"You were bought with a price" - 1 Corinthians 7:23

Romans 6:23 tells us that "the wages of sin is death”.  Because all mankind suffers from a severe sin problem, we cannot enter the perfection of Heaven without intervention.   The sins we commit separate us from God.  Without a mediator or intercessor to atone for these transgressions we could not live forever in glory; we would face the finality of death and endless damnation.

No matter how much money we have we cannot erase a sin by ourselves.  Sin demands payment.  And as hard as we try we cannot pay this obligation while in a state of sin.  If we want an afterlife with God but have the stain of sin upon us we need a Savior willing to pay the price of restoring our souls, taking our sins away; someone sinless and close to our Heavenly Father. 

In God’s mercy and love, He made a Divine plan for us at great cost to Himself.  He sent down to His created earth His only beloved Son to live among us, show us a righteous path, and pay for all humanity because He sincerely wants us to live with Him in Heaven.  As proof of His unending love, Jesus, the Son of the living God and a perfect sinless Being left His Heavenly home to come and die in shame; shed blood for all so that we could gain salvation. He became the sacrificial lamb for us for no other sacrifice was good enough.  If we believe He did this for us and make acknowledgement of that sacrifice, we will join Him in Heaven with the Father. 

An unknown writer wrote this story about a pastor named Thomas who entered his church one morning with a rusty, old, bent birdcage. He set the birdcage on the altar causing a few raised eyebrows. Then he began to speak; "Yesterday morning I came across a young boy who had three scared birds in a cage shivering from the cold. I asked him, 'What do you have there?' 'Just some dumb old birds!' 'What you going to do with them?'  'Tease 'em, play with 'em, and pull out their feathers!' 'Then what you going to do with them?' 'Feed 'em to my cat, he likes birds!' The pastor went silent for a moment then said to the boy, 'How much do you want for them?' 'Oh, you don't want these, they're ugly and they can't even sing.' 'How much?' came the pastor’s definite reply. The boy thought for a moment and then said, 'Fifty bucks.' The pastor reached into his pocket and pulled out his last fifty dollars. The boy took the money and vanished. The pastor picked up the cage, walked to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a small grassy spot. He opened the door and by gently tapping the bars to the cage, coaxed the birds out into the grass. They were free. That explained the birdcage on the altar. Then he proceeded to tell this story. "One day Satan and Jesus were walking and Satan had just come out of the Garden of Eden, he was gloating and boasting. 'Yes sir, I caught me a whole world of people. Set a trap they just couldn't resist. Yep, got 'em all.' 'What are you going to do with them?' came the reply. 'Gonna have some fun with them; teach them how to hate, hurt, and kill each other.' 'Then what are you going to do?' 'Oh, then I'll destroy them and bring them down into my kingdom.'   Jesus paused, 'How much do you want for them?' 'Oh, you don't want them. They'll just hate you, spit on you, mock you and kill you. They don't want you.' Jesus paused and looked straight into Satan's soul, 'How much?' Satan looked at Christ and sneered, 'All your tears, all your blood, all your footsteps, all your strengths...all your life.' Jesus paid the price, picked up the cage and opened the door...

If you had a friend who needed money to pay a fine to keep out of jail, and you cared enough to pay, cash could be handed over to honor the claim and extradite that person from his trouble.  You would save your friend through love if you had the price of that person’s freedom.  He could not do this for himself.  You become his rescuer.  And so it is with salvation.  We too need a rescuer to reach the ultimate miracle of infinite life. In order to have freedom from sin, the forgiveness, the peace of God, and God’s promise of eternal life, we have to go through Jesus who invites us to come and claim it.  Matthew 20:28 tells us “… the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life as ransom for many”.

We have seen pawnshops scattered around town in the business sections of moderate income people.  Stores filled with unclaimed merchandise because people could not reclaim their possessions.  Jewelry, electronics, and other valuable items are piled high in their windows.  Treasured things are left to tarnish there.  Many people thought they would be able to pay their redemption tickets or perhaps once pawned they became forgotten.  Without repayment in a certain time frame, they forfeit their right to reclaim these items.  This is how we accumulate our sins.  We pile them helter-skelter in the windows of life and if we leave and forget about them we lose the right to claim redemption through the blood of our Lord.

All humanity is guilty of sin. Sometimes we do not even recognize that we have sinned because the human capacity for not accepting responsibility is unlimited.  But each time we sin, there is an obligation to pay.   Remember we are charging these sins on an account that we ourselves can never settle.  We cannot ever balance the books.  We could never get out of our sin debt without Jesus to redeem us.  Over two thousand years ago Jesus honored our sins by His crucifixation and it is still good today.   And if that alone wasn’t enough, He promised if we ever sinned again, He would honor that too if we asked Him.  God, through His Son, forgives everything, even repeatedly if we go to Him in suplication.

Throughout the Old Testament, God's initial sacrificial system was not sufficient to redeem us.  God allowed the Israelites to offer sacrifices as payment for sins until a one time ultimate sacrifice could be offered permanently for the whole human race. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin and no forgiveness.  Does this mean all are saved? No. The Bible is very clear. What Jesus gave is for all, but not all will accept this plan. So each of us must come to Christ and personally choose to accept His gift.  By accepting we are choosing Heaven over Hell. If we choose to live without Christ in our lives then we will have chosen to spend eternity in hell.

1 John 2:2 tell us “And he is the propitation (the satisfaction) for our sins; and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world”   Again in John 11:26  says "Believest thou this?"  Going to John 3:36 we find  "He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life".  .

If you sincerely seek salvation for your soul or if you have turned away from your faith, come forth and accept or re-accept Jesus Christ in your heart as your Savior.  Before it is too late.  Don’t turn down the greatest offer any human could ever receive.  For no one loves you more than the Father and the Son.   Your sins have been bought and paid for at a great but loving price.  To deny this precious offer will take you to a place where you don’t want to go.

 “Bought with a price” is all about a place called Calvary, a sinless man called Jesus, and a cross upon which He died to pay for our sins.

"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many". Matthew 20:283

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