What has your faith cost?

Has your faith cost you anything?

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
(Romans 12:1)

Free grace costs everything. We have been trained to believe that grace is free, but we have neglected to examine how much it costs. Is it oxymoronic to say that something free can cost a lot? No it really is not. Think of Joseph and how he was favored above his brethren by his father Jacob. Jacob gave him a coat of many colors. As far a Joseph was concerned that coat was a free gift, however it cost him being scorned by his brethren. That coat along with other circumstance caused him to end up a slave in Egypt. There is one of many examples that could be made about a free gift costing much. I did not purchase my wife, she was freely given to me by God nonetheless she has cost me everything. I did not go to the store to buy my son, he was a free gift, yet he has cost me everything. I did nothing to purchase salvation it was a free gift, yet it costs everything!!

You can not have a child without cost, you can not have a spouse without cost… you cannot have faith without cost! Understand that buying diapers and baby food did not give me a son, the son was freely given to me, I did not earn him he was free, but he cost an awful lot for a free gift!! Let’s get real here, your faith if it is real and living will cost you everything, if your faith has cost you little or nothing, then you have little or no faith. So what has your faith cost you?

One thing I find absolutely fascinating is how much the Apostle Paul’s faith cost him, and yet he, more than any other writer, expressed with utter clarity that the grace of God is free. Let me ask this question to you: “Why did Jesus warn potential disciples to count the cost before following Him if grace is free?” Do you see the paradox? The Christian life is not easy, if the life you live is easy, it is not Christian! Sometimes people get into talking about money, and those who tithe sit back all smug like they are in total compliance with the will of God. Yet they make no sacrifice, the merely give of their excess, they cannot point to sacrifice they have made in order to give their tithe. The call is not 10%, the call is sacrifice. A tenth of your day is 2hrs and 24minutes, have you given that to the Lord? Your car has 100,000 miles on it, were 10,000 of those miles driven for the Lord, your mind has thought millions of thoughts this year, were hundreds of thousands of those thoughts given to the Lord? Come on… what has it cost you?

Now to the non-Christian this cost is great bummer, but to the true Christian, there is conviction and maybe some disappointment and reservation about the cost, but at the same time there is excitement and a desire to pay it. The true Christian desires and seeks to lay down their life for the Lord. That is the amazing thing about true biblical salvation. Yes it costs everything, but the desire of the heart (because God has recreated the believer’s heart) is to give everything. The great cost of salvation is overshadowed by the great desire to pay full price.

Do not be lulled to sleep by some ‘best life now’ easy believism. Do not enter into some faith designed to boost your self-esteem, find the most costly faith seek it, and be assured that God will freely give you grace, and your heart will long to pay full price. The regenerated heart will then move the body to be a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God.

Be careful to never forget, the free gift will cost you everything.