This week, I fell victim to a scam…sort of.
I received an email from someone trying to give away a piano – something that does happen from time to time – provided the recipient would pay for the move.
Makes sense, right? Someone giving away a piano shouldn’t have to bear the burden of the cost of moving it, which can be significant.
I announced it to the congregation, in case anyone was interested. Someone was.
Thankfully, that person did his homework, and discovered it is a scam. It turns out that the requirement was to use the donor’s moving company, which was fake, but was receiving people’s money and not delivering anything.
This was one of the most convincing scams I’ve seen yet. We all get those phone calls from “Canada Revenue” or “Amazon” or “Credit Department” claiming that we owe money or are about to be incarcerated. We understand that they are fake and we hang up on them.
But an email, seemingly credible, with an offer of a gift that sometimes happens anyway? Seems legit. Nope.
I’m glad my friend did the research.
All too often, something that claims to be free isn’t free…unless you’re talking about the gospel.
What sets Christianity apart from every other world religion is that salvation is free…for us.
But it wasn’t free for Jesus.
That is, Jesus paid the price for our sins.
Many people respond when they hear the gospel by saying it seems too good to be true. In this case, though, it’s not too good to be true. It is good, and it is true!
It’s not like a “get out of jail free” card; Jesus bled and died on the cross to set us free from sin. He experienced death for three days and rose again from the grave to bring us eternal life.
He paid the price, but it wasn’t free.
Yet for us, it is free. No catch. No hidden fees. No asterisk.
Have you given yourself wholly to Jesus, who paid the price for your sins? It’s no scam. It’s real, and it’s true. He did it for you and for me.
“God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5.21, NLT).
Passionately His 