DAILY DEVOTIONAL – May 10, 2021
“Sticker Shock”
Prayer: Almighty God, even with a thousand lifetimes of our best works, we could never repay the debt that we owe because of our sin against You. In our hearts, we know the hole our sin has dug us. But in Your amazing grace and love, You have pulled us from the pit, You have forgiven our debt freely, not because there is no cost, but because You gave Your Son Jesus who paid the price of our salvation with His own blood. Thank you Jesus. Amen.
Scripture: Romans 6:17-23
Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Devotional – “Sticker Shock”
About a week ago my wife took her car to go get an oil change. Before it was over, my phone rang. The mechanic told my wife that the oil in the transmission was not in good shape at all, and that we needed to get the transmission flushed asap. Unfortunately, with the type of transmission her car has, that particular shop did not have the tools to access the plug needed to flush and replace the transmission fluid. So the next day, I took the car to the dealership. Having done my homework I was expecting to pay somewhere around a $300-$400 to get the job done.
So there I am, in the waiting room at the dealership waiting for the flush to be finished. After only about 20 minutes, the clerk comes walking up to me with a stack of papers in her hand. “Of course,” I thought to myself. The clerk proceeded to tell me that the mechanic had noticed something not running correctly, and decided to run a computer test. The result? Well, the fluid was the least of my problems. The fluid was in such bad shape because the transmission was essentially shot. Expecting that morning to fork over between $300-$400, you can imagine my shock when the clerk gave me the paperwork suggesting I replace the entire transmission for a small fee of $5,500.
Doing my due diligence, I left that day without replacing the transmission in order to get a second opinion…then a third. Unfortunately, it was true. The car my wife and I bought in 2015, only 6 years ago and with only 70,000 miles on it, now needed a new transmission.
No one likes the feeling of sticker shock, unless, of course, the shock turns out to be one of savings. If we consider the cost that would be required for us to pay if we were to try and afford our own salvation, a life of nothing less than absolute perfection, then we should be no less shocked at the price we don’t have to pay in order for our relationship with God to be repaired!
In the sinfulness of our humanity and twisted way of thinking, there is something admittedly preposterous about God giving us His love and salvation for absolutely free. We know we don’t deserve it. We know we deserve His judgement instead, and as much as we don’t want or like to admit our sin, it is that very sin that causes us to question God’s graciousness and instead try to purchase or secure our salvation on our own dime. The problem is, we are flat broke when it comes to being righteous enough or faithful enough to earn God’s grace…and not one of us would survive the attempt to account for and pay for our own sins.
Romans 6:20-23, “20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are always looking for a good deal, but when it comes to our salvation, we shouldn’t be looking for the cheapest or most affordable offer. If we are to be saved from our sin and from the death our sin has brought upon us, we need the best and most expensive solution there is…and there is nothing more precious, nothing more eternally valuable than the perfect blood of Jesus Christ given and shed for you and for me.
“You get what you pay for” right? No my friends, in God’s economy of grace, we freely get what Christ has paid for.
Thanks for spending time with me today in God’s Word, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
