“Paid in Full”

Scripture:

1 Peter 1:18-19
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from
the empty life you inherited from your ancestors.
And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver.
He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ,
the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. (NLT)

Observation:

We can never know the full extent of the ransom that our Lord paid to save the life of our eternal souls, because He is not only God, but the One who became the very ransom that was paid.

Application:

For those of us who believe and accept that Jesus was the final sacrificial Lamb of God who received the full penalty for every sin committed (past, present, and future), our lives are no longer our own to do whatever we want with them (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The debt we owe the Lord is so far above our understanding that even if we wanted to repay Him in full it would be humanly impossible for us to do (Psalm 49:8-9). But once you begin to look deep into the whole matter of God’s redemptive plan for His creation and then contemplate the true meaning of it all you will truly desire (with all your heart) to give him back the very life that He paid so dearly to save. And once you sincerely make that decision, He will slowly begin to transform you so your new life lived will bring honor and glory to the deity of God, and in due time He will honor and glorify you in return. It is important to understand that God did not have to save anyone or for any particular reason. He saved you because He wanted to give you hope. He saved you so that you would have a really good reason to live in this difficult and demanding life that in the end would be well worth all the hardship and struggles we had to go through. Bottom line; He saved you because He loves you. He saved you because He is God and that is what He does (Titus 3:7). What a merciful and loving God we have, my dear friends, and what an awesome blessing it is to know that even though we always fall short of God’s glorious standard this side of heaven, we have a Redeemer, Christ Jesus, who has taken upon Himself the terrible wrath we all deserve so that we can escape the decadence that sin brings to those who try to stand on their own merit. We owe the God of creation all that we are and can be, and so very much more!

Prayer:

Thank You, O God, for the price You paid for my salvation. Having accepted Your forgiveness I can now live with Your peace in my heart knowing that You have made it possible for me to stand in Your Presence, free from guilt and shame of my past, knowing that this world can do nothing to ever separate You from me again.

Amen