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Articles
Gift of Salvation
A couple months ago, Lily and I went on a trip to Pennsylvania. One of the places we were able to visit was Hershey, Pennsylvania--home of the Hershey Chocolate company. Many of you have probably heard of Hershey and eaten Hershey chocolate, but I wanted to share something that some of you may not know about the founder of the company, Milton Hershey.
Milton Hershey and his wife had no children, and therefore Milton had no one to leave his great wealth to, so they decided to open up a school for orphans. This private school, the Milton Hershey School, is still open today. These days it serves students who come from families below the poverty level and gives these kids an opportunity they normally would never have had. The school is fancy, with marble hallways and a huge campus. Students live on campus and everything they need is given to them--at absolutely no cost to them or their families. Senior students are even given an apartment and monthly income to learn how to support themselves. To top it all off, when the students graduate they are given a $100,000 scholarship to any college of their choice.
As we learned about this school, we could not help but feel a little jealous of all the amazing things these kids receive. But then we stopped and considered the greatest gift every offered to mankind. This gift has been offered to everyone – regardless of race, sex, income, etc. In fact, God has made this gift available to all and desires for all to be saved –
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).
Can we even begin to fathom how amazing this gift truly is?
The gift of salvation not only saves us from our sins, but it gives us the hope to spent eternity with God in heaven. Like the students at Hershey School, we also do not pay tuition, because Jesus already paid the price when He died on the cross for our sins. The apostle Peter reminded his audience of this amazing gift –
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you (1 Peter 1:18-20).
Like the students at the Hershey’s school, this is a gift that we would not be able to earn or gain ourselves, for we know that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 3:23; 6:23).
In order to accept this amazing gift of salvation, we must be willing to do all that God has commanded us to do to be saved. When we are obedient to His commands and have been baptized for the forgiveness of our sins – we can have hope to one day be with Him for all eternity. Milton Hershey wished to give orphans a family here on Earth, but God does something far greater in adopting us as His children – “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). We become His son/daughter when we put on Christ through baptism – “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Will you become a partaker of this amazing gift? Will you accept His gift of salvation? The price has been paid – the choice to accept His gift is dependent upon each one of us. May God give us humble and obedient hearts that will be receptive of His amazing grace and gift of salvation.
