stephen R Harrison

I once heard it said, “We know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.” Everything has a price, but the value of something is much more. We have our limits on what we’d pay for certain things. A Coke at one place may be fifty cents and seven dollars at another. If I feel I can wait, there’s no way I’d pay seven. If I’m dying of thirst, there’s no price too high and the value of that same drink increased exponentially. How much we would pay for something depends upon how desperate we are to obtain it. A Coke is one thing…but how much would you pay to obtain complete forgiveness of sins and eternal life?

On a recent trip to India, I observed people desperately attempting to pay for the forgiveness of their sins and eternal salvation through several futile methods. Some would pay a priest and ask him to pray to the gods for them. Some would bathe in the Ganges river in anticipation of their sins being washed away. Still others would make the pilgrimage to a holy temple, ring bells, and recite mantras expecting this would be enough for forgiveness to transpire. The sad part of these inadequate efforts is they had to be repeated yearly, if not daily, with no guarantee forgiveness could be attained. How hopeless!

I met one young man in a Hindu temple staring into a picture depicting the religion’s path to total forgiveness. I asked him if he thought he could obtain this and his reply was, “Probably not, but I’m trying”. It seemed daunting, almost pointless to him. I explained the gospel that Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross. I said, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He died to sin once for all (Romans 6:10). Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins for all time (Hebrews 10:12). He was in awe. He had never heard of Jesus and could not believe Jesus had already paid the full price for sin, something he knew in himself he could never do but was desperate enough to spend his whole life trying.

This young man had been working in vain for years for total forgiveness and knew the efforts ahead would never be enough to do what I said Jesus did fully on the cross. He desperately wanted what only Jesus could offer. This desperation caused him to search for me three more times in a temple filled with thousands of people to talk more about it. The value of something he could not pay for was so enticing. We exchanged numbers and are still talking about Jesus’ perfect payment for our sin.

It reminded me of the words of a song: “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sin away. And now I sing a brand new song: ‘Amazing Grace’ all day long. Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay.” No amount of work, payment, or effort on our part can forgive sins. Jesus alone forgives. Ephesians 1:7-8 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” Paul continues, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:1-5).

I’m thankful Jesus paid the price for my sins. The value of His substitutionary gift of forgiveness and salvation (He Who was sinless died in my place for my sins) is priceless. What a gift (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8)! The price for salvation and forgiveness was Jesus’ life (. Only Jesus has the ability to forgive sins (1 Peter 1:18-19; 2:22). When you grasp the value of Jesus’ complete work through the cross, you’d do anything to get it. When you realize Jesus has already done it all through His death, burial, and resurrection, it leaves you in eternal awe and gratitude. Have you received the gift of salvation Jesus paid in full for you?