Surely you know the difference between payment and condition. If a business is offering a free pound of coffee to the first 10 customers who visit their establishment on a given day this is a free gift of coffee, you mad no payment for it but, there were two conditions required for receiving the pound of coffee. First you had to visit the establishment and secondly, you had do so on the prescribed day. The gift was free but there were things required of you to receive it. They were not going to fedex it to you door. In scripture there are a great many passages that present conditions of salvation to us. Of course it is free. We have no power of purchase in the agreement but it is not without condition.
