The Lutheran Hour
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"What Was the Price on That?"
- Full Program MP3 Reflections
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Text: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
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Update on Rev. Dr. Daniel Paavola: After this Lutheran Hour program was finalized, our guest preacher, Dr. Paavola, was in a serious motorcycle accident and died March 2, 2026. In this mortal life, we’ve lost a dear brother in Christ, and alongside his family we grieve, but not as those who have no hope. By baptism and faith in Jesus, God has given Dan an Eternal Life that not even death can interrupt. We look to the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Please join us in prayer: “Heavenly Father, even now You hold Dan in Your loving hands. Make Your presence known to his family, friends, and all who mourn his death, and give them the comfort You alone can give, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.”
God’s Word for us today is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
You can’t ask, even though you want to. You can guess but don’t say it out loud. You’re hoping the other person will volunteer and tell you what you’re wondering, but that’s not going to happen. So you’re left to wonder.
It’s just a simple question: “What did you pay for that?” Someone has a new car, a new house, a new boat, a new almost anything. Now you’re glad for them, so that’s not a problem. It’s just that you’re naturally curious and you want to ask, “Say, just wondering, what did that set you back?”
Now, again, we’re not going to actually ask this. After all, if it’s a new car, just go to the dealer’s website you’ll see the price that’s posted. A house, again just go online. Well, that’s fine, but if you’re curious, wouldn’t it be great if the buyer just volunteered the deal they got. Something like this: “You won’t believe it, but we got this car for $2,000 under list price; it was even the color we wanted.” Great, thanks for sharing.
“So, what was the price on that?” It is a question that we wonder about but we can’t really ask. So, can we ask that same question of God? Can we ask Him what we cost? Can we ask God what the whole world put together cost? Absolutely, yes. That’s the point of our text. Paul tells us that we are not our own. We’ve been bought with a price. And, if we were to ask, “Well, what did that cost?” Paul has the answer ready: We cost God the enormous price of His Son. It cost His suffering, death, and three days in the tomb. It required His death and then the power of His resurrection. What a price! What a surprising, astonishing value God has put on each one of us. It’s a price we could never pay. We would never have dared to imagine God would put that value on us, but He did. So, let’s see how God did this and what it means for us.
Before we get to the price that God paid, entirely by His own free choice, let’s remind ourselves that there was a price for us, but we didn’t pay it. Let’s go back to the idea of being curious over what someone paid for a car or a house or a boat. And whether we hear that price or not, remember, that house isn’t ours. That car is not for us to jump in and drive off. Don’t start backing that boat into the water. All these things, they’re not ours. We didn’t pay the price to own them.
But do we ever forget that and do we act as though our lives are entirely ours? We might not say it, but we can certainly think something as simple as this: “It’s my life, and I’ll do what I want with it.” Well, let’s think about that for a moment. Things of value have a price: houses, cars, boats, whatever, they’re not sitting empty, unused, just waiting for us to claim them.
So what’s the value of our lives? Our lives likely last longer than any car and even a house. But have we earned that life, paid for it? Have we even paid the down payment on it? No, our lives cost far more than we can pay. It’s not just the outward food and shelter that we need. Our lives are our body and soul together, making us one whole person. And we’re intended for eternity, and that’s where the cost lies. We can provide food and shelter for our bodies. The rich fool did in the parable in Luke 12. He laid up for himself food and drink but God warned him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? And so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21).
So, imagine standing before heaven and asking, “So, what’s a place like that cost?” Yes, since we’re curious, what is the price of eternal life in the perfection of heaven? Well, it’s certainly beyond all our calculations. Any price we might imagine will be both too high and too low. The price of eternal life is too high for us to ever pay. And whatever price we might imagine will be too small and too low for who of us can imagine the true value of eternal life in heaven?
So, is it best that we never look up, never dream of heaven and eternal life, since we can never pay that price? Well, left to ourselves, it is hopeless. But it’s not impossible for God. When we couldn’t pay the price of our redemption, God did so completely by the life of Jesus. As Jesus said, contrasting His power and purpose, “Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). His payment exceeds anything that we could imagine. This is what Paul directs us to see in 1 Corinthians 6: “You were bought with a price.”
