Free Lunch.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8

We have a serious problem with things that are free. We will, of course, accept them. We just don’t value them. My firm worked very hard a few years ago developing a marketing program for a national non-profit agency and we gave it to them at no charge. It cost us a significant amount of time and money to develop. They gratefully accepted and began to use it. A few months later, another, more prestigious firm offered to work with them and they abandoned our work and began using the work prepared by the new firm. We learned from that situation and now we send an invoice, showing the full value and marked “Paid in Full. As Christians, we must grasp the idea that we have been given a priceless gift. It was an expensive gift. A gift we could never afford. Nevertheless, it was given to us, for free.

In Ephesians, Paul outlines for the Christian an important reason. If we could be granted salvation for our works (our service), we could boast that we earned it. The fact is, mankind was hopelessly lost and the only chance we had at redemption was Jesus Christ. Now that we are followers of Christ, Paul continues, we are his workmanship and therefore will do good works because that is the way of and the nature of Christ.

So, in spite of our skepticism of free things, we must come to grips with the fact that the most valuable thing in the world, salvation, has been given to us free. Not free to God, put “Paid in Full” for us. And this priceless gift should govern the way we live everyday.

Let God’s free gift make you a grateful servant today.

Deacon Larry Woodard