TINSTAFL

          At my high school Economics was a filler class. It got only one semester and it was paired up with American Government so it was boring by association. One, I’m sure it was a Monday, my econ teacher told us one day about the glorious “TINSTAFL Principle.” He was so proud of this word because none of us knew what it meant. TINSTAFL is an acronym for “There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” It comes from people who use free stuff as “bait” to suck you into a sales pitch. They may offer to buy your lunch or to give you a week at beach front resort, but you’re going to hear their sales pitch or time-share presentation. It’s never free…never. 

          I serve at an amazing church called Evangel Community Church here in Northeast Atlanta. We just finished a week long session of outreach. We call the week CityReach (Check out a CityReach rewind video here!) and for us it’s just about simple acts of kindness. We give out water at the T-Ball Park and packs of gum outside of the Italian restaurant here in town. We feed firemen and policemen and we monitor school lunch rooms so that teachers can get a break. We cap the whole week off with a blow out Family Funday with free food and inflatables and we give away groceries to the first 125 needy families that show up. There was one question that got asked over and over at each outreach and with a confused look, “It’s free?”

          I was thinking about how “free” these things were the last few days while recovering from the outreach whirlwind. We do tell people that the items and services they are receiving are free, but that’s not really honest. Someone has paid for all of that gum, and doughnuts, and bottled water. In this case it was our church budget and the generosity of our congregation that bore that burden. It’s not free…more accurately it’s a gift. It cost someone something, just not you.

          For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
1 Peter 1:18-21

          Often times archetypal evangelists talk about salvation as a free gift. They’ll even pull out a $20 and ask someone to come down and take it. They say, “It’s free, c’mon somebody come and take it!” and then they tell you that your salvation is the same way. They are wrong. That money wasn’t free. It cost the evangelist 20 bucks! It was just a GIFT. Salvation wasn’t free either. You see our sin was so great that GOD had to die for it! God! Is there anything more valuable? Think of that next time someone tries to convince you that something sinful is no big deal.

          There’s a new hotel in Las Vegas called “The Cosmopolitan.” Apparently they believe the “Sin City” moniker is a bit too much. Their new slogan is “Just the Right Amount of Wrong.” Please hear me when I say, there is no right amount.

          Sin is a big deal and TINSTAFL applies to salvation too. It’s not free, it cost God his Son and it cost the Son his life. It IS however, a gift. Have you received it?

          …if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9