The Price
It’s been a strange winter. Hot, Cold, Warm, Misty. It’s the perfect weather….to end up sick in. This time of year, it seems the flu bug finds a home in many people’s houses. There is a strange tradition that I have recently realized is cross generational. If you a kid, and you are home sick, it does not matter how many channels your television has, you will find your way to just one show during the day…. that’s right: The Price is Right. It’s strangely addictive. Guess the price, play a game, win prizes. It is a very simple format, and yet it creates fascinating television. What it does do, is ask two deep questions that we struggle with every day.
What does it the cost?
What is it worth?
We ask these questions constantly. Even from a very young age.
The child says I want that and is learning about cost through trial and error.
The teenager learns that if they value grades or athletic success, the cost is studying or time at practice.
The young adult chooses a college, a career path based upon both cost and its value.
From there we get into adulthood, and it seems that question never goes away. If this world teaches us anything it is that everything comes with a price. Maybe that question is especially real now, as the glitter of last Christmas has faded into memory, and yet the credit card bill just came due. Those questions follow us into our spiritual life as well. Consider Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death
That’s a sobering thought. We sin often. We are pretty good at it. As Paul stated in Romans 3, we have ALL sinned and fallen short. What we truly deserve is death, and worse.
Thankfully the verse does not stop there….
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our sin earns us death and damnation. We couldn’t earn or buy salvation on our own. God’s love for us is so great that He paid the cost. My friends, don’t doubt Gods grace….
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. –Romans 5:19.
So, if you are down with the flu, or if the sadness and weight of the world feels overwhelming remember how comforting it is to know that our savior has paid that cost. The cost was Christ’s death upon the cross.
Its value to me: Priceless.
-Pastor Dan