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Vidalia Georgia Eternal life in Jesus Christ is a gift, but can you refuse to receive it? (Part 2) Since Paul in Romans 5:15-18 referred to eternal salvation in Christ as a "free gift", many have taken the liberty to teach that Christ can't give that gift till you, the sinner, accept it. They represent the "free gift" of Christ's blood as being as frivolously refused by the ones it was shed for as a starlet would flippantly refuse a gift from an ugly admirer! This is not the proper usage of the term "gift" in this teaching. To prove this point, I'll go to Ephesians 4:8, "...he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." This is the same Greek word as in Romans 5:15-18. It should apply the same way. Paul goes on to list these "gifts unto men", and among them are prophets and evangelists (preachers). Could these "gifts" be refused? After Ezekiel received the charge to prophesy to hard-hearted Israel, he lamented in 3:14, "...I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me." The discouraged prophet Jeremiah cried in Jer. 20:9, "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forebearing, and I could not stay." In reference to preaching, Paul said in I Cor. 9:17, "For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me." These passages show plainly that the gifts these men possessed were an inseparable part of their being and couldn't be refused, even when they would have gladly done so! They had the gift, even though they didn't choose to receive it.
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