The Gospel Is Not Cheap: Treasuring the Priceless Gift of Grace
Apart from grace, it is difficult for us to accept people that hurt us. After explaining that we can only accept people by seeing them from the perspective of grace, Rev. San Ho Bae clarified the seeming contradiction between the free offer of the gospel and its pricelessness.
Human beings have a tendency to treat lightly even something precious when it is given for free. The human heart, by nature, does not deeply feel the value of what it has not paid a price for. God has given us the most costly gospel in the world, which no human effort or merit can obtain. Yet because that gospel has been given freely, we are in danger of forgetting its preciousness or treating it lightly. Therefore, the Lord said, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before pigs” (Matt 7:6). This is a warning not to make the holy value of the gospel cheap but to treat the gospel in a manner fitting to the gospel.
The “dogs” and “pigs” Jesus spoke of do not simply refer to people who reject the gospel. Human nature is hardened, and it is rare for someone to accept the gospel willingly from the beginning. The ones the Lord points out here are those who intentionally blaspheme God, mock the gospel, and trample the truth with an evil heart. They do not know the value of the gospel; rather, they attack the gospel and seek to harm those who proclaim it. To preach the gospel to such people only serves to make the gospel seem cheap. The Lord told His disciples, “Whoever does not receive you nor listen to your words… shake the dust off your feet” (Matt 10:14), and the apostle Paul also declared before those who mocked the gospel, “Your blood be on your own heads; I am clean” (Acts 18:6), and departed from them. The gospel is a fragrance of life to those who receive it with joy, but to those who oppose it, it becomes “the smell of death leading to death” (2 Cor 2:16).
However, this teaching does not mean that we should easily give up preaching the gospel. We do not know who is God’s chosen child and who will ultimately reject the gospel. Therefore, we must do our best to preach the gospel to all people. Yet it is a warning not to cheaply cast the holy gospel before those whose attitude of mocking and blaspheming the gospel is evident. The gospel is not something cheap to be thrown away like a scrap of paper but “the mystery of God” (Col 1:26), hidden from eternity and now revealed, and a heavenly treasure containing eternal life. The reason God gives salvation freely is not because it is trivial, but because it is so precious that humans cannot pay its price. Since no human effort can purchase salvation, God gives the gift of salvation freely.
Grace given freely must never be treated cheaply. The forgiveness and salvation we have received are not a mere “free gift" but the result of the most costly sacrifice, incomparable to anything in the world—the price of Christ’s shedding of blood. Only we did not pay that price. The grace of atonement is not cheap; it is a heavenly gift God has given freely because humans can never bear its cost. When we deeply meditate on the atonement of the cross, we finally come to realize how precious and glorious a grace the gospel is. Those who truly know that grace can never treat the gospel lightly.
The gospel must be proclaimed in a manner worthy of its value. Even the same object, if wrapped in newspaper, is received with one hand, but if placed in a jewelry box, it is received with both hands. It is the same when we proclaim the gospel. If we treat the gospel cheaply, people will also regard it cheaply. But when we proclaim the gospel with holiness, seriousness, and reverence, people come to recognize the true value contained in it. Jesus performed no miracle before Herod, who merely wanted to see a spectacle, because he had no desire to know the truth (Luke 23:8–9). The Lord did not offer the holy power of God as an object of curiosity or mockery.
This is also why the church permits the Lord’s Supper only to baptized believers. The Lord’s Supper is not a mere act of eating and drinking but a holy ordinance that commemorates the Lord’s torn body and shed blood. But those without faith do not know the meaning of this mystery and therefore cannot distinguish the bread and wine of the Supper from ordinary food. They cannot treat what is holy as holy. Thus, the apostle Paul solemnly warns in 1 Corinthians 11 that those who eat and drink the Supper in an unworthy manner “sin against the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27). Treating what is holy as holy is not exclusion or discrimination, but the reverent attitude we ought to have before God.
The offices of the church are no different. Pastor, elder, and deacon are not merely positions or organizational roles but holy duties entrusted by God for the building and care of the church. The moment one regards an office as honor or power, that office is dishonored. An office-bearer must know that his calling comes from God and must carry out his duty with fear and gratitude. Treating what is holy as holy is the basic posture required of God’s people in every area of the church, not only in the Lord’s Supper.
In the end, the core of what the Lord teaches in Matthew 7 is this: what is holy must be treated as holy, and the gospel, like a pearl, must be handled as a pearl. The salvation we have received, the church to which we belong, the offices we have been entrusted with, and the gospel we have heard—all these are heavenly treasures entrusted to us by God, gifts of grace that cannot be exchanged for anything in the world. Therefore, we must treat the gospel as truly precious.
For the AI-generated song version of this article, check Free But Never Cheap.