Q: How can salvation be a “free gift” when those who receive it feel obliged to study the Bible, pray, donate money to churches and evangelize? Are these things not a sort of real cost attached to this “free gift”?

A: If these things were a requirement for accepting salvation, then the thief on the cross would have been out of luck (Luke 23:39-43). He did not have time to do any of those things before he died! All he could do was believe, which is all any of us can do to receive salvation (John 3:18). It is truly a free gift, and that’s the whole point!

God demonstrated through...