There are not too many people who enjoy paying bills. I spent a few hours this weekend balancing the checkbook and writing more checks to pay my bills. It’s good when you’re done but not really something I look forward to. But I am thankful that we have steady income and have enough money to pay what is due. I also remember the days when opening bills was a fearful task. Our hearts had written checks that our pocketbook couldn’t pay. Those were dark days.
The truth is that none of us can fully pay our debts. Even the wealthiest among us has an unpayable debt. We wrote a check that will bounce.
We sinned.
The merchant of sin likely told you that it was no big deal. He may have whispered that it wouldn’t come due for a long time. He lied.
The moment you sinned, the moment you signed your name to that blank check, Satan demanded payment. Payment for our sins comes in many forms. Surely there is the eternal condemnation (2 Thessalonians 1:9) but there are also payments in the form of sickness, grieving and physical death. None of these were present in God’s original creation. But when Satan brought sin into the world through Adam and Eve these terrible conditions came too. Every speck of suffering today is linked to the evil one.
But what happens when a debt is paid? What happens when there are no more payments? Once the bill is paid, the lender no longer has a claim. You are no longer enslaved (Proverbs 22:7)! But that’s the problem. We can make payments forever and never dig our way out of sin. Never. We are in a binding contract that we can neither pay off nor break. Plus, there is the balloon payment at the end. Hell. We will spend the rest of our lives paying the devil here and there. Then, when life is over, we face the penalty of sin.
Good News! The debt is paid!
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:22-25)
“Propitiation” is a big theological word but is simply means the process by which we are favored by God. God’s favor is actually already shown even to sinners in that he gives a plan whereby all can be saved. Jesus is the method by which we are saved. He owed nothing but paid it all for you and me.
As I was paying those bills this weekend I noticed that a few of them will be paid off soon. But the mortgage is still so far away from payment that I don’t even think about it. What if someone paid it off? What if tomorrow I received a notice from the bank that no more payments were needed? That would be life changing, no?
In Jesus, our debt is paid. Let us be as happy about that as we would be if our mortgage was paid off. And like a retired mortgage, it should change our lives. If you are a Christians, stop moping around. Be happy! Rejoice! You are debt free!