What a contrast there is in this purchase. We cannot pay for one eternal life, our own, but by the one death and resurrection of Jesus, God has satisfied the debt and cost of all people. All of our lives, our accumulated wealth, all our abilities cannot pay our debt or purchase our eternal life. But the one life, the one death, and the one resurrection from the dead, all that being from the Son of God, that pays for the world. It’s as it’s said in 1 Peter: “Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from our forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
One other way to express our wonder over a purchase is to ask, or at least silently wonder, “What did that set you back?” The idea is that you have savings and you’ve been getting ahead on your savings. But when you buy something big, much of that forward motion is gone. Buy that new house and your savings are certainly set back, maybe to near zero.
So what did it set God back to purchase the world? Well, on the one hand, nothing since God owns all the world and nothing can take the universe from Him. But to pay the ransom of the world’s debt, to purchase us out of our debtor’s prison, this is what it set Him back: the life of His Son turned into the bitter cup of death, even death on the cross. Paul describes this loss so well in Philippians 2:5-8. “But have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
So, what did it set Jesus back to redeem the world? He paid that ransom by setting Himself back, being mistaken as nothing but a carpenter. He stepped back from the glory of heaven’s throne. He set Himself back from showing His relationship to the Father who praised Him at Baptism and at the Transfiguration. But He was obedient unto death, even death on the cross. And on the cross, He put Himself under the sins of the world as Paul describe in 2 Corinthians 5. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Maybe one more phrase will sum up our question. When we wonder at the cost of something, we might think or even dare to say, “So, it’s beautiful but what are the damages?” The car, the house, the boat, each one is great. No damages to be found there. But what about your bank balance or your credit card charges for this month? What about the plans you had to take a cruise next year? You can’t buy something expensive without taking a financial hit. So, what are the damages?
When we consider the payment of our sins, the saving of the world, we have to ask the same question. What are the damages that paid the price of our lives? When we view the cross, we are in awe. We likely see a cross every day in our homes, every Sunday in our church, in our worship. We see Him on the cross and after the resurrection we see Jesus showing the wounds in His hands and feet. What were the damages done to pay our debt? But look at the wounds He still carries and see the price that was paid. Do we see the damages there, the damage done all for us?
So, by His wounds, the price was paid for the ransom of our lives. And so we’re not our own. Then, what do we do with this payment? We remember that what God paid for us is not now a new debt that we have to work through. We could never pay back what He’s given. Instead, we receive His gift by faith, trusting His work and His promises. Paul summed this up in Romans 5. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We have peace by the ransom of God. We are former prisoners under our debt but instead of being condemned to a debtor’s prison, the Judge has declared us innocent. The debt went instead to the Son. Only one person can be condemned for a crime, and the Judge has chosen to make His Son the one who pays.
Therefore, having been bought by the price of the Son, we receive the gift by faith. God has declared us forgiven. So now, what do we do with that freedom? We neither deny it nor forget it. It is as Paul wrote in our sermon text: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? So, you are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6). We honor God and His payment, first, by not suggesting that we should help pay for the ransom of our souls.
Imagine the mistake it would be to see someone’s new house, admire it, guess the price, and then offer to help them pay for it. Imagine the shock of the new owners if you said, “Well, you certainly can’t afford to pay for this. Here, I’ll be glad to help.” I imagine the owners would be stunned into silence. But, after a few seconds, I expect they would say, “No, no, no. That’s not necessary. It’s fine. In fact, the house is paid for. There’s no debt left.”
At that point, we would be ones who are shocked. New homes mean new debts—20 or 30 years in length. But in terms of God and His gifts, His ransom has been paid. His payment for the world is complete and done. God deals with us not with our small funds, but with His own riches. Paul writes in Philippians 4:19-20, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” God supplies our needs by the abundance of His grace. We don’t supply what is lacking within ourselves. We’re the debtors. How could we possibly imagine that there is something missing in God’s work? Therefore, give thanks for the payment that’s made.
