24 Dec The Cost of Christmas

If you’ve ever been in a position where you’re in someone’s office asking to spend money on a project (I have), you are likely familiar with two sets of initials: “ROI” and “CBA.” ROI stands for return on investment. The person with the money wants to know what his or her investment will return. Once you project an ROI you’re asked if you did a “CBA,” cost/benefit analysis to determine that projected ROI, versus just guessing at it. This got me to thinking: have you ever considered the cost of Christmas? Most people don’t because people didn’t pay the cost of our salvation, Jesus did. Christmas Eve seems like a pretty good time to contemplate the cost to Jesus. The Bible has two passages that give us a pretty good idea of the cost to Jesus of coming to earth to buy us eternity with Him. Here is the first:

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,  being born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:6-7 (ESV)

While that doesn’t mean He gave up His Deity, or “God-ness,” He did veil it, taking on the vulnerabilities of being human. For whom would you give up an existence where you’re never hungry, tired, busy disappointed, hurt? Jesus did. Then there is this one:

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him  the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6 (NIV)

The prophet Isaiah wrote those words some 700 years before Jesus was born yet speaks of the events in the past tense. What price was paid? Just look at that list:

Pain

Suffering

Stricken

Afflicted

Pierced

Crushed

Punishment

Wounds

The investment for Jesus? Leaving Heaven to receive a gruesome, hideous punishment. Isaiah makes it clear that Jesus endured all of that for our sin. So, it that was the cost, what was the benefit?

• Brought us peace: The knowledge we are saved. If we fully understood it, we would never worry again.
• Healed: We can surrender all the pain of this world to Him.
• Lost sheep found: The wandering sheep are adopted into sonship and daughter-ship in the family of God.

What was the cost?

It cost us NOTHING

It cost Jesus EVERYTHING.

What was the benefit?

We gained EVERYTHING.

Yet, in God’s economy, redeeming us was well worth the investment. Tonight, as you ponder the Baby in the manger, take some time to consider what His reckless love bought for you. And have a blessed Christmas!

Pastor Jerry Bader