In September 2003, I incurred a debt that I have been unable to pay. I was unable to keep my promise and people who depended on me paid the price. My goal is to pay that debt one day. In fact, I keep a paper in my wallet with that debt on it so that every time I open it to spend money, I see it. It is faded, worn out and tattered. Even though it is nine years old, it still weighs on me and will until it is paid.
Each one of us also has a debt we must pay. We incurred it on the day we were born. I like how King David put it in Psalm 51:5. He said, “I was born a sinner- yes, from the moment my mother conceived me (NLT).” Because Adam was unable to keep his promise to God in the Garden of Eden, we are all born with sin and owe the price of that sin. Romans 5:12 tells us that sin entered the world through one man and spread to all men.
Sin is what separates us from God. Isaiah 59:2 says that it is your sin that has cut you off from God. Just as Adam was cut off from daily fellowship with God, so too our sin cuts us off from having a relationship with Him. When someone has offended you, the last thing you want to do is hang out with them. When Adam sinned against God, he hid himself from God because he knew he had offended God. He didn’t want to face the consequences of his actions and neither do we.
The consequences for that sin and for our sin is separation from God for eternity. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death. Each of us will die one day. At that point, we receive the payment for sin which is spiritual death or separation from God for eternity. We owe a debt to sin. Our wage that we collect at death is the payment for that debt. No matter how long we live with that debt, it will always weigh on us until it is paid. There is nothing we can do on our own to pay for that debt. Ephesians 2:9 says that salvation (having our debt paid) is not a reward for doing good deeds or being a good person.
The good news is that your debt has been paid. Jesus came to the earth as God’s only son in order to die on the cross to pay that debt for you. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. It is not in God to leave us with a huge debt like that. He wants you to live debt free so He paid the price for you. All you have to do is claim it.
Romans 10:13 says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In order to claim His payment for your spiritual debt, you just have to pray. In Romans 10:9,10 it tells us how. It says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
I know a lot of people who think they have sinned so much or so badly that God wouldn’t want them or that He wouldn’t forgive them. That is the farthest thing from the truth. II Peter 3:9 says that the Lord is not slow in keeping His promise. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish (including you), but everyone to come to repentance. Your sin is no worse than anyone else’s and He wants to forgive your debt.
To prove that your sin is not too great or that He wants you no matter what, we have to look no farther than the cross. While Jesus was hanging on the cross and the men who beat Him, mocked Him and drove the nails into His hands and feet stood there watching Him die, Jesus looked up into Heaven and said, “Father, forgive them.” I’m sure you haven’t done anything worse than killing God’s only son. If He can forgive them and make a way for them to go to Heaven, He can forgive you and pay your debt.
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 