Is Salvation Offered by God and Can Either Be Accepted or

Rejected?
We often heard and read that salvation is by grace and by grace alone and indeed it is true
because Ephesians 2:8 declared that “For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not of works, so that no one can
boast. Yes, salvation is a gift from God! But does the Bible really teaches that God is
offering salvation or His gift of eternal life to everyone and therefore it can either be
accepted or rejected. Please prayerfully consider what will be presented in this piece of
writing and let us follow the example of the Bereans Christian in Acts 17:11 saying
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received
the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures everyday to see if what
Paul said was true”.

I have not yet heard a case of one person who decided out of a generous heart to give a
gift to somebody and afterward asked the recipient of his gift whether he would like to
accept or reject his gift. My understanding is that a gift is given freely and it is not
offered. A gift is not a reward but it is something given voluntarily and the giver does not
expect something in return although of course he would appreciate a word of thanks. It
would be ridiculous to give someone a gift and then ask him afterward to pay for the gift
that was given. And I believe it would be ridiculous too to approached someone and give
him a gift and then said afterward “Okey I am giving you this gift but if you do not like it
I will take it back”. When we give somebody a gift we never give him a choice of
accepting or rejecting our gift. A gift is always accepted. The only exception perhaps is
when your enemy give you a gift which you will reasonably reject out of delicadeza or
suspicion that it is “bomb” or something like that.

To say that God is offering His salvation as a gift and yet anyone can reject His gift of
eternal life is like saying that God is willing to experience disappointment and failure
because if it is true that salvation is indeed offered it is a fact that many has rejected Jesus
Christ. But God who is sovereign and in absolute controls of all activities of human
beings can never experience failures and disappointment Salvation is given as a gift and
the receiver has no power in his hands either to accept or reject it because the recipient of
God’s gift of salvation (which is the Holy Spirit) are spiritually dead or someone who is
blind or a prisoner of Satan..

In John 3:16 it is said that God gave His Son Jesus Christ to the believers and the word
offered has not been mentioned because an offer can either be accepted or rejected. God
gave His Son Jesus Christ freely and voluntarily so that all believers will receive eternal
life. Many theologians has done an honest exegesis of John 3:16 based on sound
hermeneutical principles and they find out that the object of God’s sacrificial love and a
love that never fails is really the church or the bride of Christ and not humanity in
general. The church, God’s flock of Sheep, the Pearl of Great Price or Christ elect-bride
is the recipient of God’s unconditional love or God’s unconditional salvation. Salvation is
a gift of eternal life or the Holy Spirit given to spiritually dead person who is not a free
moral agent because a dead person is not free to choose.( Ephesians 2:1-3)
Please continue to consider prayerfully what is being presented here. If there is any
objection to what is being written here the writer is willing to discuss and listen to
anyone. But let us speak the truth in love.

One of the most avoided topic in the Christian community is the doctrine or teaching on
election because it is a “difficult teaching”. But we cannot avoid the words chose,
election, elect and predestination because it is in the Bible.
And numerous articles can be found in the internet that explained why it is a reasonable
doctrine and that election is fair and just although it might appear unjust in the proud
human heart. The teaching on election like Ephesians 1:4 declares that salvation is a plan
of God before the foundation of the world and that indeed salvation is a gift-given (not
offered) to God chosen people.

Salvation is indeed by grace alone and it is not offered by God because all humanity is
dead spiritually and because his heart is sinful a sinners cannot accept something that is
holy like the gift of eternal life. Salvation is given as a gift and it is given to a spiritually
dead person in order that he became spiritually alive again. Salvation is given without
any condition that is why it is by grace alone. It is related closely to God’s agape love
which is unconditional love and is given to undeserving and ill-deserving sinners like us.
Salvation is not offered and God cannot offered it to someone who is dead spiritually
instead it is given as God’s act of unconditional love to someone who is dead spiritually
in order that he became alive again. (or born again), Salvation is the gift of God’s Holy
Spirit given to those chosen by God for salvation..