Cost increases memory

Everyone remembers what costs them something. Not every remembers details about things, but even people who have difficulty memorizing things remember when something costs them.

I used to forget my water bottle until I made myself drive several miles out of the way to return and pick it up. I have less difficulty remembering it now.

Costs can be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary costs are when we make a purchase. Involuntary costs are by our mistake or the fault of others. Either way, costs create indelible lasting marks in our minds.

It's one thing for the cost to be monetary, giving up hard earned money from time spent in toil. Costs can be more personal, too. Costs to our person or family cut even closer to home.

God has incurred great cost on our behalf. He bought us at the price of His Son so that we could have His righteousness and not His wrath. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). There's a whole lot of doctrine wrapped up in this, but at the end of the Day, this is God's plan.

If God loved us enough to give up His Firstborn Son on our behalf, imagine His joy when we accept Him.

If God loved us enough to give up His Firstborn Son on our behalf, imagine His anger upon those who reject Him.

Many people either reject or have a very hard time with the idea of eternal punishment in torment. It's a difficult doctrine, real though it is. It's less difficult to imagine someone getting upset at rejection, especially when someone did something nice for another, even when they didn't deserve it. If we would consider how much greater is God's Gift, and how much less deserving we sinners are, perhaps we can begin to grasp why eternal punishment is God's chosen way for those who reject Him.

When God inspired His Word, he also inspired a sense of urgency about being saved from the wrath to come. Those who reject Him are literally “treasuring up for (themselves) wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5).

This is why Paul responded to their unrighteousness by begging people to be reconciled to God: “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

I would beg you as well, be reconciled to God.

God has voluntarily counted you worthy of the memorably high price required to reconcile you to Himself. Accept Him today!