The word for today is “cost.” There are many forms of this word if you look it up in the Hebrew and Greek texts. There’s also many words that mean the opposite of “cost,” one of which is the word “dorean.” This word in Greek means, “as a gift; to no purpose.” It is used in context to mean “as a free gift, without payment, freely.”
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story of Jesus sending out the twelve. Matthew’s Gospel has a very unique statement though, not found in the others.
It reads:
“As you go, preach this message: ‘ The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”-Matthew 10:7-8
Freely you received. Freely give. Without cost. Free means you don’t pay for it. Well, if you don’t pay for it, who did?
Jesus. The cost was His. All throughout the Gospels Jesus went around doing things He was going to pay for.
In Isaiah 55:1, there is a prophetic statement by Isaiah about the coming Messiah.
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you without money,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost!”-Isaiah 55:1 (BSB)
Doesn’t this Scripture sound like the above passage from Matthew that we just read?
Freely. Without cost.
It didn’t cost you or me. But it did cost Jesus. It cost Him his life. But He laid it down willingly. Nobody took it from Him.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus said,
“No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”-John 10:18 (BSB)
So it did cost something. But it only cost Jesus. We don’t have to pay for it.
Now, should we feel sadness that it cost Jesus his life? I don’t think so. Often people feel so bad for Jesus, but He did it of His own free will, His own choice. He paid something we could never pay.
In John chapter 7, Jesus makes a statement that sounds very much like the one in Isaiah 55:1.
“On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”-John 7:37 (BSB)
Finally, we hear these statements echoed again twice in the Book of Revelation.
“And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.”-Revelation 21:6 (BSB)
“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.”- Revelation 22:17
The word freely in both of those Scriptures in Revelation is the Greek word “dorean” that we started with in Matthew’s Gospel.
Freely. Freely.
My prayer for today is that we would continue to grow in grace and in our knowledge of Him. May we be anchored in the fact that He paid it all, not with feelings of sadness, but with gratitude and joy. I pray that we would move deeper into that knowledge, and learn how to share the blessing of the Gospel with our words to others, so they may come to know as well that He freely gives, without cost.
Beth Reavis 