Sold!

Auctions! I love them! Growing up, I remember going to estate sales with my dad. We usually weren’t searching for anything specific—sometimes the estate belonged to someone he knew, and other times we were simply looking for a good deal. My dad always knew who the regular bidders were—the ones who bought items to resell. He taught me to watch them, then go one bid higher and you knew you got a good deal. They always knew what the item was worth.

When we were first married, Sari and I would attend auctions looking for furniture or household items. Personally, I always kept an eye out for tools of any kind. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a live auction, but lately, I discovered Mr. Bid Auctions, an online auction site, and my old addiction has resurfaced! I’ve scored a lot of things—office furniture, tools, even a Bo Jackson jersey. The draw for me is the spirit of competition and the chance to get something for pennies on the dollar. There’s a thrill in holding the winning bid as the timer runs out signaling you’ve won, or when someone sneaks in at the last second, restarting the clock and giving you a chance to think, recalculate, and bid again.

Most of the items purchased at auctions are old—still functional, but well-used. The former owner is done with it, ready to cast it aside. Auctions provide an opportunity to redeem and repurpose someone else’s castoffs. It’s a powerful picture of redemption: buying back something unwanted, something life has dinged, scratched, and deemed worth only pennies. I think you see where this is going.

God does the same for us. Every human being is created by God, in His image, but every one of us is born with a sin nature—an operating system corrupted by Satan and passed down through Adam and Eve. Because of that, we live apart from God. Through life, we get dinged, scratched, and sometimes scarred.

But God (I love those two words, because they always bring good news)—but God, in His mercy and by His grace, has paid the “auctioneer’s price” for us. He has redeemed our broken, sinful lives to restore, repurpose, and give us new life. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived, how scarred you are, or how battered your soul may be by sin—God has paid the price.
How much did it cost Him?
        “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” 1 Corinthians 6:20

        “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.” Romans 3:23-25

Whenever I have a great auction find, I want to tell everyone about it. But we have an even greater story to share—the story of our own redemption. We are invited to be part of someone else’s redemption story by sharing the good news.
Who will you share your story with this week? Who are you praying for to come to faith in Jesus?

Don’t wait until the timer runs out and the gavel drops!