The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"For Love"
Part 3 - The Freest Gift, the Highest Cost
By definition, grace does not allow for any sense of indebtedness. We do not charge for gifts we give, nor do we seek to repay others for blessings we receive.
"But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification…. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life" (Romans 5:15-16; 18).
Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ provides the freest gift ever given, along with the eternal blessedness of God "freely giving us all things" (Romans 8:32). However, such grace comes to us by way of the highest cost ever remitted.
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Peter 1:18-19).
This raises the most obvious of questions: if we were to view ourselves as indebted to God, how would we ever repay Him? Could any faith, obedience, or sacrifice for Him begin to reimburse the price paid by the Lord Jesus for our redemption? Moreover, would attempting to do so unintentionally besmirch the grace of the freest gift, purchased by the highest cost? The answers are obvious. We cannot repay for "His unspeakable gift" (II Corinthians 9:15). Nor should we minimize the magnitude of the sacrifice that purchased it by perceiving our relationship in terms of "You owe Me… I owe You."
The Apostle Paul succinctly and definitively puts to rest any notion of seeking to live the Christian life by anything other than the love of God received by grace through faith:
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Galatians 2:21).
Christ did not die in vain. But we can live as if He did. One such wayward path involves the notion of seeking to live the Christian life by merely servile obligation, as opposed to genuine and Christ-enabled love. God has no interest in the former. He is totally devoted to the latter. Let us join Him in a relationship and fellowship made possible by an indescribably wondrous gift, purchased long ago by a cost even eternity can never fully explain to us. Such awareness births, maintains, and enhances true devotion in the trusting heart, and a life that ever seeks to freely love the glorious One who so freely gave, and who so freely gives.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, and not of works, lest any man should boast."
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8-9)
Weekly Memory Verse
He giveth to all life and breath and all things.
(Acts 17:25)
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