The Cost of that Free Gift

I don't get it.

It's hard for me to understand. I don't know, nor do I understand the enormous cost of that free gift. 

The gift of Salvation. The gift of Love. The gift of Life. When what I really deserve is death. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.John 1:1-5 (NKJV)

The idea that the Creator of the universe,  Creator of worlds beyond our own. The Giver of Life, giving life with the spoken word and breath of His mouth. The Light of the world, penetrating even into the darkest depths. 

The idea that He would come down to save a race that He created with His own hands, His own breath. A created race, that choose self to love and serve over Him, Creator, Life, Light.

And because of that choice, sin has become the nature of mankind. 

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  John 1:10-11 (NKJV)

Because of sin we choose self instead of Him. 

Because of sin we choose darkness over Light. 

Because of sin we deserve death instead of Life.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.John 1:14 (NKJV)

This is what I don't understand. Out of all He has created, the ones who rejected Him, He came to save. Coming to live among us, to live as one of us, reunite humanity with the divine. To win back what was already His. 

Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied,so human desire is never satisfied.Proverbs 27:20 (NLT)

But living a life as one He created, that wasn't enough to satisfy the cost of sin, the cost of death. The only payment was the life of the Life Giver. 

Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.Romans 3:24 (NLT)

He who knew no sin, became my sin.

He who knew the Father, experience my separation from the Father.

He gave me His life, in exchange for my death.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.John 15:13 (KJV)

I don't get it.

It's hard for me to understand. I don't know, nor do I understand the enormous cost of that free gift. 

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—Ephesians 2:8 (NIV)

~kartini r. maxson