The Cure is Expensive...

Why is generosity the mark of being a Christian? Imagine a person who is deathly ill. The doctor announces to him that there is a medicine which can certainly cure him. Without it, he has no hope. "However," says the doctor, "it is extremely expensive. You will have to sell your cars, even your home to buy it. You may not wish to spend so much." The man turns to his doctor and says, "What do my cars mean to me now? What good will my house be? I must have that medicine; it is precious to me. These other things that used to be so important to me now look pale by comparison of the medicine. They are expendable now. Give me the medicine." The apostle Peter says, "to you who believe...[he] is precious (1 Peter 2:7). The grace of God makes Christ precious to us, so that our possessions, our money, our time have all become eternally and utterly expendable. They used to be crucial to our happiness. They are not so now.

-From Timothy Keller, "Gospel in Life" and "Ministries of Mercy"