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I'm sitting here with an idea that I've been thinking about for a while. The idea concerns a cost/value analysis that I was making about something that I wanted to buy. As God most often does, He reminded me that all truth was parallel that for every natural truth, there is an equal and corresponding spiritual truth. This is what got me to start thinking. I began searching my memory for things that I had purchased on which I placed a high value.
Bingo, bango, bongo, I remembered one. In 1980, I purchased a Geo GLC Sport. I loved that little car. It was fun to drive and could go 35 miles on one gallon of gas. If I remember right, I drove it off the lot for around $3500 and because that was a lot of money for me at the time, I gave it a high value. I washed that car every day and no one drove it but me. I religiously kept up the maintenance schedule and made no rabbit starts or hard stops. Maybe I should have gotten a birth certificate for that car instead of a title.
I could see where the Lord was going with this when it hit me. It would appear that people place a high value on something in terms of how much it cost them. The more it costs, the more they value the item. If it didn’t cost much, they are more inclined to treat it more carelessly. If the item breaks or is lost, no biggy, they’ll just go out and buy another one.
Just when I think I have God figured out, He surprises me. I heard in my spirit, until man can realize what it cost God to send His Son into the world to redeem and save mankind, he will never understand the value that He places on him by sending His Son to the Cross.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. [1]
In biblical times the Law mandated that the father of the groom pay the Mohar, price [2] for the bride [3]. Actually, besides the Mohar there were two other prices paid for the bride. The groom paid the Mattan price [4] for his beloved. The Mattan was not mandatory but was an expression of his love for her. The father of the bride paid the Shiluhim to equip her for her new life and was a part of her inheritance [5]. It was her dowry.
Because the Father placed such a high value on Christ’s Bride, He sent His Son for her payment (Mohar). The higher the value, the higher the cost. Christ also placed a high value on His Bride for He willingly [6] went to the Cross and gave the ultimate price for her; His life (Mattan). How much more could He have given? Remember that the Mattan was not mandatory; it was an expression of love. Christ must love us very much to willingly lay down His life for us. As stated in John 3:16, the value placed on His bride was very high -- as was the cost. It cost God the Father His Son (Mohar) and it cost Christ His life (Mattan).
Have any of us really sat down and thought about what it cost God to give up the perfection that He had with us, to allow the fall and allow for everything else to happen, and to bring us into being a redeemed people, to be able to love God of our own volition.
Again, until man can realize what it cost God to purchase us with the life of His only Son, we will never know or understand the value that God places on us. If we do not seek God with love, obedience, and repentance, the judgment meted to us in the Garden of Eden will forever plague [7] us.
[1] John 3:16 KJV
[2] John 3:16; l Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18
[3] Romans 8:3, 4
[4] Eternal life, John 10:22-28; Ask for anything, John 14:13-14; Peace, John 14:27
[5] The Holy Spirit, John 14:16, 17; Spiritual Gifts, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
[6] Romans 8:32; John 6:51; John 10:17, 18
[7] If Christ delivered us on the Cross, why does the judgment still plague us with sin and chaotic out of order living? Christ redeemed and saved us but if we don’t realize what it cost God and do not seek Him with obedience and forgiveness, the judgment will continue to plague us.
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