Gospel
It may sound strange to some of you, but in this world where we live, where buying and selling is carried out every single day, we are faced with a complex but unavoidable question, what is the current price of Christianity? How much did it cost God, Christ, His Disciples and me? What price are we paying to preach the word of Christ today?
Let’s pause here a bit shall we?
I was trying to make an online payment yesterday night and this morning, one thing kept repeating itself in my transaction: ‘current price’.
Before the transaction, my shopping cart was reading 0.00 as my initial price and as I kept adding new items in the cart it kept increasing by the price of each item.
How did we get here?
[Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.]
Can you see that? We grew fat with blessings and abundance; we have technology and industries with a cutting age. We are now so fat that we do not need help (or so we think, because we do!). Our technology can keep us safe, our industries can give us food, we do not need to plough the ground with sweat like our forefathers did- Computers can do it!
With a push of a button, we can go into computerized warfare, plant crops, control certain terminal diseases, tell what the weather will be like, and “play God!”- That is a fools comfort. It’s a pity, we all are in it and can see it.
Back to the meat of the matter
Let’s find out what the initial price is from the bible… [Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….]
Price One: The Image of God.
God knew that we must have dominion over all he has made we must be like him. So he created a representative of himself to handle the affairs in the garden [Genesis. 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.]
Man was made so wonderfully that his image was that of the Lord that made him. Just like Chinese calligraphy; each writer can be identified by his writing because it bears his image. We bear the image of God on/in us. We are his workmanship we bear his mark!
Price Two: The Likeness of God.
This is a very delicate issue so I had to consult a couple of online dictionaries to see what they say.
==>similarity in appearance or character or nature between persons or things; "man created in Gods own likeness"
==>picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing
wordnet.princeton.
edu/perl/webwn
==>The state or quality of being like or alike; similitude; resemblance; similarity; Appearance or form; guise; That which closely resembles; a portrait
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/likeness
==>Denotes similarity, resemblance, representation, etc.
www.ucgstp.org/lit/bsc/bsc3/glossary.htm
Ok let’s go on now.
God made us to be a portrait of Him here on earth. To have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the grasses and animals etc (that has seen God), we have to have a direct resemblance with him in appearance, in character, in nature.
God is Holy and he created man in Holiness and without sin to have Dominion over the whole creation. His creation!
What a price! [Ephesians. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.] Hallelujah!
What did we do wrong? Did we nullify the price of God? Is there need to be repurchased?
Here is what the Bible says:
[Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.]
Ok now I can say yes we lost it… the image of God, our resemblance. I dare to say that in God’s nature there is no Death, no sin and no pain. But our eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brought about a bridge of our original contract with God and our dominion was striped from us by the Devil (that serpent, the deceiver!).
Some folks will say where in the New Testament can you find all these?
[1Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.]
[1Corinthians 7:23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.]
Before the foundation of the earth was laid, God had made preparations for our repurchase in the event we fall (you can call that a holy insurance policy). Hallelujah! God has my redemption in mind. I am a product of his workmanship and he can not let the devil steal me away from him. Glory to God in the highest!
Jesus: the perfect price
[Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;]
[Hebrews 9:13 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.]
Can you see that? The price for my salvation is the blood of the only Son of God Jesus! What glory, what compassion, what honor hath God for us mortals that he paid the ultimate price to bring us life, not only this he also came to make us conform to the image of God the Father something we lost long ago. [Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:]
See? Adam’s nature (the nature of sin) was transferred to his son Seth, and unto all generations after him.
But Christ came with a mission, a mission to reconcile us unto God. To bring us into conformity to the image we lost and the likeness we threw away.
[2Corinthians 5:18-19 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.]
This mission was not accomplished without the shedding of blood (the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God).
[1john 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.]
[Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;]
[Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.]
[Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.]
[Colossians 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.]
Through his blood he made us conformed to the image of his Son (and Jesus say: I and my Father are one. John 10:30)
If we conform to the image of the Son, we have the Father’s image in us also. [Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.]
That’s it! That’s the New price! The blood of Christ!
But what are we doing about it?
The prophet Isaiah looked at us as sheep gone astray, every one of us going in his own way. When we have got redemption why do we still love the death and sorrow, pain and sickness that Sin has brought to us? One thing that comes with this new price is that it is all encompassing. There is healing [Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.]
His….
Wounds: Took away the record of our transgression
Bruises: took away our iniquity
Punishment: Brought Peace to our Body, soul and spirit
Stripes: Brings Healing to our bodies, soul and spirit.
That’s the full price of Christianity!
Our Role!
[Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.] How hard can that be? He gave his life and all he is asking us to do is to preach about his sacrifice of Love to the world?
My appeal
Brothers and sisters in the Lord open your heart and pay the price. Preach the word of God to the world without fear. Tell the whole world that Jesus still saves, heals, and delivers. Let the world know that healing, salvation, and victory over sin and that old serpent (Satan) is possible in the price of the blood of the Son of God- Jesus.
Jesus is Lord! God Bless you.
Pastor O’Sam Nsa
Upper Room Christian Ministry Minna-Nigera
Tel: +2348059063143, +2348028542573,
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Feel free to post your comments and prayer request.
www.urcm.blogspot.com
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