Nothing For Everything

¹“For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” (Isaiah 52:3). In the early 1900s, a somewhat legendary con involved offering ownership of the Brooklyn Bridge to wealthy and hopefully unsuspecting immigrants. Whether anyone actually fell for the con or not, it became sufficiently famous that “having a bridge to sell” has become almost the proverbial example of a bad confidence trick. The thing is, while some bridges were historically and in some cases today still are privately owned, the Brooklyn Bridge never was. The Brooklyn Bridge has always belonged to the public. Any con man attempting to sell it was trying to get something for nothing. Although, in a way, that's true for pretty much all fraudulent schemes. It is especially true for any temptations offered up by the devil. When Satan was tempting Jesus, he showed Him all of the kingdoms of the Earth and offered them to Jesus if only He would bow down and worship Satan. But Satan had no more ownership over the kingdoms of the Earth than the various con men had over the Brooklyn Bridge when they were attempting to sell it. Satan has no body. He has no kingdom of glory. He owns and possesses nothing, which is exactly what we get whenever we buy into any of his schemes. The problem is that even though we end up with nothing to show for our bad decisions, we still rack up real debts. The good thing is that as much as Satan is trying to get us to give away something for nothing, Jesus Christ is offering us everything and demands nothing in return. Nothing except that we choose to follow Him. Salvation cannot be bought or sold. Jesus Christ has paid our debts but we don't owe Him money. We owe Him our gratitude and our love and our service, but this is because He has offered us His love and His service. Satan wants us to believe that we are worthless, but Jesus knows that we are priceless. If we will just ignore Satan and his lies and put our trust in God, then He has promised that all He has will one day be ours. And unlike Satan, God actually possesses the things He offers. When we truly follow our Savior, we leave behind the world of money and prices and debts and transactions. Even if we have sold ourselves for nothing, Christ will redeem us without money.