Be Thankful for the One Who Paid Your Debt  

Recently my wife received a phone call from the fraud prevention division of our financial institution because some unauthorized person had tried to use her credit card. The incident resulted in her current card getting shut down and a new one getting issued to her. During that interim waiting period before she received her new card, she and our granddaughter went out to breakfast one morning. When it came time to pay the bill, she discovered that her other credit card as well as her debit card from the same institution were not working either. It appeared as if they all may have been rendered inoperative as a safety precaution. Therefore I received a call to come to their rescue so that they wouldn’t end up in the restaurant kitchen washing dishes. However, before I arrived the server informed my wife that her bill had been paid. It turned out that a nice gentleman in the next booth who had overheard their predicament generously took care of their check. My wife told him that it wasn’t necessary but expressed her profound gratitude for his very kind gesture.

 One of the great truths of the gospel, or good news, of Jesus Christ is that He has paid our bill for us. No, He hasn’t paid off your mortgage or your car loan, as helpful as that might be. He has paid off a debt much greater than any others we might owe. The Bible teaches that we all have sinned. As a result, we owe a debt to a holy God that we are incapable of paying. However, He Himself made a way for that debt to be repaid. He sent His own Son into the world to pay the ultimate price through the shedding of His own blood as the sacrifice for our sins. “In Him (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Another key point here is that it is totally by grace. It is not anything we deserve or have earned. It is solely through the love and kindness of God that this offer is made to us. We have a tendency to want to keep offering our “credit” cards – things we hope might earn us credit with God – rather than humbly acknowledging our inability to take care of our sin problem ourselves. Maybe we pull out the card that shows how many times we have attended church. Or we show the card giving an account of our tithes and offerings. Or we display the card that shows how often we read our Bibles or say a prayer. Maybe we even pull out our card showing the times we were kind to others – maybe we helped pay someone’s bill one time when they were unable to do so. Whatever we resort to with the hopes that it will earn us credit with God, it simply isn’t sufficient. The only thing that can reconcile our account with God is through what Jesus did for us. We simply need to receive it humbly, penitently, and with faith that Jesus’ sacrifice was enough to pay our debt.

 If we are grateful to someone for paying for our meal, how much more should we be thankful for the One who paid the price for our sin. It is only because of Jesus that we can have a right relationship with God. It is all because of Him that we can enjoy peace with God now and the hope of a heavenly home. We owe our lives and our eternal destinies to Him.

Some of us need to quit trying to earn credit with God and simply accept the gracious gift of Jesus who has paid our bill in full.