The Price Of Love

Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva

​February, as we all know, is one of the most costly affairs in every year. A marketplace for digital offers (RetailMeNot.ca) recently conducted a survey of Canadians’ consumer spending for this month and it revealed that 80% of Canadians agree that people overspend on Heart’s Day—with an average spending of $164 on gifts and celebrations.

Perhaps this reflects that aside from the love we can give our loved ones, we want our love for them to be tangible… to be felt. We want to showcase our love by giving gifts… gifts with high price tags.
 
But there is one Lover who has provided the greatest gift of all, a gift that Canadian dollars, or any other currency for that matter, can never buy. A gift of supreme value that it is actually invaluable: God’s salvation for ALL humankind. Why? Because it was paid with His own Son, Jesus Christ, through His blood, at the Cross, with a crown of thorns, three nails and countless whips and lashes.
 
He bore the cross on His back when it was our burden to bear. He took the nails in His hands and feet when it was our pain to take. It should have been us. It should have been our punishment. Because it was us who sinned, us who disobeyed. NOT Him. But He let His own blood flow on that cross, so that through it we could be forgiven and cleansed… so that through Him we could have life.
 
Yes, He died on the place that should have been ours to take—the cross of Calvary. And, yes, He did all those out of love—pure love—for you and me. No one in all of humanity could do this. Only Jesus Christ. We did nothing for Him to die for us yet He still did, expecting nothing of the same value in return.
 
What a great love, and what an extravagant gift! A gift that cannot be bought by any currency… a gift beyond the sum of all the things this world has to offer… a gift that is PRICELESS.

​“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
(1 John 4:9-10)