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“You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:18-19, NASV)

    On a business trip in California, I realized that I had forgotten my wife’s birthday the day before. Assuming I was in big trouble, I went to the jewelry section of a San Francisco department store. After explaining to the saleswoman that I desperately needed a gift to make up for my forgetfulness, she quipped, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have anything that expensive.” (Edwin L. Ray, Reader’s Digest)

    Many of us have found ourselves in the same situation as Mr. Ray, and the fact is, we’re often made to feel that we can’t find anything expensive enough to make up for slighting someone, or offending them.

The burden of guilt and shame can seem unbearable.

    For so many people, it’s even worse when it comes to the discussion of sin and what it does to our relationship with God. I’ve had people tell me, “I’ve done such terrible things, there just isn’t any way God can forgive me.” The burden of guilt and shame can seem unbearable. The evil one makes it can seem as if nothing has the power to relieve us from the misery sin causes.

    Sadly, many people don’t really understand the price Jesus paid to effect our forgiveness. If you’re thinking in terms of silver or gold and other things of worldly value, then you are correct. There is no price we can pay that can purchase the forgiveness we need. Should you give all you have, and all you will ever have, it wouldn’t be enough. If you were the wealthiest person alive, you still wouldn’t possess the cost of forgiveness. The sheer impossibility of paying the debt of sin is hard to imagine, yet deep in our hearts we know we have nothing to offer by which our sins can be removed.

    However, the price can be paid. The problem is that it costs something we don’t have. Sin demands the sacrifice of the innocent. The price of forgiveness demands a sinless, perfect, without blemish sacrifice shedding his blood for the guilty. That’s what we find in the blood of Jesus. He offers his sinlessness for our sinfulness; his purity for our corruption; his unblemished life for our sin-stained life. The frustration and burden sinners experience finds relief in the precious blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The staggering cost of forgiving sin was paid by the only one possessing something of that value. Praise God for paying the debt.