He Paid the Price

You may regard this story as fiction, told to make a point:

A well-known cardiac surgeon was noted to have a busy practice. Once an employee multiplied the doctor's average surgical fee by the number of cases he did, and exclaimed, "It must be great to be making all that money!" Perhaps the remark was tactless, but the surgeon was not. He took the time to gently explain the rest of the story:

His parents were of modest means. The surgeon had worked very hard to pay for his college education, both before and during his enrollment. By the time he graduated, he was older than many of his classmates. Medical school still seemed an impossible dream, but God made it possible, at the price of heavy indebtedness. He continued to work part time all through school, which was itself a more than full time job.

Graduation as an M.D. was only a milestone in his continued preparation to serve. There followed a year of internship, during which his salary was far below the minimum wage. After that came his surgical residency, with similar financial arrangements. Then there were the years of professional fellowship as he built his skills in thoracic surgery.

To reach his goal of unusual competence, he devoted hours every week to medical research, much of it at his own expense. The result: He became a surgeon of greatly renowned skill, an asset to his patients, to his teaching hospital, his church, and his God.

But he was 40 years old before he began to enjoy a half-way decent income. There had been attractive job openings from the day he graduated from high school. He is a competent and versatile person, who might have chosen many other careers. He might have earned a good living for an extra 18 or 22 years. We're grateful for his sacrificial choices.

But he paid the price.

Notice the idiom, the figure of speech. Who determined the price, and to whom was it paid? Silly questions. Yes, he had real loans, which he paid back with interest, to the banks. But that's not what we mean by these words.

Every choice has possible consequences. God might have chosen to make his creatures obedient. Instead He chose to make them free, and to accept any consequences of that decision. When humans turned away from their only source of life, God might have allowed the natural results to follow. Instead He chose to mount a rescue.

God made His choice, and He paid the price.

Who determined the price, and to whom was it paid? Are those the right questions? Only in eternity may we understand what it cost God to choose freedom over obedience. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. God picked the expensive choice; He paid the price.