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1 Peter 2:24 ESV

[24] He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Peter, who was inspired to write the words of the verse above, was a front-row participant in the death and resurrection of Jesus. He had walked with his master for three and a half years, and even in the face of denials, Jesus would not just leave him alone. Even when Peter got tired and despondent, and would go back to the familiar grind of fishing which he was familiar with, Jesus would still come looking for him, to restore him to the right path. Peter was also one of the leading men of the early church which received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and by whose first message, the bible records that 3,000 souls were saved and added to the church. Mighty miracles were done through the hand and life of this man Peter: it takes a personal encounter with Jesus to be able to personally impact the lives of the people around me. It will not happen by grammar alone, or by the sheer power of influence or earnings; only the blood of Jesus can change a man from the inside, and then make him worthy to stand before men as the classic testimony of what God can do in and through a life. 

The conversation has to start from the place of the cross. It is the place of submission and surrender. It is the place where all that Jesus is was laid aside, so that the people he even came to save could arrest him and place him on the cross. He died a shameful death by the standards of the Jews, because it was a curse for a man to be hung on a tree. He became all that we were, so we could become all that He is. He walked in our shoes, so we could also walk in His shoes. Think of all that He endured on that cross; think of all the pain He was put through. Think of all the lashes He had to endure; his head was pierced with a crown of thorns; his side was pierced with a spear; He was lashed and then nails were driven through His hands. In all, He did not curse, but surrendered His life to the One who could save Him. He bore the weight of sin and shame, not because He sinned, but because He had to make a way for me to return to God. The price for sin is death, and the shedding of blood was the way of remission for sin. The sinner, by God's own standard, had to pay the price for sin, but the sinner did not have the power or the strength to fully atone for sin. 

This meant the sinner had no hope, and would die an eternal death, forever away from God. This is the power of the cross: the righteous God allowed His own son to die in the place of unrighteous man. In addition, we even have access to total healing simply by virtue of the beatings he received. The inner guilt of sin is dealt with, and the outer manifestation of sickness or disease is also dealt with. With all that Jesus has done, do you think any man has an excuse for rejecting this gift and scorning it to the end of his/her life? What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul? What can a man give in exchange for his life? What price do you think is right for anyone seeking to secure eternal life with God? Actually, no price is acceptable except the total surrender of that life to Jesus. There is nothing I hold now that is actually mine. Even the life I want to surrender is not mine in the first place, but God wants me to offer it to Him willingly, as a sacrifice of love for Him. That is the 'price'. He will not force Himself on me, or go against the exercise of my freewill. His love is free; His life is free; eternity with Him is free. Would you pay the 'price' for these gifts? God's time of favour is here.