An Inconvenient Salvation

We recently had Missions Conference at our church, and four outstanding missionaries shared their burden and their vision for missions with our people.  It was very well attended, the love offering for the missionary families was very generous, and in what seemed an all too short time, they were gone.  I am left now with the memory of another year in which our people were challenged to think outside the walls of our church and gain a vision that will lead to a burden to do something, and do more to see souls saved.  I wonder if anything will change.

One of the missionaries spoke on this passage particularly: 2Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

His focus was laser-like on each individual phrase and even some words.  The picture he painted was one of us as a judge viewing a set of scales.  On one side was Jesus Christ, the one who died, who was sinless and perfect.  On the other side was all of humanity, the all, who were dead in trespasses and sins.  The balance of the scales was left uneven.  The cost to save humanity was too great.  The payoff was not worth the price to be paid.  Yet, Christ died for us.

Then I saw the sacrifice of Christ in a way I had not done so before.  It was not a sacrifice of one thing for another.  It was a trade of that which was priceless for something that would hold no value, except for the One who would give His life.  Our value then becomes determined, in that now the price paid has become our worth – we are now priceless.

What this leads me to is a conclusion I had always taught, but never fully realized.  Our salvation was the greatest inconvenience to a Holy God, and even that is putting it lightly, but I wanted to use the word “inconvenient” for a very specific reason.  We talk and are taught so much about sacrifice that it becomes a by-word of our Christian culture with the true meaning taken away.  However, inconvenience is a much stronger word than sacrifice now.  Strangely enough, people are very willing to “sacrifice” (not the true meaning of the word, but their own personal interpretation), but when service becomes “inconvenient” then they just cannot find the time.

If Christ could inconvenience Himself enough to give my worthless life a priceless value, why could I not become inconvenienced for Him?  How about you?  Are you ready for the inconvenience of Christian service?