It’s Free!
For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith–and this not
from yourselves,
it is the gift of God–
not by works, so that no
one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
You young’uns might not remember this song.
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.
From way back in 1971
I thought of this song when I saw these stairs in Grand Central Station in Washington D.C.
“There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
We don’t have to earn His grace.
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.”
What a scary idea!
Can we ever buy our way to heaven?
What can we use to pay the price?
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Doing good things? -
Helping others?
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Going to church?
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Believing that God is real?
Can we ever pile up enough good works that we can buy our way to heaven?
Salvation and the hope of heaven are wonderful gifts given to us by God through the love and sacrifice of His Son Jesus.
He gives it to us because He loves us beyond what we can imagine.
When we stumble, we know that God won’t throw us out.
When we have bad days, we know God won’t reject us.
What precious confidence we have that we don’t have to buy God’s love.
We don’t have to earn His grace.
We don’t have to pay at the gate of heaven so He will let us in.
God’s love and grace are free because Jesus paid the price on the cross. We only have to accept it.
Heaven is free because Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
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We can’t do anything to buy it.
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We can’t do anything to earn it.
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We can’t do anything to lose it.
God does everything!
It is free!
What joy and confidence does it give you that your stairway to heaven is free?
Photo credit gold coins: yuiyizhuravov
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4 Comments
Hi, I am Sherry Carter. Nice to meet you!
The Conversation
I know this, but I still try to purchase my way into favor. Thank you for sharing this – I breathed out a big sigh of tension when I read it. Our God is amazing!
We all fall into the trap of feeling that we must earn God's love. The enemy rejoices whet we do that. Thank you, Mary, for being so faithful to read and to comment.
I can remember my first boyfriend could play Stairway to Heaven and I thought he was so uber-cool. Yes, I fight that temptation to think if things aren't going well, that I much not be pleasing to the Lord–such skewed thinking. What clear truth you present.
You first boyfriend…we won't even discuss how old I was when that song came out!
It's so hard to believe that God's gift of salvation is free. It goes against our human reasoning. I'm so glad God doesn't think like we do! Thanks for stopping by.