It’s been said that more Americans are in debt these days than ever before. Many blame credit cards as the culprit. It is easier than ever for people to spend and it’s easier than ever to put off paying the bill. “Buy now! Pay later!” That seems to be the basis of our economy these days.
It’s no wonder people rack up astronomical debt, and with the current credit system (interest rates, payment schedules, etc.) it can take someone an average of 20 years to pay off just one credit card debt. It’s also not surprising that many lending agencies have sprung up, which are devoted to decreasing one’s debt. Some offer to consolidate your bills for you. Others might suggest a “low interest loan” to help pay off your bills (get into further debt to pay your debt). And then others encourage you to tap into your home’s equity to pay off those pesky bills.
God handles a lending agency of his own. Only he doesn’t merely take care of high spending on credit cards or home improvement projects. God takes care of the ultimate debt. GOD OFFERS US THE ULTIMATE CREDIT ADVANCE! Our Lord 1) absorbs the debt of the law, and then 2) offer the gift of salvation in its place. 1) He Absorbs the Debt of Sin
This section of Scripture ought to hit us right between the eyes! It’s as if the apostle is giving all of us a wake up call. He’s reminded us that we are in dire straits spiritually. We have all racked up an exorbitant debt before God. The apostle Paul reminds us of this fact in Romans 3: “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3: 23). This is a debt that is common to all people. Every person is born owing God. And this debt increases throughout our lives, as sin increases more and more.
The problem is that all of those sins – our failure to love God first, our failure to love one another – are credited to our accounts. It’s as if God did a credit check on each of us and found that we have fallen short. We are buried under a load of sin. The interest rate of guilt forces us to fall even deeper into spiritual debt. We’re spiritually bankrupt and we know it. The guilt we feel causes us to loathe ourselves, to become depressed, and to despair.
As it is, we are so desperate to try and get out from underneath this debt of sin we’ll try anything, and so we foolish humans devise a payment plan of our own. We try to access God’s ATM, convincing him that he should give us a loan on his grace. All the while, we promise to pay him back. We fool ourselves into thinking that we can earn God’s grace and somehow pay off our debt of sin.
People in Paul’s day had such foolish notions. The Jews turned to Abraham as a shining example of someone who was right with God. “If anybody had a clean credit history with God, it was Abraham!” so they argued. After all, his life was full of righteous works. He obeyed God, so he must have earned the right to be forgiven.
That notion began to mushroom in their minds, and they applied that flawed thinking to themselves. “If Abraham could earn heaven by his good deeds, (and he certainly appeared to be a righteous man, just look at his life), then I must be able to as well; after all, I’m a descendant of Abraham”, so the Jews thought. Now, Abraham was the father of the Israelites. He was the head and wellspring of the Jewish nation and life. So the Jewish people thought that since they were descendants of Abraham they had an automatic connection to God’s grace and a clean credit history in his eyes.
They thought that their nationality would give them instant access to God’s grace and favor. This thinking is nothing new, however. The notion that we can somehow earn our salvation is as old as time itself. Every human being is born with this flawed opinion. We’re even guilty of it. “I’m a German Lutheran,” or “I’m an Italian Catholic and my whole family is, too.” We cannot access God’s ATM of grace with merely a church membership card. We can’t access God’s grace with our own sense of “goodness”, either. “I try to live a good life, so God ought to let me into heaven” -- that thinking won’t cut it either when God makes his final credit check at the end of time!
The apostle Paul cuts through all of this silliness. He tells us where to look so that we can be certain of a clean credit history before God. We don’t look to ourselves. We don’t look to our ancestors. We don’t look to anyone: “What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’” “Look to God’s Word,” Paul says, “trust what God tells you.” What did Abraham do to earn heaven? He did nothing. He simply believed the Lord forgave him, and God credited Abraham’s faith to his account.
There are two things to keep in mind. The first thing is that God does the crediting. We can’t clean away our debt, only God can. The other thing is that our faith in and of itself does not cancel out the debt. Some people say, “You just gotta have faith!” But faith in what? Faith in your grandfather? Faith in your good deeds? What we put our faith in – the content of our faith – is what saves and cancels out sin’s debt. We put our faith in God’s promises, just as Abraham did. Your Christian faith is not empty, but it is filled with Christ Jesus and with all of God’s promises made in Christ.