Never imagine that our lives are a day-to-day refunding of what God has freely done for us. Walk out of the debtor’s prison of our past and give thanks. It is as Paul wrote in Galatians 5:1. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” We’re free by the payment of the Son, complete and whole, received by the gift of faith.
Therefore, we are free by faith to recognize that we have been purchased. Now again our text reminds us to glorify God through our actions. Imagine you bought a new home. And the house is perfect, clean, spotless. Open the front door and see that carpet, beautiful, perfectly clean. Now the question is, Do you take your shoes off at the front door? Your shoes are wet, a little muddy. There’s even a floor mat by the door where they could stay. Do you take off your shoes? Well, I expect the answer is “Yes! Of course, we take off our shoes at the door.” Look at this carpet. Look at the rest of the floors. They’re clean and my shoes are definitely not. So leave those shoes off and then come inside.
Isn’t that an image of the directions Paul gives us? We’re brought out of the prison but then into the home of the One who purchased us. We’re overwhelmed with thanks for what He paid to redeem us. And we are further astonished that He wants to live with us wherever our earthly home is. But our life with Him is new as 2 Corinthians reminds us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5).
Therefore, live as one who is redeemed, paid for, and set free. Your body and soul are now longer yours; they belong to the One who has purchased us. But His purchase is not for a slavish existence, but for the joy of the being with Him who has called us His own. Because He has so redeemed us, we find that we are free to be directed by Him and called His own. It’s not our perfect lives that make that connection but His.
So, when we see someone with a new car, a new house, a new boat, or motorcycle, we naturally are curious. The sentence we want to say, but we don’t say it, is “So, what did that cost you?” Of course, it’s bad etiquette to ask someone this, but not with God. We know that we’ve been paid for and so we can boldly ask God, with thanks, “What did it cost You to ransom me, to pay all my debts?” And God can simply point to the cross of Jesus, and we can see that that is more than enough. We’ve been purchased and won by Him. And therefore as Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Therefore honor Him who has purchased you, body and soul, by the life of His Son. Amen.
We pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for redeeming us by the single life, death, and resurrection of Your Son. Remind us that He’s made the full payment for us and that we are therefore His, body and soul. Keep us as Your own in this life and onto eternal life. We pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Reflections for March 8, 2026
Title: What Was the Price on That?Mark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, our mobile app, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. What are the implications of having been bought with a price? Lutheran Hour Speaker Dr. Michael Zeigler joins Dr. Paavola to talk about today’s sermon text.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Today I get to visit with our good friend, Dr. Dan Paavola, our guest speaker today, a frequent guest speaker on the program. Thanks for sticking around to talk with us, Dan.
Dan Paavola: Oh, thank you. I love being on The Lutheran Hour and thanks for the opportunity.
Mike Zeigler: First, thank you for your message. I really appreciate the way you bring everyday life into what you’re talking about. Especially I could relate to the experience of feeling like you’re just starting to get ahead in saving money, but then you’ve got a car that breaks and a house that breaks and appliances that break, and then on top of that, kids that need things. And so, I never really get ahead. So I appreciate how you bring those kinds of experiences, everyday experiences that we can all relate to, into the light of God’s Word and eternity and Scripture. What encourages you and challenges you to speak of God’s Word like that, to preach like that?
Dan Paavola: I think people listen to stories, and stories, especially like you just related of, the kids need this, this, and this. And then, oh, you just replaced the oven. Three weeks later, the refrigerator died. By the way, true experience for us, two years ago. In fact, the appliance guy looked at us and said, “What are you doing here? You can’t be here for….” “Yes, we are, exactly again.” So people can relate to those stories where it happens again and again. Jesus, of course, harnessed that very idea. Think about in His parables where there was conflict, disappointment. Oh, it happened again. Weeds are growing up in the field. Seeds are not growing. They’re in fact falling to the wayside. He begins with those conflicts and then He always takes us to the Gospel, the Good News. The prodigal son might run away with the money, but he’s coming back and is going to be welcomed by the father. And so if we start with our own lives and say, “Doesn’t it always happen?” Not to make every story a downer, but there is a conflict in our life. And God steps in and says, well, I know it’s not possible for you, but everything is possible for Me. So it’s a joy to do that. I see people nodding their heads and gives us something at the end of a face-to-face sermon to talk about as we go out into the narthex and meet with each other. So it seems to work.
