www.bible.com/reading-plans/3797/day/8

I vividly recall telling our young children that they could not have the latest game system because the cost was too great. I also remember our very precocious son saying, “But you just have to go to the bank and get money for it, right?” Thus ensued the discussion about money having to be put into the bank first and the fact that priorities of life required things like groceries and paying bills instead of a new game system. Trying to teach them the value of a dollar, my husband and I told them that they could save half for it and we would pay half once they had saved enough. They had no idea how many hours they would have to do menial labor in order to earn enough for the game system they had set their hearts on. Well over a year later, they had the money, but their interest in that particular system had waned since a newer, better model had been released. After much discussion, they got the newer one and were well pleased with themselves over all of their hard work paying off, finally.

We sometimes blithely say during this season of Jesus’s death and resurrection that He shed His blood for us. We tell others that the gift of salvation is free to all who believe. But do we stop to think of the cost to Jesus and to His Father? Our freedom from sin cost them the relationship that they had enjoyed from eternity on since for a few minutes when Jesus hung on the cross, His Father could not look on Him. Jesus felt forsaken, but He was willing to give up heaven for each of us to one day be with Him there. I cannot imagine the grief of the Father and of the Son when the moment came for Him to bear our sins. I know that was the plan all along, but it didn’t negate the reality or the pain. Thus, the cost was unimaginable for our beloved Savior, but the price He paid made salvation free for us. We did not have to toil to earn it, do endless good deeds to get God’s attention and hope it worked, or make a sacrifice or a bargain with God so that salvation would be part of our lives. We just had to accept the FREE gift that cost Jesus everything! In my finite mind, it is difficult to understand the ramifications of Jesus becoming sin for each of us. However, I know that because of His willingness to sacrifice Himself, I am able to stand clean before the Father, having confessed my sins and repented of them. Money in the bank? No…a deposit in our soul that is without measure!