“Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat: yea, come, buy... without money and without price.” (Isa. 55:11Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1).)
This is God’s invitation of love to sinners everywhere.
Little Joan and her mother used to go to the store together. Joan watched the storekeeper put bread, butter, meat and sugar in Mother’s sack. Mother took the sack of groceries but she didn’t give the man any money. She just said, “Charge it to my name.”
Little Joan wondered about how mother bought things “without money,” and the next day after school she thought she would try the same thing. So taking two of her little friends along, she went to the store and said to the kindly old storekeeper, “I’ll take a box of those chocolates.”
Old Mr. Smith put the box of goodies in a sack and handed them to her. Then Joan said, “Charge it to my name,” just like Mother had said. And it worked!
But it didn’t stop there. For Joan bought goodies for her little friends also. Several days went by and Joan began to get uneasy, wondering what she would do if Mr. Smith asked her to pay her bill. She knew she owed him more than she could pay, and now she was really afraid.
Sure enough, the bill came the next day, and little Joan cried herself to sleep that night. She would have to tell her mother all about it.
Buying without money wasn’t such fun after all. The result was that all her allowance money for some weeks and anything that she could earn went to pay that candy bill. That was the last time she bought anything from Mr. Smith and asked him to charge it.
But, dear boys and girls, do you know the Bible tells us that we can buy something WITHOUT MONEY from Someone who is far kinder than any storekeeper? Yes, He will sell to you WITHOUT MONEY and never ask you to pay for it. That is the Lord Jesus, that precious Saviour, “who though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” (2 Cor. 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9).)
As sinners, we all had accumulated a huge debt of sin-a debt we could never pay. There upon the cross He gave Himself in love for us. By His death and in the shedding of His precious blood He paid the awful debt. Now God offers salvation full and free, and sinners everywhere are invited to come and buy “without money and without price.” Those who come and trust in Jesus find all their sins were charged up to Him upon the cross.
All we owe now is a debt of love to Him which we shall never be able to pay through all eternity.
Himself He could not save,
Love’s stream too deeply flowed;
In love Himself He gave
To pay the debt we owed.
Jesus paid it all—
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain—
He washed it white as snow.
ML-05/21/1978