Check the Price Tag!

"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19)

How many of you have ever had the experience, beloved, of checking out the price tag of a particular garment in a store and gasping in amazement at how expensive it was? I have known folks who have treated themselves to such an item, then later when wearing it and having it admired, have replied, "What? This old thing? Why, I've had it ages!"

It is true that perishable items such as clothing, household furniture, and automobiles do grow older and eventually wear out, becoming to us "this old thing" or "our old clunker," regardless of what we originally paid for it. And there is absolutely nothing unusual about such a quirk of human nature.

But Peter was talking about a "price tag" of a different sort, beloved. He was writing about the price of your individual redemption and mine. And the price that God had to pay to buy us back from sin should absolutely always make us gasp in utter amazement! Nor should there ever come a time when we view our salvation through God's grace as "this old thing" and something that we've had forever.

Yet that is precisely what happens in the minds of so many Christians today. We become so accustomed to being saved that it almost comes to be "second-nature" to us. In essence, it becomes "this old thing" that we take for granted! And the longer that we are saved, the more likely we are to develop such an attitude within.

What is so deadly about such an attitude is how it affects our relationship with God. Once we begin to devalue the cost of His grace in our lives, we begin to minimize the awfulness of sin in our thinking. We lose sight of the impact that our sinfulness has upon the perfect holiness of God. And as sin loses its ugliness to us, we further minimize the need for His grace and, thus, the high price which He had to pay. Such a process becomes a vicious cycle of downward progression.

Another area that is affected is our attitude toward the lost around us. Because we take God's grace for granted in our own lives, it becomes difficult to feel heartbroken over those who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It is difficult to feel any sense of burden for them. And when that happens, our zeal for "missions" diminishes and can be lost altogether.

What is the solution, then? I think that it is very simple. Go back and look once again, really look, at the "price tag" of your salvation! Stand there and realize that it cost the Lord Jesus Christ His very blood to buy you out of sin and into the family of God. Read and re-read Peter's words about how it took "the precious blood" of Christ, the unblemished Lamb of God, to satisfy our sin-debt and to set us free from its bondage. Then fall on your knees before God and begin to truly praise Him for heaven's greatest gift, that of eternal life. When you do, you will find yourself crying out with the Apostle Paul:

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15)

I believe that, were Paul still living on earth today, he would agree with the words of Charles Gabriel, the most prolific gospel song writer of the Billy Sunday evangelistic era (1910-1920):

"I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean.

How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be;
How marvelous! How wonderful is my Savior's love for me!"

Go check the price tag one more time, beloved! When you do, I don't think you will ever see your salvation in the same light again.

Ron