His two pierced hands offer us one free gift of salvation: faith and repentance.

“The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no hurt with it. (Proverbs 10:22) Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests. (Proverbs 14:4) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)”

Whatever we get given in this life comes with drawbacks. If you win a free meal at a restaurant you’ll discover the drinks aren’t free. If your insurance pays you out for the mobile phone that your pet parrot chewed, the excess will be more than you thought.

Think about oxen. They’re a great asset, but they come with lots of poo. If you don’t have oxen, you won’t have to clean out ox poo all the time, but the ox brings strength you need to work your field. This is why it is said, ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.’ If you get something for free, don’t examine it too closely because you will find a downside. Just take the free gift and be satisfied.

Sadly, this is what us people think about God’s free gift of salvation. We know Christianity is a wonderful free gift with great advantages such as: forgiveness; God becomes our Father; the Spirit living within us; a guaranteed future in paradise; a new community of people; peace and joy that passes understanding etc.

But we soon discover that the free gift has a ‘downside.’ The downside is called ‘repentance’. God wants us to stop sinning – aww. We realise Our Father intends for us to go through periods of suffering – ugh. The Christian community called ‘church’ isn’t perfect – sigh. The ‘gift horse’ has some rotten teeth!

But none of this is actually true. Every good and perfect gift (notice: ‘perfect’) comes from the Father. “The blessing of the Lord makes rich with no hurt.” Every other kind of ‘rich’ has serious drawbacks. Not God’s riches. The problem is that we’re not veterinarians and we don’t see the horse’s teeth properly.

Here is the true picture: in His two pierced hands the risen Jesus Christ holds out to us the one gift of salvation. Its totally free, that’s why His hands are pierced. He purchased it with His blood by dying on the cross for us. In His one hand is faith. This is the part of that one gift of salvation that includes things such as belief, love, hope, joy, peace etc.

In His other hand is repentance. It is still the one free package called ‘salvation’. Repentance means growth, turning from sin, suffering in order to purify our faith, discomfort in the present life so that we yearn for the life to come, disappointment so that we know He alone will never disappoint us, and sadness so that we drink from His infinite source of joy that comes with no drawbacks. The whole package, both faith and repentance, is a free gift.