What is the cost of free?

 There's a small country church in our community that makes it a point to love on people through loving on the school. They show up in support all the time, but one of the main things they do each year (usually more than once) is by taking over the concession stand for a home basketball game night. They run the stand for every game that night, and they don't charge anyone for anything.

When I was teaching, kids would be talking about the "free concessions" all day for those games. They would talk about everything they would get since it was free. I tried to make it a point to remind them that the concessions weren't free--they were just being paid for by somebody else. Because during those games, that church keeps track of everything they give people--and at the end of the night, they pay for everything. Those nights are far from free. If you've ever had dinner at a basketball game, you know how much it costs to even get a simple, basic meal: typically $2 for a drink, $4-5 for the main entree, and another $1-2 for a side/candy, or somewhere around $10 per person if they are just getting one meal. What happens when you tell a whole gym full of people that they can get anything they want from the concession stand for the whole night without paying?

Though it is a gift for everyone at the games that night, for that church there is a high price.

The same can be said for our rights and freedoms in the United States. Millions of us have been given a gift that we think of as free--we stress that we have very specific rights that are granted by our Creator, the rights and freedoms that are outlined in the Constitution. We look at them as guaranteed, but too often we forget that they weren't--and aren't--free. There have been men and women throughout the history of our nation who have paid for those rights and freedoms. They have given their time and service, and a vast number of them have given their lives.

Though it is a gift for the rest of us, for the men and women who serve in the military there is a high price.

Most importantly, though, is the gift of salvation. For us, it is the ultimate free gift:

^"4 But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us,
⁵ united us with the Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—
even though we were buried under mountains of sin—
and saved us by His grace.
⁶ He raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly realms
with our beloved Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King.
⁷ He did this for a reason: so that for all eternity we will stand as a living testimony
to the incredible riches of His grace and kindness
that He freely gives to us by uniting us with Jesus the Anointed.
^8-9 For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved.
You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort.
It is God’s gift, pure and simple.
You didn’t earn it, not one of us did,
so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing.
¹⁰ For we are the product of His hand,
heaven’s poetry etched on lives,
created in the Anointed, Jesus,
to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago."
(Ephesians 2:4-10)

So often, we focus on the fact that our salvation doesn't cost us anything. Oh, we're thankful for it. We point out that we could never get to heaven on our own, and we talk about grace as "undeserved favor" that we can't earn. But how often do we think to stop and think about the cost of our salvation?

We know Yeshua came to earth, but what does that mean? John tells us, "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being." (John 1:1-3, TLV) Think about that for a second--through Christ, all of creation came to be. He was there from the beginning, worshiped and exalted, seated in the throne room of heaven next to the Father. He was surrounded by the heavenly hosts calling Him worthy and holy. And yet, He stepped out of all of that.

He chose to humble Himself, to have His glory and power contained in the weak, fragile vessel of those He created.

He chose to come to earth, to be confined by time, to face all the trials and temptations that we face.

He chose to watch a friend betray Him, then watch almost every other friend walk away.

He chose to let Himself be whipped, beaten, mocked, and spit on.

He chose to let Himself be led to the top of a hill He formed so He could be nailed to a tree He created.

"Who, though existing in the form of God,
did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped.
But He emptied Himself—
taking on the form of a slave,
becoming the likeness of men
and being found in appearance as a man.
He humbled Himself—
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross."
(Philippians 2:6-8)

He chose, while hanging there in agony, enduring the excruciating pain of that death, to ask the Father to forgive the ones who put Him there.

He chose to forgive us, to take the punishment we deserve.

What a high price to pay for us to be free.