Debts Cancelled Series

CONCLUSION

Now, I want to conclude by bringing this truth home to where we live.

It is possible that there are those among us this morning, who have thought that God, if he even really exists, will forgive you for your wrongdoing because you are basically a good person, or because he’s a loving God who simply decides that your sin doesn’t matter, that he won’t hold you responsible.

Well he is a loving God. But as Paul said earlier in the letter to the Colossians, it is only in Christ that we have forgiveness of sins. To receive forgiveness of sins you must place your trust in Christ, and believe that your sin debt is only paid by him bearing the penalty of the curse for you. I pray that you will place your trust in Christ this morning, because otherwise, you will bear the penalty of the curse yourself. And we don’t want that to happen to you.

It is also possible, and I would say probable, that there are others here among us this morning, who have placed trust in Christ, whose sin debt has been paid, but who are still trying to pay it off any way through their performance.

That is a tendency and temptation in my own life, and I’ve seen it in the lives of others also.

Intellectually we know that salvation is not by works. And yet functionally, at the level of where we live, many of us in practice are still trying to pay off our debt to God that way.

I had a friend in college who became a believer at about age 20. He said he wanted to live to be at least 40. I asked why. He said, “Because I want to serve God for as many years as I didn’t serve him.” Now he was a sincere believer and lover of Jesus and I don’t question his heart. But behind that statement was a belief that living 20 years for Jesus somehow balanced out living 20 years opposed to Jesus.

And we have our own ways of thinking that way as well. Have you ever felt really discouraged about sin in your life, and while in that state of mind, did you ever think, “If only I were doing better in this area, I wouldn’t feel so bad. Then I would know that God approves of my life. Then I could walk with confidence in the smile of God upon me.”

I’ve had that scenario play out many times in my life. But do you know what that is? It’s a belief that we can pay off our sin debt by better obedience; that we can earn the smile of God by our performance. Why else would there be relief and an expectation that God is satisfied because you’ve started to perform better? If we have a good stretch of obedience we sometimes feel like we’ve made up for a bad stretch of obedience. It cancels out. We’re back to even with God in our account.

But the truth is, no stretch of good obedience, not even if it lasts the rest of our lives, makes up for a single act of sin. The debt is not reduced one iota that way. The good news is that we don’t have to reduce the debt. God cancelled it on the cross in the death of Christ. And now, if you are in Christ by faith, you have the smile of God. You don’t need to make up for anything to live in that smile.