For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:23 ESV

In the last few weeks, I have been accompanying a loved one to car dealerships in search of a new car. Several years ago, car prices were negotiable. But with COVID and the car shortage, they were not. We are getting back into the negotiable stage, which is good, but the prices are still inflated.

When buying or selling something you should determine what is a fair price. A fair price is what the buyer is willing to pay and what the seller is willing to accept.

I recently listed something on the Facebook marketplace. There was some negotiation going on between me and the buyer, but we came to what we both agreed was a fair price.

I want you to consider something. Is the price Jesus paid for you fair? We are told in Romans 5:8 that God showed his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. When we weren’t worth much, He gave all. Think about that for a minute.

A couple of years ago, I sold my car. I spent hours cleaning it up to get it looking like new before listing it for sale. I wanted it to be shiny on the outside and super clean on the inside.

Praise God, we don’t have to clean up every nook and cranny of our lives to come to Him. Jesus has already paid the price while we were filthy in our sins. He will even help us get cleaned up. We only have to ask.

As our Scripture passage says, God freely gives the gift of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no charge. We do, however, have to be willing to accept this gift. Sadly, many reject this wonderful gift.

Once we realize the incomparable value of this great gift and accept it as if given to us, we realize we could never repay God for this gift. When we truly accept it, however, we want to pay God for it with our lives. We want to surrender to Him in appreciation for all He does for us.

We can never pay the price Jesus paid but we can give our lives to Him. He has bought and paid for them. We can reject Him and the beautiful gift of His Son or we can appreciate it and give our all to Him.

I spent years of my life not fully appreciating the fact that Jesus died for me. I lived as I wanted to live. I still live as I want to live with one big difference, I want to live a life surrendered to Him. I want to do my best for Him.

The price Jesus paid for us will never be a fair price for the simple fact that we aren’t worth it. We will never be worth it. But we can do our best each day for Him. We can strive to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1) in all we do. We can spend each day showing our appreciation to Him for all He has done and continues to do for us.

Salvation is such a precious gift, none of us can afford it. Thank God we don’t have to, it is freely given. The question is will you accept this precious gift, or will you turn it down? The choice is yours.

Have a great day!