“And the king said unto
Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer
burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So
David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” - 2 Samuel 24:24
There is a cost in the altar, and at the altar. There is no cheap grace. It is a grace freely offered, but not freely
obtained. The consumer driven world
would have us believe that we can have something for nothing, and that same
world would influence the church to preach something for nothing salvation. However, there is a cost in the altar, and at
the altar.
Sacrifice is one of those words that is a lot
like responsibility. If you’re trying to
draw a crowd or win a vote; it’s best to avoid it. That said, you cannot avoid it. King David knew this. He was going to God to sacrifice for the good
of his people and himself. When he went
to make an altar and offer on the threshing floor of Araunah, Araunah gave the
floor willing; but David refused. He
knew that there had be a cost in the altar and a sacrifice made for atonement. The grace of God is mighty and wonderful, but
so is the righteousness of God; the judgment of God. The sin of man separates us from the righteousness
of God and there must be a sacrifice for us to be redeemed. Jesus Christ was the sacrifice for us. He paid the debt that we could not. However, it was not a blank check, but a
“costly grace” (to quote Bonhoeffer).
Jesus himself, along with the writers of the New Testament teach us that
in order to obtain the merits won on the cross; we must be conformed to the
same sacrifice that Christ himself made.
We must die the death, and become acquainted with the cost. This is not a physical sacrifice, but a
spiritual one. It is the giving over of
yourself to the will of God. This is
your offering. All that you are, all
that you want, and all that you ever hope to be is offered on the altar to
God. You then find yourself in the “likeness of his death.” If you are “in the likeness of his death than you will be also in the likeness of
his resurrection.”(Romans 6:5) Jesus
said: “except a corn of wheat falleth into
the ground and die, it abidith alone: but if it die, it brings forth much
fruit.”(John 12:24) Salvation does
not come to those who are living for themselves, but to those who have died to
themselves and are living for Jesus. This
is the cost at the altar.
Without Jesus, there would be no hope, no
fruit, and no resurrection. He paid the
cost that is forever embedded in the altar.
He built the bridge that brought full salvation back to mankind. He made it all possible. “While
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8) This is the “costly grace.” This is why we sing “in my hands no price I bring but simply to thy cross I cling.” There was no sacrifice we could give, no
price we could pay, and no altar we could bring it to; that would suffice for
the debt that was owed. So, the Son of
man, the Son of God, came down and did for us what only he could do; and now we
have access to the tree of life, to a “heaven
to go to heaven in;” full salvation through sanctification. Praise God!
To the Holy Ghost within.
