What is the price of salvation?

Did he mean, "It costs too much to be saved"? Then he was totally wrong. The untold cost of salvation has fallen upon One who was able to bear it, and He being made sin for us has borne it all. To us it costs nothing.

Ah! but he used the word "Christian" in its proper sense, for it was the disciples who were called Christians first in Antioch (Acts 11:26). He meant, "It costs too much to be a disciple." Again, then, he was wrong. It costs to be a disciple, but it does not cost too much! The fact is, our gloomy-looking friend was not saved, he had never tasted grace, and therefore had nothing to spend. When a man goes to market with no money in his pocket everything costs too much! He was putting discipleship before grace, which is equivalent to putting demand before supply, and responsibility before the power that meets it - in everyday language, "putting the cart before the horse."

What does discipleship cost? It costs sacrifice in every direction, and therefore the little parables come in here. It costs a good deal of labour in fortifying one's position, and a good deal of energy in fighting one's foes.

It is something like this when we preach the simple gospel. We say, “Believe and be saved,” and a man in the back seat says, “The idea! It is too simple for a man of my mind. Besides, it is too cheap.” Too cheap!! It cost the Lord Jesus His blessed stainless life; it cost Him His life’s blood; the forsaking of the face of God; all the punishment due to sin; more than words can tell or thought can think. Nay, call it not cheap. Salvation costs us nothing, but it was gained at an infinite cost.

As the slaves of sin we needed redemption, and God has redeemed us. His great love made Him desire to have us as His own, and that same great love moved Him to pay a great price for us, for we "ARE bought with a price." That price was the precious blood of Christ. Nothing less than this would do. The gold for which men crave and labour and the gems that fascinate the eyes of women could avail nothing in this matter, nor could any other price be found in heaven above or in earth beneath but this — the precious blood of Christ.

Human words are not found to express its greatness: so if it is called a "price," we cannot compute it. The Holy Ghost once says "precious blood"; and once we read, "God so loved the world." If we can measure the love of God as expressed in the word "so," then we may estimate the price; and, if we can estimate the price, we can measure the "so"; but both are infinite and immeasurable.

We have seen in the former section that this beautiful parable of the great supper shows us that God is not demanding from man, on the principle of law, but giving, providing, in free grace. "A certain man made a great supper." Thus He provided everything, the guests brought nothing. What a new truth this was as to God and salvation, to men under the administration of the law, which did not give, but demanded. Then we found this supper was great because it cost the greatest price in the universe: the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The agony, the atoning suffering of the cross, forsaken of God: that was the price of the supper. The price of the great salvation was His precious blood.

And the Divine basis of this redemption is the precious shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Peter says: "redeemed … but with the precious blood of Christ;" and Paul: "Ye were reconciled to God by the death of his Son;" "in whom we have redemption through His blood." The atoning sufferings and the redeeming sacrifice of the blessed incarnate Son of God constitute the only possible foundation of this eternal redemption. It is the Beloved of the Father who has been down under the judgment of God, into death itself. For seeing there is a full and perfect redemption, there must be of necessity also the price of that redemption. No redemption is without cost: and the greater the work, the more far-reaching its effects; the deeper the moral questions at issue; so must the cost of this redemption be the more increased. It is beyond all knowledge save that of the Father, to comprehend the cost of our redemption: the Father and the Beloved Son have borne that cost in all its greatness, and in all its untold sacrifice and suffering. So John writes: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son," and "The Father sent the Son the Saviour of the world." No human unbelief, or hardness of heart; no rationalistic infidelity; no careless indifference of man's proud, wilful hatred of the pure grace of God; can ever set aside or diminish this infinite Divine sacrifice, this cost of our redemption.

It is only God Himself who could bring home a banished one, or provide salvation for a sinner. For to accomplish this there must be a ransom, a price adequate to the redemption. God alone could furnish that. All the angels in heaven would fail in the attempt. An eternal value must go for an offence against God. God alone can yield an offering which shall carry infinite value in it, like that, and such as sin demands. Power cannot supply it, love cannot supply it: it is God Himself, whose Person has infinite value, can alone supply it.

(1) The price paid, or the ransom money. Speaking to the disciples, our blessed Lord said, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). In another scripture we read that Christ "gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2:6). That is, He gave Himself in death — corresponding so far with the other scripture quoted, "gave His life." The significance of these statements will be explained by a passage from the Old Testament "The life of the flesh is in THE BLOOD: and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for it is THE BLOOD THAT MAKES AN ATONEMENT FOR THE SOUL" (Lev. 17:11). Hence, "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 11:22). It was therefore the blood of Christ (for the life is in the blood) that constituted our ransom money: this was the price paid for our redemption. Hence Paul says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood" (Eph. 1:7); and Peter, in the scripture we have before cited, that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It is no wonder that he terms it "precious," since it availed to meet all the claims of a holy God upon us, so that on that foundation he could proclaim salvation to all. For, in truth, it not only satisfied God's claims, but so infinite was its value that the Lord Jesus, by the shedding of His own blood, glorified God in all that He was, — in every attribute of His character, — and thus He can righteously justify every one that believes in Jesus. Yea, more, He glorifies Himself, in bringing every believer to Himself, in making him His child, and if a child, then an heir, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17).

The salvation of sinners has always been connected with blood-shedding and death. The reason is obvious. Sin's wages is death. The law of holiness and truth is, that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Death, then, is God's just appointment to man, because he is a sinner. Man dies only because of sin. Death entered into the world by sin. The only way, therefore, of justly putting away sin was by death; and that no sinful man could die for the sin of another is clear, because he must die for himself. The Son of God, on whom death had no claim (because He knew no sin), was able to die for others. Nothing less than His death could save us, because we deserved death. Therefore, in matchless grace, Christ died for us — the just for the unjust. "He died for our sins;" and as the life of the flesh is in the blood, so the shedding of blood is spoken of, in Scripture language, as the laying down of life. Hence we are told that "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

Sin has also brought all mankind into bondage: it has enslaved us. Therefore redemption is another great necessity. God's Word says concerning believers, that in Christ "we have redemption through His blood" (Eph. 1: 7). That signifies the complete setting free and bringing back by virtue of a price paid; that price the bloodshedding of the Son of God. Only God can measure the greatness of that price, but believers can certainly appreciate the marvellous liberty it has brought them.