If There Is A Cost, I Want To Pay It!

All scripture references, unless otherwise noted, are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
There is an interesting account in the Bible in 1st Chronicles 21. I won't try to copy and paste the entire chapter. If you want to, you can read it for yourself. What I find interesting is David's answer to Ornan the Jebusite. In verses 23-25 the Bible says, "And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all. And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight." This Memorial Day we are made to think of the cost for the freedom we all enjoy. I just listened to a wonderful message by Bro. Darrell Johns, pastor of Atlanta West Pentecostal Church, www.awpc.org, on being thankful for the sacrifice of those who paid the price for us. 

The Lord Jesus said in John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." He went on to say in verse 14, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." Did you notice the word, "if," in verse 14? The Apostle Paul said in Colossians 1:21-23, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven..." We were His enemies, not His friends. In Romans 5:6-11 the Apostle Paul told us that when we were without strength and ungodly, Jesus died for us. Not when we were good, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He died for you and I that we might be justified in God's sight. So the Lord Jesus has made us His friends to reconcile us to God that we can, "... be saved by his life." Our sins have been atoned for by Jesus' sacrifice of Himself. 

That is why I entitled this posting, "If There Is A Cost, I Want To Pay It!" You and I don't just owe the Lord Jesus one tenth of our money and one seventh of our time, we owe Him 100% of our life. This is no doubt why Paul said in 1st Corinthians 6:19-20, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." David was right when he said, "I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost." What about you my friend, if there is a cost, will you pay it. Neither you or I can buy our way into heaven, we can only, as the saying goes, pay it forward.