When I was about ten years old my brother and I had a good friend named John. And one summer day we all thought it would be a neat idea to go to the grocery store and get some ice cream bars.

So we walked to the store and went in, and went to the back wall where they had the ice cream. And among the choices we saw a package of bars that said, “One Free in Every Box!” This was around 1970, when things were more relaxed than they are now, so the store would let you open up a box and take out an ice cream bar, if that was what you wanted. So John, who was quite a joker, took one from that box; and then, when he was going through the check-out line, he told the cashier, “I took the free one!”

Well, as I’m sure John expected, he ended up having to pay for that ice cream bar after all.

Why do I tell that story? Because that is exactly how so many Christians treat the New Testament today.

That is, they want to “reach in” to the New Testament, so to speak, and “pull out” the free part, but leave the rest behind.

Is there something “free” in the New Testament? Absolutely! It is the free gift of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16, 5:24, Rom. 10:8-13). But, just as it was with the ice cream bars, so today you cannot just take that gift of salvation and leave the rest of the New Testament behind. Rather, you have to take the “whole package” of New Testament truth; then you will realize that, in addition to the free gift of salvation that we do indeed find in the New Testament, there is also the matter of paying the price to follow Christ so we may be prepared to meet Him at His judgment seat (Matt. 16:24-27, 1 Cor. 9:24-27, 2 Cor. 5:10).

Very few Christians today have any real concept of this aspect of New Testament truth; preachers only want to speak of the free gift of eternal salvation, because that is for the most part all the believers want to hear (cf. 2 Tim. 4:3). But, what can help us to see this matter more clearly is to understand some basic principles of New Testament interpretation, and so that is what we will cover in the next few Notes in this series.

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—  5 March 2026 —