This is how God absorbs all of our debt. He takes our guilt and shame from us. He absorbs our selfish pride and envy. He drained all of that debt from our accounts and onto his Son, Christ Jesus. Then he sent his own Son to the bank to pay our debts. He condemned him to the cross. God made his Son spiritually bankrupt and forsaken. He did all of this so that our credit history would be clean.
2) He Offers the Gift of Salvation
And what a history it is -- a legacy of sin! Our history is riddled with failure. It is paved with guilt and despair. It is covered with anger, self-righteousness, defiance, suspicion, gossip, and hatred. Our history is one of self-destruction; drug abuse, alcoholism, unfaithfulness, and lack of self-control. Yet, God has absorbed all of our sins. He cancels the debt by paying it for us, and in its place he offers us the gift of salvation; something that’s priceless.
I’m reminded of a certain credit card commercial, it’s the one that depicts the father and son at the ball game: “A baseball hat: $8.00. One ball glove: $15.00. Season tickets: $200. Spending time with your son: Priceless.” The point of the commercial is quite simple. MasterCard makes it possible for you to enjoy the better, priceless things in life. Well, we are able to enjoy blessings far above and beyond anything this world has to offer! No plastic card can purchase the greater blessings of salvation. We have the Master’s Card. We have the blood and righteousness of Jesus credited to our account – that’s priceless!
We are card-carrying Christians in that we have unlimited access to God’s credit line of grace. And we get to spend on our Savior’s account. What joy to know that we can spend the blessings of Christ, which he freely gives to us! We’re able to spend on his forgiveness! Whenever we confess our sins to God, we charge on his account! That means we can take our fears, frustrations, anger, and disappointments to Christ and charge them to his account, and his forgiveness will cover our debt of sin every time!
We can charge on Jesus’ credit line of peace. Whenever worry or loneliness assails you, know that your Savior is always with you. Nothing can separate you from his love. And knowing that provides the ultimate sense of peace! This is the peace Christ has earned for us with his Father. Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection have made us one with God. We are now his children. We have free access to God’ peace.
This account of grace can never be overdrawn or emptied. Access to God’s grace is ours through faith. It is a free gift from God. We don’t have to apply for approval. We don’t have to go through the right steps or appeal to the right people in order to gain access to God’s grace. His grace is ours simply when we believe and trust in his forgiveness and love.
Even our faith – the ability to believe – is a gift from God. Faith is nothing more than a hand that grabs onto God’s promises. Faith is what grabs that credit card from God. Faith is what leads us to believe that we have free access to God’s unlimited assets. Faith is what takes God’s promises and makes them my own. And we know that God’s assets are secure. Satan cannot put a freeze or a hold on them. We have a guarantee from God. He promises that the love shown to us in Christ Jesus will never fail.
The proof, again, is taken from the life of Abraham. Paul tells us, “As it is written: ‘ I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” God’s promises stand fulfilled. Abraham’s children are “of many nations.” We are proof of this fact. God appointed Abraham as our father in the faith. How did Abraham know this? God gave life to that promise. Abraham and Sarah were technically unable to have children. Sarah was barren. Abraham was too old. Yet, God gave them a child, Isaac. In doing so, God gave life to the very nation of Israel. Isaac is one of the forefathers of the Israelites.
Do you see how this applies to you and me? The very same God who gave form and life to the universe is the same God who gave still gives life to us. The same Lord, who gave Abraham a son, gives us his Son. Let the promise of God shine in your life. Flee to God in time of temptation. Place all your sins at his feet, and then trust in his abundant grace to cancel all your debt. Trust in God’s promises. Abraham is waiting in heaven, arms open, to welcome you home. For we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9). Abraham is the father of all the faithful, simply because he believed in God’s unlimited credit advance of grace. And God’s grace was credited to him just as it is credited to us. Now, that’s priceless! Amen.
