Something to Live For
I vividly recall my astonishment during my first visit to see to the British crown jewels. My sister and I had made the lengthy trip from the opposite end of the city to visit the Tower of London. We dutifully followed the helpful advice we had read in our travel guide and made a bee-line to the crown jewels. So while the rest of the travelers were rounded up for the Beefeater tour, we sidestepped the crowds and had the jewels all to ourselves...except for the watchful Beefeaters who stood guard while we re-boarded the conveyor belt that took us past the jewel cases again and again.
The crowns. The scepter. Queen Victoria’s diminutive girlhood crown. Each was intricate, sparkling and brilliant. A sure sign of wealth and power. After my final pass, I asked a nearby Beefeater, "What is the value of this collection?" In characteristic British fashion, without flinch or expression, he replied, "They have no price." He followed with, "And they cannot be insured."
My wonder at his first response was quickly overshadowed by my dismay at his second. No insurance?! That's when I got it. It is impossible to insure something that is priceless. I supposed that the Beefeater himself was the insurance.
The psalmists gave a similar appraisal of life. “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.” (Ps. 47:7-8) Life has no synthetic alternative. It cannot be manufactured, imitated or appraised. Life is an exceptional jewel mined only by divine hands.
God considered your life so vast a treasure that “...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (1 Pe. 1:18-19)
In the ancient Roman world from which Peter wrote, men, women and children were bought and sold daily on the slave block for mere pittance. By contrast, you were purchased from sin’s slavery with “precious blood of Christ.” Precious” is the Greek “timios,” meaning costly because of high esteem.
John the Beloved wept when he envisioned the one who sat on heaven’s throne holding a scroll which no one in heaven or on earth could open. He cried until he saw “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6) and heard eternity’s elders singing, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9) Only He is worthy to pay such a price.
Like an artist placing a price tag on his masterpiece, God put a price on you. The precious blood of Christ. Innocence in exchange for filthiness. Only this would be enough. “The ransom for a life is costly.” Very costly. The blood of Jesus is precious because He is precious. And He gives us something to live for.
The crowns. The scepter. Queen Victoria’s diminutive girlhood crown. Each was intricate, sparkling and brilliant. A sure sign of wealth and power. After my final pass, I asked a nearby Beefeater, "What is the value of this collection?" In characteristic British fashion, without flinch or expression, he replied, "They have no price." He followed with, "And they cannot be insured."
My wonder at his first response was quickly overshadowed by my dismay at his second. No insurance?! That's when I got it. It is impossible to insure something that is priceless. I supposed that the Beefeater himself was the insurance.
The psalmists gave a similar appraisal of life. “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.” (Ps. 47:7-8) Life has no synthetic alternative. It cannot be manufactured, imitated or appraised. Life is an exceptional jewel mined only by divine hands.
God considered your life so vast a treasure that “...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (1 Pe. 1:18-19)
In the ancient Roman world from which Peter wrote, men, women and children were bought and sold daily on the slave block for mere pittance. By contrast, you were purchased from sin’s slavery with “precious blood of Christ.” Precious” is the Greek “timios,” meaning costly because of high esteem.
John the Beloved wept when he envisioned the one who sat on heaven’s throne holding a scroll which no one in heaven or on earth could open. He cried until he saw “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6) and heard eternity’s elders singing, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9) Only He is worthy to pay such a price.
Like an artist placing a price tag on his masterpiece, God put a price on you. The precious blood of Christ. Innocence in exchange for filthiness. Only this would be enough. “The ransom for a life is costly.” Very costly. The blood of Jesus is precious because He is precious. And He gives us something to live for.
