Our salvation came at a cost. God determined this cost by looking at our potential, or future value. This value is based on Christ being formed in us, since we were still his enemies when He bought us. We must be willing to pay the price for this formation, living up to our full potential to provide the full reward to Christ for what He had suffered. Humans judge by truth and our actions are driven by justice. Looking at the example of what happened with Jonah, we see that God wanted him to go and prophesy judgment to Nineveh if they did not repent. Nineveh was a city of one of the most brutal nations of that time, and Jonah did not want to do it. Jonah knew that God was gracious, merciful, longsuffering, and abundantly kind. and he could not tolerate the thought that justice could possibly not be served on this brutal nation for their misdeeds. He tried to avoid God’s commission, even unto death by drowning in the sea, but all in vain because God had counted the cost and prepared a fish to swallow Jonah. In the belly or womb (or Sheol) of this fish Jonah spent three days and nights until he decided to fulfil the commission. He praised God and cried out to him for salvation. When Nineveh sincerely repented and judgment was withheld, Jonah made a charge against God that, because He had repented of his judgment, there was no justice, saying that it proved that God had no truth in him. However, compassion and justice cannot be balanced against each other, although that is the way we all see it. When Nineveh repented, justice was served. We could find ourselves in a circumstance brought about by our bad decisions which is like something had swallowed us, like Jonah was by the fish. We can learn from what happened to Jonah, that even in that place, hope is not lost. This is the place where we can decide to praise God, determine the price, and pay it to see Christ formed in us, thereby deciding to be birthed from a womb into God’s purposes, and supernatural restoration. On the other hand, we can do nothing and the place where we will be birthed from will be Sheol, and that birth will be unto death and destruction
