Too Cheap

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 5
 
A preacher of the gospel had gone down into a coal mine during the noon hour, to tell the miners of the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. After telling them the simple story of God's love to lost sinners, of man's state and God's remedy—the offer of a full and free salvation—the time came for the men to go back to work. The preacher came back to the shaft to ascend to the outside world again.
Meeting the foreman, he asked him what he thought of God's way of salvation.
The man replied: "Oh, it is too cheap. I cannot believe in such a religion as that!"
Without immediately answering his remark, the preacher asked, "How do you get out of this place?" "Simply by getting into the cage," was the reply.
"And does it take long to get to the top?"
"Oh, no; only a few seconds."
"Well, that certainly is very easy and simple. But do you not need to help raise yourself?" asked the preacher.
"Of course not!" replied the miner. "As I said, all you have to do is get into the cage."
"But what about the people who sunk the shaft and perfected all this arrangement; was there much labor, care, thought and expense about it?"
"Yes, indeed! It was a hard and expensive work. The shaft is 1800 feet deep, and it was sunk at a great expense to the owner, but it is our only way out. Without it we should never be able to get to the surface."
"Just so! And when God's Word tells you that whosoever believes on the Son of God has everlasting life, you say: 'Too cheap!'—'Too cheap!' You forget that God's work to bring you and others out of the pit of destruction and death was accomplished at a vast cost. The price was the death of His Son."
"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with the precious blood of Christ." 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
Men talk about the "help of Christ" in their salvation—that if they do their part, Christ will do His— forgetting that the Lord Jesus Christ by Himself purged our sins, and that their part is only to receive what has been done.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:8, 9.