My family moved to town from the farm when I was about six years old.  Most of the town kids had bicycles and rode well.  I did not have a bike, but they shared their bikes and I soon learned to ride.  They would put me on a bike, give me a shove, and then chase me all over town until I ran out of gas and crashed.

After I learned to ride, I dearly wanted a bike of my own, so I began to save for one.  I put my nickels, dimes and quarters in one of my Dad’s socks and stashed it in his sock drawer.  Whenever someone would come over to visit, I would get that sock out, spill its contents on the table and proceed to tell them about the bicycle I was going to get with that money.

Finally the day came when Dad said it was time to go get my bicycle and he took me to the Schwinn bicycle shop in the city.  We walked in and he told me to pick out the one that I wanted.  As soon as I saw the black twenty four inch Schwinn bike, I knew it was the one for me.

When we stepped up to the counter to pay for it, I began to get my money out.  That’s when Dad told me to put my money away, that he would pay for it.

If the truth were known, I did not have enough money to buy that bicycle anyway.  All of my saving and collecting and working was not enough.  If my dad had not intervened, I would not have been able to get that bike.

And so it is with us and our good deeds and salvation.  We collect our good works and sock them away in our memories, so we can get them out when we have doubts about eternity, heaven and our relationship with God.  We recount them and assure ourselves that everything will be alright, but it is not enough!

The cost of salvation is too high.  We cannot pay for salvation with our nickel, dime and quarter deeds, but God says to put away our good deeds/works, Jesus paid it all!

The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Romans 6:23