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I write from a place which epitomizes fine cuisine and dining - CiCi’s Pizza. If you are not familiar with this restaurant, you should be! CiCi’s is an all-you-can-eat buffet which offers a smorgasbord of pizza, pasta, and salad. Usually every Thursday I eat here with our worship pastor, John McCaw. Today he had a busy day so I decided to take my laptop along for some company. John and I started coming here a couple months ago because of a precious gift given to us during Pastor Appreciation month - a CiCi’s community leader card. This card entitles the user to a free adult buffet and drink every visit. To me, that’s free money even though we feel like moochers when we walk to the front counter, show them our card, and begin our walk down the line…I feel kind of embarrassed that I am not paying. I’m not sure what it is that makes people feel ashamed to accept something which is free, but I do know there are not many free things in life. In fact, I’m not sure if anything is truly free because someone always pays the price. Even though the CiCi’s card did not cost me a thing, I get to enjoy the benefits because someone else paid the cost.
On a much deeper scale, I want to tell you about the most important free thing which really was not free. It all started thousands of years ago when God decided to create human life from the dust of the ground. He placed man and woman in the Garden of Eden and told them they could eat of any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God was upfront with Adam and Eve informing them that disobeying this commandment would result in death, physical and spiritual. Being overcome with the empty words of Satan, Eve decided God was withholding something from them so she ate the fruit and then gave to her husband and he ate also. The Apostle Paul later writes that “by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). In short, sin entered the human race through Adam and now all men are sinners resulting in death as the final payment for sin. No one avoids death because all have sinned (Romans 3:23). Here is where the free part comes in…two-thousand years ago God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world in order to pay the price for sin (John 3:16). When writing to the church at Corinth, Paul explained Jesus’ payment for sin like this: “He [God the Father] made Him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus died in our place so that we could escape the punishment of sin and receive the righteousness of Christ in exchange. John wrote that “whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus] should not perish [die] but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Paul added “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). God gave Jesus as a gift to pay for the sin of all mankind and all those who believe in His death on the cross, burial, and resurrection will be granted eternal life. Salvation from the penalty of sin is free to those who will believe, but it cost Jesus His life.
There is No Such Thing as Free
I write from a place which epitomizes fine cuisine and dining - CiCi’s Pizza. If you are not familiar with this restaurant, you should be! CiCi’s is an all-you-can-eat buffet which offers a smorgasbord of pizza, pasta, and salad. Usually every Thursday I eat here with our worship pastor, John McCaw. Today he had a busy day so I decided to take my laptop along for some company. John and I started coming here a couple months ago because of a precious gift given to us during Pastor Appreciation month - a CiCi’s community leader card. This card entitles the user to a free adult buffet and drink every visit. To me, that’s free money even though we feel like moochers when we walk to the front counter, show them our card, and begin our walk down the line…I feel kind of embarrassed that I am not paying. I’m not sure what it is that makes people feel ashamed to accept something which is free, but I do know there are not many free things in life. In fact, I’m not sure if anything is truly free because someone always pays the price. Even though the CiCi’s card did not cost me a thing, I get to enjoy the benefits because someone else paid the cost.
On a much deeper scale, I want to tell you about the most important free thing which really was not free. It all started thousands of years ago when God decided to create human life from the dust of the ground. He placed man and woman in the Garden of Eden and told them they could eat of any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God was upfront with Adam and Eve informing them that disobeying this commandment would result in death, physical and spiritual. Being overcome with the empty words of Satan, Eve decided God was withholding something from them so she ate the fruit and then gave to her husband and he ate also. The Apostle Paul later writes that “by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). In short, sin entered the human race through Adam and now all men are sinners resulting in death as the final payment for sin. No one avoids death because all have sinned (Romans 3:23). Here is where the free part comes in…two-thousand years ago God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world in order to pay the price for sin (John 3:16). When writing to the church at Corinth, Paul explained Jesus’ payment for sin like this: “He [God the Father] made Him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus died in our place so that we could escape the punishment of sin and receive the righteousness of Christ in exchange. John wrote that “whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus] should not perish [die] but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Paul added “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). God gave Jesus as a gift to pay for the sin of all mankind and all those who believe in His death on the cross, burial, and resurrection will be granted eternal life. Salvation from the penalty of sin is free to those who will believe, but it cost Jesus His life.