"Free?"

“Free?”

During our student days my brother Dave and I worked in the college dining hall. We had our duties and schedules and were required to find a replacement if we couldn’t work at our assigned time. Dave once had a class commitment which conflicted with his work responsibility and was having trouble finding a substitute until he came up with a solution. He put a notice on the bulletin board with “Free!” in bold letters. Underneath in smaller characters he wrote, “Now that I have your attention I need someone to work for me.” Guess what! He soon got his sub.

The word “free” gets our attention quickly but we’d better not forget there’s likely more to it than meets the eye. Early in our marriage (and in our naivety) Karen and I responded to a slick ad for a “Free flight to Florida”. We soon were treated to a persuasive sales pitch for a time share. We immediately said we weren’t interested and were sent to someone else to obtain the tickets. We were then told we could only use hotels they chose which had exorbitant rates. Since then we look at the fine print and once we’ve seen it the next stop is usually the shredder.

Our community offers “free” golf—for an annual membership fee (I’d have to play about 70 times a year to get my money’s worth). And we had a Medicare supplement insurance policy in which all our medical expenses were “free”—for an ever-increasing monthly premium! The point is there’s usually a catch—in the words of an old saying of uncertain origin, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

But there’s one thing that’s free without any hidden gimmicks: having a relationship with God through faith in Christ. In the words of the Apostle Paul, “…Through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all….” (Romans 5:18, NKJV, emphasis added). There’s nothing any of us can do to merit this free gift—it’s available to all by God’s grace (or undeserved kindness) towards us (“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”—Ephesians 2:8-9, emphasis added). 

We can put a question mark after free most of the time but with God we can use an exclamation point. The price has been paid—nothing more needs to be done other than accepting God’s offer. That choice lies with each of us.

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan