The Price is Paid

Did you ever realize that it is not what you do, but what He did for you that counts?
     We have given the wrong message to the world.
     Our message to the world has been one of "giving and putting away;" we have told them what they must do, while the truth is that God does not ask the world to give up anything.
     Someone might ask, "Doesn't He ask them to give up their sins?" Never.
     "Doesn't He ask them to give up their wickedness and rebelliousness toward Him?" No.
     It is not subtraction. It is addition.
     It is not taking from, it is adding to.
     God is the giver. We are the receivers. "God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son." (John 3:16).
     He never asked humanity for anything.
     He saw our poverty. He saw that the only things we could give would be things for which He had no use.
     God is the Giver.
     He gives only as a Prince, a King, can give.
     He does not ask us to give up anything, or to give away anything.
     He does ask us to receive something.
     The first thing He offers is Redemption from the fear of want, failure, weakness, of sickness or disease. He gives us a Redemption from all these.
     It does not seem credible or even possible that it could be and yet it is true.
     He offers us a Redemption from the works of the enemy.
     How it thrills the heart to contemplate it!
     Colossians 1:13-14 gives us the amazing truth, "Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of His love."
     Let us notice carefully. He does not ask us for anything.
     He has come of His own accord, at His own expense, and Redeemed us out of the authority of darkness, weakness, ignorance and failure, and He sends the Revelation to tell us the good news that we are Redeemed; not that we may be delivered, not if we will be good and give up our sins. No. We are already delivered out of the authority of darkness.
     This is not the message that they have taught us to preach.
     This is the reverse of it.
     All we had to do was acknowledge the gift, and thank Him for it.
     "But," you say, "what about our sins?"
     He put our sin away by the Sacrifice of Himself.
     We had nothing to do with it whatever.
     We had been helplessly in bondage for years, and then one day someone came along and said, "Did you know He put your sin away by the Sacrifice of Himself?"
     We said, "Yes, we read it, but we never understood it."
     The thing that bound us to the Adversary and the thing that brought condemnation had been put away, our hearts were filled with joy.
     John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God that beareth away the sin of the world."
     God had dealt with the sin problem.
     He does not ask us to deal with it.
     He does not ask us to do a thing with it.
     Now He comes and tells us that He put that sin away, that He remitted all the sins we ever committed. He is not asking us to do anything.
     He does not ask us to do anything but receive it.
     If we have to pay Him for our Redemption it is no longer of grace but of works.
     Jesus is a gift, the Father's gift.
     We do not pay for a gift.