There’s something about free stuff that we just love, right? It causes our hearts to speed up a little bit. It compels us to hit the brakes to examine the ramshackle item on the curb bearing the raggedy piece of cardboard with “Free” scrawled across it. We happily accept things that are free—even if we don’t need them or even really want them.

So why are we sometimes so reluctant to accept the fact that the greatest, most amazing, most wonderful gift of all time is free—the gift of salvation through Jesus? Maybe because it seems way too good to be true. Maybe because its rewards are completely disproportionate to what it will cost us. Maybe because we can’t do a single thing to earn it or pay for it. Ephesians 2:8,9 declares, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

You’ve probably heard that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or is there? There is such a thing as free grace. And it’s way better than that saggy, avocado green couch on the side of the road that calls your name as you drive by. God’s marvelous and miraculous grace is totally and completely free for all believers because it has already been paid for. Jesus paid for it with his blood, shed on a cross on Calvary. Salvation is ours through faith—no strings attached.