Hammer on Anvil '

As a college student, nothing got my attention more than the word FREE, especially if followed by t-shirt. Random volunteer opportunities, campus events, and blood drives were always met with a "Sure, I'll do it. Free t-shirt!" So it followed that now I have quite a few blood drive shirts and others I never payed for; they were "free." Is that exactly true? Were they really free?

Eventually I thought about it and realized...No, they're not free; they do cost something. The blood drive shirts, for instance, cost me a pint of blood. (certainly more valuable than, say, a $10 t-shirt.) The t-shirts also cost somebody money to have them made. This slogan of "Free" masks the reality that there is always a cost, whether to you or someone else. Now I always wonder/ask what is the cost, even if I'm told it is free.

Now I've used this with simple objects like t-shirts, does it happen elsewhere? We are told that Salvation is free, but does this overlook or mask something? While there is nothing we can do to earn salvation, it was not without a very heavy cost. Too often I see that Jesus' sacrifice is discounted or devalued by the advertisement of "free salvation." We overlook what it cost him to come to earth, to live among us, to suffer, to be executed. We can see it in how we speak of that salvation; rarely as something precious or wondrous to us, something we are dieing to share.

So let me end by encouraging you to always think of the cost of salvation, that is, the heavy cost that Jesus paid. I know last time I said I would talk about "is it worth it?" I'll get there after this discussion of What's the cost?

Brett