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6
Are not these differences indeed? The difference between life and death, the difference between bondage
and liberty, the difference between condemnation and justification! Dare we boast of these blessed differences as
though any credit were due to ourselves? No, grace alone has made the difference:
"For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst
receive it, why dost thou glory (boast), as if thou hadst not received it?" (1 Cor. 4:7).
"But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us WISDOM, and RIGHTEOUSNESS, and
SANCTIFICATION, and REDEMPTION: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth (boasts), let him glory (boast)
in the Lord" (1 Cor. 1:30,31).
"No difference" in sin, "no difference" in salvation, but a glorious difference by virtue of redemption. Dear
reader, what is your position before God?
No. 2
"Without money and without price"
While it is the general rule in the affairs of state and commerce that service and substance must be paid for, and
while this buying and selling of service and substance constitutes the daily round of the vast machinery of modern
civilization, yet there are still some things absolutely vital to all that can neither be bought nor sold, but are alike
FREE to the wealthy as to the poor, to the wise as to the fool.
A man may live for weeks without solid food, but he can only live for a few minutes without air. Solid food
must be paid for, but vital air is FREE. Coal, gas, electricity must all be paid for, but sunlight, without which human
life would be impossible, is FREE. We turn on our taps and pay our water rate, but our payment is for service, for
convenience, not for the water, rain is FREE.
"God ... left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,
filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:15-17).
"He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt.
5:45).
"God that (Who) made the world ... giveth to all life, and breath" (Acts 17:24,25).
Here we have the Scriptures reminding us that sunshine, shower, and the very breath in our nostrils are the free
gifts of God to man. The philosopher summed up humanity as "mostly fools", and many are made fools by their
pride, but have you ever heard of anyone so foolish as to die for want of breath simply because it wounded his pride
that air was FREE? Has there ever lived a man who would rather suffer the agony and death of thirst, than drink a
cup of water, because water is FREE? Surely, never! Remember this, dear reader, when you feel inclined to refuse
God"s greatest gift of all because it wounds a foolish pride in being FREE.
Naaman, the Syrian, was a mighty soldier, but he was also a leper. He brought with him a present of ten talents
of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment, but they availed him not. He went to the
prophet of Israel, and was offended because he was told to go and dip himself seven times in the Jordan:
"Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and
strike (move) his hand up and down over the place, and recover the leper ... he ... went away in a rage. And his
servants came near ... and said ... If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done
it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down ... and he was clean.
And he returned to the man of God ... and he said ... take a blessing of thy servant. But he said ... I will receive
none" (2 Kings 5:11-16).
Is not Naaman, the Syrian up-to-date? Can we not see ourselves in this mirror of truth?
After declaring all men to be sinners, and all the world guilty, the apostle Paul reveals to every modern Naaman
the one way whereby we must be saved: