There are many clubs in existence, political, military, naval, national, county, workingmen’s, artist’s, shoeblack’s, etc., etc. Their names are legion.
To enter a club an entrance fee must be paid. This may range from sixpence to fifty guineas or more. Then an annual subscription must be paid, and this may range from one shilling to twenty guineas or more.
A Scottish University Professor was asked to address the members of a select and fashionable club in the West End of London. He was a Christian man and sought to impress upon his hearers things that really matter. He began his address in a most remarkable way. He said, “Gentlemen, the entrance fee into the Kingdom of Heaven is—nothing; the yearly subscription is—everything.”
It is quite true that the blessings of the gospel are “without money and without price.” At untold price to the Saviour, without cost to the sinner. “The GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). What do we pay for a gift? The smallest return for a gift would turn it into a purchase, however trivial this return might be. “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of ourselves: it is the GIFT of God: not of works lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Clearly the entrance fee into the blessings of the Gospel is—NOTHING.
What of the yearly subscription? A shilling, a few guineas, will suffice for the clubs of earth. What is the yearly subscription for the Christian? EVERYTHING is the answer. The ransomed soul, bought at the amazing cost of the death of the Son of God on the cross can sing:
“Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, MY ALL.”
So thought the saints composing the churches in Macedonia in the olden days. They were passing through great affliction, yet in “their deep poverty [they] abounded to the riches of their liberality.” The Apostle Paul writing to the rich Corinthian assembly reported thus of their poor Macedonian brethren, “This they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves [EVERYTHING] to the Lord, and to us by the will of God” (2 Cor. 7:5).
It is good indeed when we pay our annual subscription to the Lord—all that we have, all that we are—EVERYTHING. He is worthy of it all. Everything that we had as our own has been forfeited by sin—life, health, providential mercies, all has been forfeited by sin. All that we have is God’s gift, gained at an infinite cost by His Son in all the agony of the cross. Surely we can joyfully exclaim, “For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead [spiritually]: and that He died for all, that they which live [spiritually] should not henceforth live to themselves, but UNTO HIM [giving everything] which died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).