Don't Be Tricked

I just heard an ad on the radio for a financial business and it went like this:

Do you have large credit card debt that you can't pay?  Don't let the credit card companies trick you and make you think you have to pay.  We can save you money.  Don't be tricked.

I cracked up!  The message is saying, "You can buy whatever you want, spend all the money you want...doesn't matter.  You don't really have to pay for what you buy."  

October 31, 2017, marks the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.  As I heard that radio ad, it occurred to me that the Reformation had and still has the same message - Don't be tricked.

First, don't be tricked into believing that sin doesn't cost, that you can sin with impunity.  

For the wages of sin is death...Romans 6:23

It started with Adam.  His sin led to disease, decay, death.  It's the reason for the messed-up world that we live in.  Don't be tricked into thinking that you can do whatever you want, that you can just pursue your own happiness and all will be well. 

...there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:22-23

Second, don't be tricked into believing that you have the ability to pay for your sins.    

Before the Reformation, Martin Luther recognized that people were being misled into thinking that their own good works could somehow make up for their sin, or that they could make monetary payments for sin.

Works and money can't save.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Galatians 3:10

Third - It's not a trick!  That's the good news. 

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.                 1 Corinthians 1:18 

You can't do anything to earn or buy your salvation.  It's free.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

And it's given by grace through faith based on blood, the blood of Jesus. 

...knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  1 Peter 1:18-19 

It may seem foolish, but it's not a trick.