I have a confession to make. I like free stuff. I remember when I was a kid signing up at the Baskin Robbins ice cream shop to get a free scoop on my birthday. Boy, I couldn’t wait for that postcard to come in the mail just before my birthday saying I could bring it in for a free cone. To this day I still like getting stuff for free. I mean, who doesn’t right?
Photo Source: www.creationswap.com by Matt Gruber
Today there are whole website communities dedicated to getting free stuff. Recently I got some free stuff at the grocery store with some creative use of coupons and sale pricing. It’s challenging and fun to see what you can get for nothing. And people love to share their adventures in free stuff.
Some people have a bucket list. Some people read through the top 100 books of literature, or watch the top 100 movies, or read through the Bible in a year, or spend a year without buying stuff made in China. Why couldn’t I try to get something free every day for a year and chronicle it on the web. Who wouldn’t want to read that ?!?
So I got to thinking, what’s the best thing I ever got for free? That annual scoop of birthday ice cream? That free Boba Fett action figure from Kenner Toys? The little blue bike I got for Christmas one year? Then it hit me.The best thing I ever received for free is God’s love. Those sports fans holding up those signs that read, John 3:16, are like coupons for the best free thing anyone could ever ask for or hope to receive. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” No purchase necessary. Just believe to redeem. “Whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
It’s like a sweepstakes you automatically got entered into, and guess what? You won! All you must do is claim your prize from the heavenly authority. As it is written, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).
The Bible says that as Christians our lives have been redeemed. It’s not a coincidence that this is the language of the coupon, of the free item, of the mail-in-rebate. Our life is like a coupon, worth one tenth of one cent, essentially worthless, and expiring soon. We can turn it over to God, and in exchange He gives us relationship with the Son so that through him we can experience eternal life. “He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son does not have life” (1 John 5:12).
This is the Good News. You have already won. Now redeem your life. Go claim your prize.