How is salvation a "free gift"?

Well since you want to work for it, then let me explain why this is so difficult from a Biblical perspective. According to the Bible God is the Creator of everything; therefore, He owns everything. This means He owns everything we are and do. Now let’s say I obey God in every way except one time I fail. What work can I do to make up for this failure? I already owe Him everything, so no matter how many good works I do I can’t make up for that one time I disobeyed. This is why I can’t work for my salvation. Just so there is no confusion, I don’t consider accepting a gift to be work. For example, if one man works hard and builds his fortune through working long hours and another man gains a fortune through inheritance. I would say the second man did not work for it, even though he had to accept the inheritance. If you think that the second man did work for his fortune, then we simply define the word work differently; this is just semantics.