Wednesday, March 25, 2009
GOD'S AMAZING GRACE: FREE, NOT CHEAP
John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.
How amazing is God's grace? It rescued us from certain, eternal death (separation from God forever in hell) at an indescribably great and exorbitant cost. The story of the bronze serpent (Numbers 21) and the night-time visit of Jesus with Nicodemus (John 3) clearly show what this cost was. God's only-begotten Son needed to leave His rainbow-circled throne, come here to earth, live a holy life, and then allow Himself to be lifted up on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world. Now all who look to Him in faith for forgiveness and eternal life are saved from the otherwise lethal (100% fatal) sin-poison which the old serpent, Satan, had injected into our systems. Completely apart from our doing and working our God did all this for us. He supplied us with the expensive "miracle cure" we desperately needed to remedy our sin-problem. This "medicine" costs us nothing. It's ours as a free gift of His love.
But, oh, how dearly it cost Him! His one and only Son, stripped, abused, beaten, bruised, violated, lifted up on Calvary's cross, for the salvation of the world. How utterly amazing! Praise Him!
Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man,
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 374:2)
