For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Romans 8:29-32
I heard of a poor European family who saved for years to buy tickets to sail to America. Once at sea, they carefully rationed the cheese and bread they had brought for the journey. After three days, their young son complained to his father, “I hate cheese sandwiches. If I don’t eat anything else before we get to America, I’m going to die.” Giving the boy his last nickel, the father told him to go to the ship’s galley and buy an ice-cream cone. When the boy returned a long time later with a wide smile, his worried dad asked, “Where were you?” “In the galley, eating three ice-cream cones and a steak dinner!” “All that for a nickel?” “Oh, no, the food is free,” the boy replied. “It comes with the ticket.”
Salvation is a gift that is beyond price. We do not earn it, but, instead, we freely receive it because of God’s mercy and grace. If all salvation did was open the door to Heaven for us that would be far more than we deserve. But God gives us far more. He places us in His family. He gives us the Holy Spirit who lives within to guide us and to guarantee the faithfulness of God’s promises for our future. He allows us to come into His presence with confidence, and He faithfully responds when we cry out to Him for help. There should never be a day when we doubt God’s love for us because Jesus already died in our place. All that God promises—His presence, His power, and His future glory—comes freely to us not because we earned it, but because it comes with the “ticket” of salvation in Christ.


