The Costly Gospel

This is a report I did on Eric's sermon "The Costly Gospel." Enjoy!

I remember one day flipping through a Christian magazine when I saw a small side portion with the words “Do You Know Christ as Your Savior?” in big letters.

Interested, I looked into it. I don’t remember exactly what it said, but it was to the effect of this: If you want Jesus in your life, simply pray this prayer… Dear Jesus. I am a sinner. I know you died for me. Thanks. Amen. If you pray this sincerely, then congratulations! Jesus is now Lord of your life.

A feeling of shock fell over me. Is this all the gospel is today? I thought. Looking back at my life, I began to remember instances when there was an opportunity to “be saved.” Quickly, I began to realize that this message – say this prayer sincerely and you’re saved – is the gospel that is prevalent in Christianity today. I’ve heard the Sinner’s Prayer recited over and over at summer camps, church events, winter camps, even once when one of my teachers was worried about my class of homeschoolers.

We have truncated the gospel so much it has become entirely worthless and even dangerous to many who trust in a prayer, and not God.

In Mark, it is recorded, “And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she broke the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint
my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” (Mark 14: 3 – 9)

Jesus said for this story to be told every time the gospel is preached. Every time.
Yet, I have never once heard this story given with the gospel, save once at Ellerslie. Why would Jesus say that if it was not important, if it didn’t mean anything?

Perhaps we are afraid of its implications.

In another gospel, it is said that the box of spikenard was worth a year’s worth of wages. To us, that is at least twenty- to forty-thousand dollars. To Mary then, it was what she put her trust in. If there was a famine in the land, she could easily sell this alabaster box and she would be set for a year. It was this very precious box that Mary broke and poured out upon Jesus’ head. That is a picture of what we are called to do.

Christ must take us through a season of stripping down everything we put our trust in. We may think these things are important, even essential, to our very existence.
However, once we see Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven, we realize all we’re holding on to is a handful of pebbles. That is our life compared to the glorious life of Christ we get in exchange. When we see the cross and what it means to our souls, we, like the merchant of pearls, gives everything in us to find this.

So what does this cross mean to our souls?

When Jesus died, He didn’t just set us free from condemnation and Hell. That’s where most people stop today, and they go on frittering away their life in misery. Christ purchased so much more than only justification. He has set us free from the power of sin over our lives. We don’t have to be a slave to it anymore! We can live free of all sin.

But it doesn’t end there. For we step out of the cage of sin, breathe in the fresh air of freedom, and there, Christ offers us the ultimate invitation: to become a part of His glorious Kingdom. Not just as sons, though, for we were once rebels, but Christ has brought us near to the Throne to become sons and daughters of the Most High.

That is incredible. As the infomercials always say, however, “But wait! There’s more!” Not only are we made sons and daughters, adopted through Christ, but we are now commissioned by Christ to go and spread freedom and life throughout all the nations as the ambassador of the King of Kings.

That task is an impossible one. There is only one way to complete it, and God always completes what He begins: death to self and the impartation of the life of Christ within, the Holy Spirit. The very life of God inside of you! Do you realize what that means? That is utterly amazing, that the Lord of Lords, the Majestic One, the Christ, would come and dwell within men!

However, like Mary, we must give our whole life to Him in order to gain this new life. We must go to the cross.

Are you willing to give everything to find Christ?