Adding to a Masterpiece

 Could you improve on a masterpiece? Imagine that you are walking through the Louvre museum in Paris. As you approach the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, would you think about taking a palette and brushes and touching up the painting? Maybe put some more color in her cheeks? Perhaps change her nose a little?

“That’s ridiculous!” you say. For nearly 500 years the Mona Lisa has been considered one of the greatest artistic works of all time. How absurd to think we could add anything to this masterpiece!

Yet that’s what many people try to do with Christ’s masterpiece—salvation. They think they must improve on it with some work of their own. But that masterpiece was completed when Jesus said, “It is finished,” while hanging on the cross (John 19:30). Then He proved that His work of redemption was done when He rose from the dead.

When you hear that Jesus paid the price for your sin and you don’t have to do anything to merit God’s grace, do you think it’s too good to be true? Do you think there’s something you must do to earn it? You can’t add anything! Receive God’s gift of salvation. Jesus paid it all. The masterpiece is complete. Salvation is a gift to be received—not a goal to be achieved.

—Dave Branon, Our Daily Bread