Free Puppies

“Mommy, mommy, look at the puppies! The sign says they're free, can we get one? A puppy would be so much fun. Can we? Can we please?”

“Well, son, I'd really like for you to have a puppy but we can't afford one right now.”

“But mommy, what do you mean, we can't afford it? The sign says they're FREE!”

“Yes, son, I know that's what the sign says. But puppies get sick and have to go to the vet, they need food, a leash, worm medicine; and all those things are very expensive and cost money.”

“Boy, mommy, I didn't know something that's free could cost so much.”

Humorous, yes, but very familiar to virtually all parents. I'm struck with how quickly we can identify the costs associated with raising a puppy and at the same time so oblivious to the costs associated with salvation. One of the ongoing debates in the religious world centers on the free offer of the Gospel. Unfortunately in practice, a vast majority of those who strongly believe in “the free offer” offer a free Gospel. While salvation is free in the limited sense that it cannot be purchased, it is by no means free in other respects.

Before I continue, let me make it clear that I believe we should offer the Gospel far more freely than we are accustomed to doing. We should offer it without limit, boundaries or restrictions of any kind to all who will give it a hearing. Our offering of the Gospel should be liberal, loud and loving and in the context of a holy life that shows the fruit of the Gospel to a hurting humanity. But that is by no means the same as offering a free Gospel, a Gospel that doesn't cost anything to either the giver or the recipient.

Scripture itself fails for words to adequately express the cost of our salvation that our dear Savior paid out of willing obedience to His Father and love for His people. Even for those who viewed Mel Gibson's Passion only part of the story was portrayed on the big screen – celluloid and mere mortals are incapable of capturing the spiritual and emotional suffering Jesus endured at the hands of His Father as He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” to say nothing of the depths of humiliation accompanying death. And that merely caps the climax of His humiliation, thirty-plus years beginning with His descent from glory and continuing until His ascent and exaltation.

A second facet of the cost of salvation relates to the “free puppies”. Just as puppies who are freely received have ongoing “maintenance costs”, so our salvation which is bought “without money and without price” has ongoing costs as well. When Jesus described what it meant to follow Him, the first thing He said was that the individual must “deny himself”. He also talked about “losing his life for My sake”, being “persecuted for righteousness”, people who “insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me”, and the list goes on.

In a report in Journal Chretien, 6 Jan.'07 according to Professor Thomas Schirrmacher, Director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the German Evangelical Alliance. 3 out of 4 cases of severe persecution are targeted at Christians. According to Schirrmacher at least 55,000 Christians are killed each year for religious reasons. 250 million will face persecution and repression in 2007.

To promote a salvation that is a “free gift, all you have to do is receive it” not only tragically minimizes what our Sovereign Lord has done to accomplish it for us, it also demeans the tremendous price our brothers and sisters in Christ are paying each day throughout the world. Instead, we must spend our lives spreading a Gospel that is true to Scripture and to our Lord, presenting the Lord Jesus in all His winsomeness and authority.