Beautiful Thought

I was sitting around one day, and it just hit me: God wants all of us to be saved! The message was loud and clear – Salvation is free! Neither of these statements are new concepts, nor should they take you by surprise, but the beauty of it is that God has given us everything we need to find our way back to Him and be saved. By sin, we are separated from Him, but He does not desire for us to stay distant, but instead His desire is a relationship with us.

For us to be in fellowship and develop and relationship with God we first need faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God. So what did God do? He dealt to every man a measure of faith. The book of Romans tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So what does God do? He gives us His word. We know that we obtain salvation by grace through faith, so what does God do? He gives us grace as well! So that’s free word, free faith, free grace, free salvation. Not to mention, He daily provides us with mercy. Above all, God gave us His son that we may, through His blood, have access into the holiest of holy and be in fellowship with Him. Furthermore, the book of Hebrews tell us that through Jesus, who is made a high priest forever (after the order of Melchisedec), because he continueth forever, is eternally able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.

So to reiterate, we have been given free word, free faith, free grace, free salvation, and a free savior and high priest that is forever going to God on our behalf that we may obtain free reconciliation to Him when we fall. Thus far, our balance remains at zero cost to us. Talk about a savings plan!

Suspicious yet? “What’s the catch” you ask? “What does it really cost”? If you’re gaining all of these benefits, what are you required to give up? Well, God wants your trust. And not only that, but He wants your life. For all that He has given, and continues to give, all He asks is that you trust Him enough to exchange your life for the life that He has planned for you. That is it, and that is still of no cost to you. Just consider it as a more-than-fair exchange, especially given the fact that He gave you life to begin with. Consider this: when you die, you can’t take anything with you, right? So that means YOU DON”T OWN IT! You own nothing, it’ s just on loan. Even in a life of sin, all that we need God’s hands have graciously provided, so why would He cease to provide for those that be in His like and trust Him over what is bound to the earth? Doesn’t make sense to me either. (For those of you scratching your heads, the answer is HE WOULDN”T!)

The idea of cost is considered by those who place value on their lives and the tangible things within their lives that they have worked to acquire. The “cost” of a sacrifice such as required by God is an uncertain gamble that may entail the incur of a loss altogether, which for them is too risky. If you agree that there is truth to this statement then you should also agree that one’s hesitancy to make the sacrifice displays a lack of trust in God, and therein lies the problem. The Lord hears: “God I trust You with my life, BUT…”

However, on the contrary, the concept of an exchange is considered by those who understand that there is no loss to be acquired. Rather, the understanding is that they are simply giving up something to gain something in return. Thus, it can be assumed that either they have placed NO value on that which they are giving up, or they value that which they are gaining in return as greater than that which they are letting go. In either case, the exchange shows that there is a trust factor between the participants involved. More specifically, this person is outwardly professing their trust in the Lord by relinquishing what little control of their lives [they think] they have into the hands of God . The Lord hears: “God I trust You! What you have planned for my life is better than what I have done and will ever do for myself; please lead the way”.

Point of challenge: Who controls your life? Is it you or Christ? Have you fully submitted yourself to be led by the Spirit of God or do you still feel the need to hold on to those trivial things and matters that you want to? It is in the story of Abraham that we learn that actions speak louder than words, so if your faith is in Christ, prove it. Show Him. Stand on His word and surrender your life to Him wholly.


"It is not the will of God that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" – 2 Peter 3:9