all of these offenses have been overcome as we’ve been brought to the place of being justified in the sight of God.

Accept the Truth

If by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:17

It’s a gift of righteousness that came through One—the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn’t come through what you do. Righteousness—right standing with God, being declared right-eous in His sight—comes through faith. It’s a gift from God.

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The only thing you must do to access this grace is to have faith in what Jesus did for you.

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Romans 5:18

That’s the same point. Actually, five different times in these

verses Paul made this same point. He repeated it over and over.

As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Romans 5:19

How can anyone get around this? If you accept the fact that you were born a sinner, then you must accept the truth that you are born again righteous. Righteousness isn’t something you obtain through your effort. It’s something you receive as a gift.

Holy Hippies?

These scriptures changed my life! Back in the late 1960s a friend of mine started telling me I was righteous and then suck-ered me into going to a Bible study he attended. This was during the time that I was still in a denominational church. I walked in the door of that Bible study and immediately became offended because a woman was leading. Women leaders didn’t

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My head had the understanding, but my heart kept saying, “How can this be?”

square with my theology. Also, there were long-haired “hippies” in attendance. The denominational church I attended preached that long-haired hippies couldn’t be saved. They taught that if a man’s hair touched the collar of his shirt, he went straight to hell. So there I was in this Bible study with long-haired hippies and a woman leader. I was quite offended even before one word had been said.

Then the study began and they started talking about being righteous. I might have been able to tolerate them and not say anything as long as they’d just admit that they were sinners. But when these people started proclaiming that they were righteous, I couldn’t handle it. I whipped out my three scriptures—“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10), “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Is. 64:6)—and just blasted them with both barrels.

To my surprise, instead of getting angry, they just continued to walk in love. For every one scripture I quoted about them being the scum of the earth, they quoted three or four about them being righteous. I didn’t know there were scriptures like that. It just overwhelmed me! Although they didn’t convince me, I determined when I left there that I would study this out for myself.

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Righteousness is knowing that you are
accepted by your heavenly Father just as a child counts on their earthly father’s acceptance.
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So I purchased a Young’s Analytical Concordance and started studying every time the words righteous and righteous-ness were used in the Bible. After about a week of poring over the Word sixteen hours a day, I was intellectually convinced that I was righteous as a gift and not through what I did. I real-ized that these people were right in what they were saying.

But even though I could see it in my head, my heart had yet to embrace it. For so long I had related to the fact that I was by nature a sinner. So I struggled with this. My head had the understanding, but my heart kept saying, “How can this be?” These verses here in Romans 5 were what turned me around. They basically said that if I accepted the fact that I was born a sinner, then I also had to accept the truth that I had been born again righteous. It’s not some-

thing I earn. It’s not based on my performance. It’s a gift—and I just had to accept it. If I believed that one side of the coin was true, then the other side had to be genuine too. Finally, I humbled myself and accepted it.

These are powerful passages of scrip-ture! If we truly understand what Paul was saying, there’s no way we can still main-tain that we must earn things from God based on our own holiness, righteousness, and works.

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The week I studied these scriptures on righteousness culmi-nated in an experience that the Lord used to drive home His point. I walked out on my back porch and sat down on the steps to meditate on what I’d seen in the Word. My dog, Honey, came running up to me the way she always did. At about five feet away, she stopped, rolled over on her side, and tentatively scooted the rest of the way. Even though I had never mistreated her, Honey’s previous owners had beaten her with a chain as a puppy. Now she was a big German shepherd dog, but she always approached me like that. In frustration, I shouted, “Honey, just once I would like you to come up to me like a normal dog. Jump on me, sniff me, or anything else you like— but stop acting like I beat you!”

As soon as that left my lips, the Lord spoke in my heart and said, “That’s the way I feel about you, Andrew. You always come before Me naming all of your sins, afraid that if you don’t mention them, I will. Just once I’d like you to come to Me as a child approaches his father—confident of acceptance instead of fearful of rejection. Just jump up in My lap and say ‘Abba, Father!’” (Rom. 8:15.)

That’s what righteousness is. It’s knowing that you are accepted by your heavenly Father just as a child counts on their earthly father’s acceptance.

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Grace Now Reigns

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. Romans 5:20

The law was given to show us that we are incapable of ever keeping it. It was given to make sin come alive in us and exer-cise such dominion over us that we would absolutely despair of ever trying to overcome sin on our own. It was given to bring us to the point of asking for righteousness as a gift. That’s the purpose of the law.

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

Romans 5:20

In other words, the law actually made us lust for things more, but God’s grace was now revealed through properly under-standing the real purpose of the law. It brought us to a place of understanding that it’s only by the grace of God that we can ever overcome. Even though the law made us lust, it also showed us the grace of God—which was much greater than our sin.

As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:21

The law was what made sin reign unto death.

Empowered by the law, sin brought forth death. (Rom. 6:23.)

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Millions of people here in the United States have never heard the Gospel.

So sin dominated, ruled, and controlled us by the condemnation and guilt conscious-ness that came through the law. But now that we’re in Christ and under the New Covenant, “grace reign[s] through right-eousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21).

Instead of law, grace is now the domi-nant factor. Grace is supposed to be ruling and controlling our lives. Sad to say, many people haven’t heard that Gospel.

Saturated with Religion

I’ve heard people say, “Nobody in America should hear the Gospel twice until everyone else in the world has had an oppor-tunity to hear it once!” I understand that the point they are trying to make is that it isn’t fair for America to be saturated with Christian witness while millions of people around the world haven’t even once heard the name of Jesus. I agree that international missions work is of the utmost priority. However, I disagree that America is saturated with the Gospel.

America has been saturated with religion. They’ve been loaded with condemnation and told, “You’re going to hell if you don’t repent!” Again, that’s true, but it’s not the Gospel. The Gospel—the message of God’s grace, that He loves us

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It’s all about putting our faith in what Your Son did, and not what we do.
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independent of our performance and His goodness leads us to repentance—has not been properly proclaimed in America.

I am constantly ministering to people who don’t understand God’s grace. Although they’ve been to church their whole lives, they’ve never heard of it! They’ve heard ministers preach, “God is holy and just. You are unholy. If you don’t repent, God is going to judge you. If you don’t shape up, you’re going to hell.” Millions of people here in the United States have never heard the Gospel: “God loves you and is

extending forgiveness for your sins. Everything that comes as a result of salva-

tion—like forgiveness, righteousness, healing, deliverance, and prosperity— comes to you by grace through faith. It’s not based on your performance, but God’s grace. The only thing you must do to

access this grace is to put faith in what God has done through Jesus Christ.” The

Gospel truly is the power of God unto salvation. (Rom. 1:16.) Sad to say, most people have never truly understood the Gospel.

If you’re having a problem in any area of your life today— forgiveness, healing, deliverance, prosperity—you’re having a problem understanding the Gospel. As you understand God’s grace, His love will abound in your life. Faith will work by love and everything you need will come through the power of the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God!

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What Does This Mean?

So what does this mean? Should we just go live in sin? Paul began dealing with this in Romans 6, which we’ll be looking at next.

But first, I’d like to pray for you:

Father, please give my friend a revelation of the power of the Gospel today. Enable them to understand what salvation truly is and how You’ve provided for them everything they need as a free gift through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Please enlighten them to these truths from Your Word. As they begin to under-stand Your grace, thank You for setting them free from guilt, condemnation, and a performance mentality. It’s all about putting our faith in what Your Son did, and not what we do. From this day forward, may Your grace be the foundation of my friend’s daily relationship with You. Amen.