Mike Zeigler: So Dan, our passage today, as you know, comes from 1 Corinthians, and this is a letter that we have been walking through on this program together for several weeks. And we’re now in the middle part of the letter where the Holy Spirit, through Paul as the author, as the messenger of Jesus, he’s teaching them, 2,000 years ago, and he’s also teaching us how to live. And they’ve got specific questions. They’ve got implied questions that they haven’t asked that Paul is answering for them. And one of the implied questions in this chapter might be something like, “I’m a first-century Corinthian Christian. Now why can’t I just go on hooking up with the female or male temple prostitutes like everybody else does? It’s just a physical act. Doesn’t mean anything spiritually, right?” So Pastor Dan, what do you say to Corinthian Christian or today’s Christian? How do you respond?
Dan Paavola: Well, I think Pastor Paul the apostle, would give us our best start as our text today. He says—don’t you love what he says—“Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have been given from God?” Don’t you love the way he says that? Now, really? Do we have to go over this again? All right. All right. Sort of like a patient teacher. A-ha. All right. Don’t you know? Your body is the temple. So make this contrast. If you’re that first-century Corinthian, you have to go to the temple of this pagan idol. And there you have this “experience.” Let’s just call it that. Paul says, you got it wrong. You don’t go to a temple. Don’t you know that temple has come by the price [that was] paid. Your body is now that temple. And here’s the amazing thing. The Holy Spirit has come to dwell in you. You’ve got your directions wrong.
You think you need to [do] some honorable act, do homage, or what, worship to an idol’s temple? God, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in you. Now, when He does that, He remarkably cleans house, shall we just say. It’s His place. And so given His presence in what is now His temple, what are you going to do? I think Paul would just sort of leave it—what are you going to do? And hope that you understand this now, right? You are now the temple. The Spirit has joined up with you. We’ll have no more talk of you joining up with an idol. It’s gone the other way around.
Mike Zeigler: So I’m a father of three sons and two of whom are still in the house and in high school. And the other day we were having this conversation about a conversation they were having with some of their friends about the ethics of sex and human sexuality. And one of their friends they shared had offered a sort of a rule for this. And the rule was, as long as both people consent, then they can do whatever they want. That whatever they want is okay. And my sons were saying, “Yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense.” But it was this passage that you preached on where my mind went, that you are not your own. Again, this just changes the context, changes the story. We read this passage together, and it really transformed the conversation. So Dan, in your experience as a father, how does this truth, “You are not your own,” change the conversation, specifically about the ethics of human sexuality?
Dan Paavola: Basic idea that that idea has is: we agree. So there’s two of us that are impacted by this. And if the two of us agree, we agree. And I would almost wish that we could hear God at that moment say, “I didn’t agree. I never signed off on that. That’s not my plan.” And God says that, not as an external judge—He is the One who gives us the Commandments—but He’s also, remember, the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And at least one of these two should be, we hope, somebody who has come to faith and knows that faith and then realizes, “Oh, I’m not alone here, you know, that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” And if I take that body and along with another person, and we think that we have this just to ourselves, you’re missing something.
You know, the Old Testament story that struck me on this one is Potiphar’s wife and Joseph. And if our friends remember that Old Testament story, she tried to seduce Joseph into a relationship like this. And he said, “How could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And it wasn’t against Potiphar, you know, her husband, or her, he said, “It’s the great sin against God.” He realizes that God is his that has dwelt in him and is with him. And so to simply reduce it to, well, two people agreed, no, no, no. God is in the midst of us, and we are not our own. We’ve been bought with a price. Or Paul says in Galatians so well: “It’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“What Is the World to Me?” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“May God Bestow on Us His Grace” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.