We’ve all heard the saying, “The best things in life are free,” but is that true? I think that it’s both true and false.
I would modify the saying to say, “Few of the best things in life are free.”
Think about it. Now name some good things that are free. One might say, “To behold the beauty of nature is free.” Is that free? Because the last time I checked, it costs me quite a lot to enjoy the beauty of nature.
I have to spend money on gas to get access to nature. I have to take time away from other priorities in order to enjoy nature. To really enjoy nature the way I prefer to enjoy nature, I have to have comfortable hiking shoes, a backpack full of snacks and water, sunglasses, Chapstick, and, depending on how much fun, knee and/or ankle braces. Enjoying nature does not come cheap to me. It is certainly not free.
How about love? Isn’t love free? Not by any good definition it’s not. Real love means a sacrifice of time and effort. By no means is it free.
Do you see what I mean? I’m not trying to be facetious. I just don’t like sayings that aren’t true.
You might say, “It all depends on how you define the word, ‘free’.” That’s true. If you define free as “not costing money,” you might be able to make a case, but I still think it would be a pretty hard case to make in regards to the “best things.”
Here’s a good question: Why am I going on about this? What does it matter? It matters because there’s a false teaching in our world today that there is no cost to follow Christ. If you read the Bible, you would never believe that it costs nothing to follow Jesus. So why do people believe things like this? Simple. It’s because it’s what they want to believe. Getting people to believe what is true versus what they want to believe can be a real challenge.
It’s a simple case to defend that following Jesus comes at great cost. For instance, Jesus says in Matthew 16:24-25,
…Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Take note of the costs listed by Jesus – self-denial, enduring persecution / difficulty, obedience, trading the life you desire for the life God desires for you.
It is a very high cost. And Jesus wants us all to consider the cost of following Him before we endeavor to do so. Part of His teaching about discipleship in Luke 14:28, He says,
…sit down and calculate the cost…
His meaning was that after you consider what it will cost you to follow after Him, you either are willing to pay that cost or you’re not. He wants you to follow. He doesn’t want you to say that you will follow, but then not follow.
Teachings like this from Jesus can be a bit confusing when we consider our salvation. We sing songs like, “Jesus Paid It All.” Which begs the question, “If Jesus paid it all on the cross at Calvary,” as the song says, then what price am I paying?
It’s a fair question. It’s not hard to understand. Jesus did pay the price for our salvation and it’s true that we contribute nothing to our own salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9).
But the saying is also true that salvation is free, but it is not cheap. It might help to think of your salvation in a similar sense to being given a job. Sometimes we have to earn a job or struggle to be hired for a job. That’s not what I mean. I mean to be given a job.
To be given a job is to be given something for free, meaning that it was not something you had to pay for and it was not something that you had to work for, but though it was given freely, it was given with an expectation. The expectation is the cost that Jesus calls us to consider.
I hope this helps. Personally, I remind myself almost every day that my efforts to follow Jesus are not what gives me salvation, but are rather my grateful response to the salvation that He has provided.
Much love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489
