I suppose there are bail bondsmen in Canada, but for the life of me I cannot remember seeing one. Gratefully, I suppose this was because I had very little reason to be near the municipal courthouse of our town. The church I served in Gretna, Louisiana, was within walking distance of the courthouse and the walk was punctuated by the offices of the bail bondsmen. There is something seamy about a street littered with signs like "Blair's Bail Bonds." For those who have been taken into custody by the local constabulary, such establishments, though seamy, are rather necessary. Who wants to stay in jail unnecessarily? Of course, the bondsman has a huge stake in your fulfilling the conditions of your bail, because he has risked a large sum of money on your fulfillment. If you break the conditions of your bail, he will send a "bounty hunter" after you. The higher the value of the bond, the harder the bondsman will work to get you back into the custody of the state.

Think of the cost of our freedom. What a great price Christ has offered as a surety for our lives. He offered His precious blood for us. He died that we might be freed from the custody of the law. He purchased us at a full price, ungrudgingly offered for those who were not worthy of its enormous value. And now that it has been given once and for all, how could you doubt the certainty of the One who offered it or think that He would just abandon you? How could you imagine that once purchased by so great a price that the Lord would cast off His dearly won possession? How could anyone dream that such a Shepherd would abandon the one lost sheep and stay behind with the ninety-nine? If He cares so intensely for us poor sinners, what would make us think that He would not send out messengers calling us back to the fold which He created when He died? Once the price has been paid the Master wants to retain possession of that for which He paid the price.

The ministers of the church have the privilege of being the divine bounty hunters seeking the lost for whom Christ died. Why wouldn't He send them out? He has invested an enormous price in their salvation. They are His; the sheep of His pasture. He is jealous for them; even greedy to possess them. He is more zealous for his property rights over us (1Pt 2:9) than we ever could be, no matter how greedy we might be. Our Lord Jesus Christ would never have the heart to give up on us. He is the Lord of the dead and therefore also certainly of the living. No one can snatch us out of His hand (Jn 10:28-29). He wants to return us to himself not in handcuffs, but by the bonds of love and the power of His precious sacrifice. He wants His full value from the price He offered.