Relaxing in the whirlpool bath of my local gym I overheard two of my fellow bathers discussing the merits of different surround sound systems for their TV’s. One of them made the observation that, ‘You get what you pay for’; and it is generally true that the more you pay for a product the better it will be. I well remember in the 1990’s spending about £5 on a satellite dish. The advert promised that it would dramatically improve our TV reception in the Scottish highlands. It was useless. I got exactly what I paid for – a plastic dish covered in foil. A metal coat hanger would have been just as good.
The Bible says that we were ‘bought at a price1’, and the price was high – the life of Jesus freely given on the cross. But did he get what he paid for? Are human beings really of such high quality that we were worth the price? Too often we look at ourselves and answer that question with a no – we think our lives are worthless and insignificant. Deeply humbling and encouraging then to know that God thinks we were worth the price and was willing to pay it.
11 Corinthians 6:20
