AMAZING GRACE

Suppose you're the child of a billionaire.  Every year on your birthday your father tries to give you the finest present he can think of.  One year it's a new car.  The next year you get a diamond ring.  The next he gives you a trip around the world.

You always say the right thing.

            "O Father, thank you!  How good you are!"

But in the back of your mind you say to yourself,

"So he gives me a new car!  What does that prove?  He can afford it!  It didn't cost him any sacrifice!  Sometimes I wish my father were poor.  Then I would know whether he really loves me.  Then I'd see whether he'd trouble himself."

This is the way so many of us think about God.  Our Father is a billionaire!  He owns the universe.  So he gives me daily bread, sunshine, and rain.  And I say, "Thank you."

"But what does it cost him?  He's God!  There's nothing to it for him.  How do I know that for all these things he does….that he really cares about me?"

On the outside, you bow your head politely and say,

            "Thank you, Father."

But inside you wonder,

            "Does he really care?"

After a while perhaps you don't even wonder any more.  You just take God for granted.

            "After all, he can afford it.  He's God."

But suppose one day as you're driving along in that lovely new car your billionaire father gave you for your birthday, a truck comes out of a side street and runs you off the road.  Five men jump out, grab you, and throw you into the back of their truck.  They drive for hundreds of miles, and finally lock you in the back room of a deserted cabin in a forsaken mountain wilderness.

You hear the men composing the ransom note asking your father for everything he has.

"Well, he'll never agree to that," you say to yourself.  "He's too busy chasing around the world attending to his enterprises to worry about me.  He won't give up all that."

Three days later there's a knock on the door.  You hear your father's voice.

"Here's my wealth…all you asked for.  Now where's my child!"

To your amazement your father is brought into the room where you've been prisoner, looking like a man you've never seen before.  He's wearing old ragged, tattered clothes.  He's dressed like a beggar, for  he has given up all he has.  But his face is radiant.

            "My child, how glad I am to see you safe!"

Now your heart is overcome with shame.  All those suspicious thoughts toward your father.  How you took him for granted!  You break down and weep as you see your father standing before you in rags.  He gave up all that he had to ransom you back.

And, friend, this is exactly what you would do, if somehow, as you read these words, your eyes would begin to see what it cost God to bring you to the place where you would listen to his gospel….as you are now doing.  If you could see what God sacrificed for you, you'd never eat your daily bread, ever, without saying, "Thanks," from the bottom of your heart.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it".

It is usually thought that the merchant is the Christian, the seeker, looking for eternal life; who when he finds it sells all he has.  And this makes sense.  But this parable can also be seen in a different light…Think of the merchant in the parable as God.   And the pearl of great price as you.

"Who, when he found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

You are the pearl in the store under lock and key.  You're in bondage.  And the only way God can bring you out into freedom and life is to sell all that he has and buy you!

Sometimes you think you're very insignificant. 

            "My life is worthless. When I die, who will miss me?"

In the eyes of the world this is true.  You are insignificant.  When you die you won't be missed very long.  But, in the eyes of your Father, your soul is more precious to him than all the worlds put together.  He proved it by giving up all that he had.

            ---But how can God give up all that he has?

Very simple.  All that God has is wrapped up in one person: the person through whom the worlds were made---without whom was not anything made that was made.  All that God has is wrapped up in his beloved Son.  It was through his Son that God created light at the beginning of creation….the Son who shared in all the glory of heaven.  The son who held all things together…..

            "In him all things consist."

Now God gives him up….surrenders him to the human race.  Many people think,

"O, that's nothing.  Jesus was on a little 'rescue mission.'  He left heaven for a while, but he soon returned.  A nice gesture, but not very costly."

Friend, when God gave his Son to us, he gave his Son to us forever.  When the Son of God became a human being, he became a human being forever. Even as the first-born of the New Creation in heaven, he still bears the scars of Calvary in human hands.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son (not just for 33 years, but forever) that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Do you see what this means?  God made himself poor in order to ransom you back from the sin in your heart that has made you a captive of Satan.  At this moment, God comes to you.  Not as a billionaire, but as your Father who sold all that he had, gave his only-begotten Son to suffer punishment and die the sinner's death in your place.

Now God comes into the prison of sin,

                 calls you by name,

                 unlocks the door of your cell and says,

"Come, my child.  Come with me.  I've paid the fine."  And then he proceeds to break four hideous chains that have you bound..

The first chain he breaks is the chain of selfishness.

All your life your mind has spun around in a futile circle as it dwelt on only one thing: you.  You're always looking at yourself,

                                                            loving yourself,

                                                            hating yourself,

                                                            justifying yourself.  Even your good deeds and your prayers have often been ruined by the self- admiration that went with them.  You couldn't help it  You were chained to yourself by a demonic chain.  But now you're free.  God,

your Father, has broken that chain at tremendous cost.

"Come out of yourself into my word.

Leave your preoccupation with yourself,

and dwell on the presence of my Son.

Speak to him, instead of to yourself.

Be free!"  

The second chain the Father breaks is the chain of worry.  All your life your mind has been chained to the dark side of things.  You just couldn't help thinking of the awful things that might be hiding in the bushes along the pathway of tomorrow.  But now that chain is truly broken….and you can, if you will, rise up out of that gloomy dungeon of anxiety into a life of blessed trust.

"Be free of anxiety, my child.  I gave you my Son to be your light.  When you walk in his light you cannot be afraid.  To live in Christ and to die is gain.  Let every day be a holiday as you walk with him."

The third chain is guilt.  It's true you have done wrong…great wrong.  You've hurt and bruised and trampled on many a life.  Many a scar is being carried in human hearts because of things you've said and done.  You feel guilty and you have reason to.

"But now, my child, you're forgiven.  All the wrongs against me and against your brothers and sisters have been atoned for on the cross of my Son.  They are under the blood.  Yes, and in him is healing for every wound you've ever inflicted on another life.  Accept my forgiveness and be at peace."

Loneliness is the final chain.

            "No one understands me.

No one really cares about me.

            Not even God!"          

Have you ever felt this way?  Somehow you feel cut off.  You feel as if you cannot really get through to another soul….and no one can seem to get through to you.  But now this devil's chain of loneliness has been broken.

"Believe me, child, that I am closer to you than your own breath.  I gave you my Son to be your Elder Brother….he knows every weakness and every temptation you feel, and he will help you.  Moreover, I have given you a wonderful family.  You belong to it.  Those brothers and sisters in your fellowship are not perfect…neither are you.  But they belong to you, just the way they are….and you belong to them."

"The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it".

You are that pearl.  Your salvation cost God all he had.  He gave his only-begotten Son because he loves you.

Will you believe in that love with all your heart?

Will you give yourself to it… right now?

I have a crucifix on my desk.  Sometimes when I'm tempted to get discouraged or impatient or weary…(and what are we doing when we get discouraged and impatient?  We're taking God for granted.  We're feeling sorry for ourselves.  We're saying, "It's all very well what God has done….he's a billionaire.  But how has God really bothered himself for me?")  Then I look at that cross and figure of our dying Savior and I'm ashamed.  God gave all he had for me.  How can I feel weary when so little has been exacted from me, compared with what my salvation cost God?

But sometimes I'm not looking at that crucifix.  Sometimes I forget….those are the times when the shadows come near and your thinking gets twisted.

I believe that you and I need, more than anything else in the world, to train our eyes to see Calvary all the time.  For there you see the Merchantman laying down all he has to buy the pearl of great price.

When you see this, you can't take God for granted.  You can't forget him.  You can only bow down and worship him….and then get up and give back your life to the Father who gave all that he had that you might be his forever.