“Now to him who works, the wages
are not counted as grace, but as debt” (Romans 4:4)
Have you ever been in debt? I mean REALLY in debt, to
the point where NOTHING, nobody could ever get you out! I was. Several times
in my life I have walked through difficult times and have learned from those
instances and in the lives of others that in order to survive, people are
likely to use ANY resource to get through. In my own life, I’ve watched my
credit cards go from zero balances to fifty thousand dollars in debt and it
looked like for all practical purposes that I was doomed to be a debtor for the
rest of my life. Has that ever happened to you? Is it happening to you right
now?
It’s interesting that our credit cards now are debt-free
and have been for a long time. You might think that I have a clever method of
debt reduction to share, but that is not the case. And I am NOT some kind of
Christian super-tither who gave in order to get something in return. And it
isn’t because I purchased some kind of program or hired a debt-reduction
company. None of that is true – the Lord did it – He rescued us from debt.
Another thing I did not do well, even though I knew
better, was to plan for retirement. I am of retirement age even though I have no
thought of leaving the work that I do. I am a pastor and I will always be one
because of the call of God. But note that we are not paid any kind of salary by
the ministry we serve. And it is not my wife or I who have worked out some kind
of great financial plan for these years and have managed to succeed. It is God
who provides all that is needed to be in ministry full-time. He gets all the
credit, as He should.
I got into debt more than once and it was a gradual
thing. I lost a job or had unexpected expenses and borrowed “just a little” to
see us through. A good example is my senior year in college. I owned a home
during those years and even though I had assistance from the government and
worked as many hours as the college would allow, it was obvious that my efforts
were not going to be enough. I was falling behind in house payments and would be
in serious trouble sometime during that year. What did I do? – I took out a
second mortgage to help make the payments on the first, thinking that the job I
would get after graduation would make up the difference.
But it didn’t. The eventual job, which was in a facility
for the counseling of alcoholics, didn't pay much. I made a sufficient amount to
perhaps continue paying the first mortgage, but not enough to make the payments
on the second. Eventually I had to sell my home. One debt
led to another, and things only got worse from there.
It’s the same in our spiritual lives as it is with our
money. God is holy, just, true, honest, full of love and utterly perfect in all
His ways, but we are not like that. When Scripture speaks on topics such as what is
called, “original sin,” it means that the standard of being debt-free as viewed
by God is that we are to be like Him – in every way. For example, we
owe Him love, not only to love Him, but also we are to honestly love the
people He sends into our lives, whoever they are. We are to love the unlovely,
just like He does.
And God’s way of forgiving debt seems strange to
us. Here’s a great statement in Scripture about who He is, what He does and how
He views us: He is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the
third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).
Isn’t that an incredible statement? It reveals His
character, that He is “merciful and gracious” and
informs us that He forgives “iniquity and transgression
and sin;” but also He is NOT in the business of “clearing the guilty.” And then it incredibly informs us
that our “children” will suffer because of what we
have done! How does this even remotely “compute” in relation to humanity's need?
The answer is – it DOES compute! It makes sense in every
way, and it reveals Him to be the open, honest, loving God we have always
needed. He does forgive, but it is done in a way that also satisfies JUSTICE. He does
NOT pardon the guilty, as judges, kings, presidents and
governors sometimes do. And there is a reason why children suffer to the “third and fourth generation.” If the father and/or the
mother are alcoholics, with all that such a lifestyle implies, the children will
be harmed. If the parents smoke cigarettes in the house, the children will
breathe it and be damaged. God is not the cause of such harm, but He warns
us repeatedly that sin hurts the innocent!
We may pretend to ourselves and others that we are
good in all our ways, but from God’s perspective, “If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”
(1 John 1:8). And further, “If we say that we have not
sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10).
Sin, such as not forgiving others, damages the lives of those around us
and makes us debtors in the sight of God.
Our God has provided a REASON for forgiveness, which is
found in the person, the man Jesus Christ. We are all sinners in the sight of
God. The standard for our conduct is to be always “merciful
and gracious” just as God is! But that’s often not how people are. Many pray
words such as, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive
our debtors” (Matthew 6:12), but then don’t forgive. We often are not
“abounding in goodness and truth” and then we
wonder, “What went wrong?” when our spiritual debts begin to grow. And as it says in
today’s Scripture, any “good works” we try to
justify ourselves with aren’t enough – we are debtors in the sight of God!
Here is God’s answer: “If we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). To
“walk in the light” is to become open about who you really are. To do so will open the door to honest relationships
with others, and we will discover that Jesus Christ died for our sins and
satisfied our debt in the sight of God.
How does it work? – “If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Because Jesus paid it all, we can come
to God and be forgiven, just as it said in Exodus 34:6. He does not clear the
guilty, but we become debt-free when we trust
in Him.
Father, I know that I have sinned. Please forgive me.
Jesus paid my debt and I trust in Him now. Please help me become a person who
forgives. In Jesus Name. Amen.
