Pay What You Can?

 

I just got home from the post office, with two pieces of mail for the church and one for me. The ones for church were the gas bill and the renewal for the license plates, on either the church car or van. I left those bills unopened, as they can go directly to our treasurer and I don’t have to know what precisely what we owe in those cases. There are some expenses I keep close track of but not either of those.

The mail addressed to me was also a bill. It was for the renewal of a magazine I subscribe to. I opened it up to see how much it was for. $48 for another year. I don’t recall what it was last time, when I may have renewed for two years, but $48 for another year sounded okay to me. But then I noticed the next line, which read “I’d like to renew my 1 year subscription and I can pay $____.” That got my attention. What was that about?

I unfolded the entire renewal notice and read of a special offer in recognition of their 30^th anniversary. A “Pay What You Can” special. Now that sounds interesting. Given that I put gas in the car on the way home from the post office the unexpected opportunity to save some money is, frankly, appealing. 

But in the offer there is that little word, ‘can’. The offer isn’t “pay what you want” but “pay what you can,” and I can afford to pay $48, and so I will. But the whole thing got me to thinking about the gospel and the good news of a healed relationship with God through faith in the saving work of the Lord Jesus. Someplace floating around in my head was the idea of eating and drinking without cost.

Google to the rescue, because it’s faster than a concordance. Isaiah 55:1 reads:

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Isaiah speaks to the people of his day and calls them to return to the Lord. But his words also look farther ahead in history and are fulfilled in the finished work of Christ.

Jesus offers what exactly we need. We need the forgiveness of our sins, so that we can be in a healed relationship with God. We desperately need this forgiveness, and Jesus is the only way.

If we attempted to “buy” forgiveness through our obedience to God’s law, we’d fail completely. If we attempted a trade, our good works to remove the bad, our efforts would be fruitless. If I had the combined wealth of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and gave that to the church I still wouldn’t have the slightest chance. The only way is to trust in what Jesus gave, His very life, for me, on the cross.

Salvation is not “pay what you can” but “trust in Jesus who paid what I could not.” And He has paid in full. Amen.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.