Romans 13:8
"When you were dead in your sins...God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with it's regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Colossians 2:13 - 15
"Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another the power over your liberty."
Benjamin Franklin
There is much talk today, and concern over, the tremendous debt that we have incurred as a nation. And rightly so. The result of our profligate spending practices are bankrupting our great country and placing her future in a very precarious and untenable situation.
Simply put, we are sinning against our own children, exchanging the short term pleasures of our own selfish desires for their very freedom. We are truly doing no less, and we should be ashamed and afraid. Ashamed at the reality of our own greed and afraid of the righteous justice of the God of Heaven.
The Scriptures remind us that God judges nations as well as individuals, (Jer. 18:7-10) and His sword, though slow to rise and slow to fall, once started downward, will be terrible and swift.
We should, like Jefferson did before us, tremble for our nation, realizing that God is just.
By God's grace, however, it is not too late. If we heed the truth of God's word, repent of our sin, and enact laws that will codify moral truth regarding this issue, the debt can be eliminated and a surplus can emerge. (2 Chron. 7:14)
But it will come at great sacrifice and cost. It will require all of us to honestly examine ourselves, to humbly repent of our sin, and commit ourselves to the common good and our posterity, placing all, and others, above self.
In short, we must live out, in miraculous reality, the power of Romans 13:8. We must eradicate all debt, except for the continuing debt to love God and one another. The Scriptures remind us that the whole law, all of it, is fulfilled, if one loves the Lord his God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loves his neighbor as himself. (Matt. 22:34-40; Rom 13:8-9)
Indeed, we are told that it is only our reasonable act of service, in view of God's merciful cancellation of our sin debt, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, wholly and completely unto Him. (Rom. 12:1-2) But do we truly believe that?
Often, our words so say, but our actions are far from those words. When that is the case, tragically, our witness and our lives are ineffective and unproductive for the cause of the King. (2 Pet. 1:8)
How are we doing in terms of living out true Christlike love and obedience? How are we doing with forgiving others, in love, when they sin against us, when they owe us a debt of love, and don't seem to know, or even care?
We ask God to forgive our debts, and He has and He does, but note the challenge of the disciple's prayer: (Matt. 6:9-13) "Forgive us our debts, AS WE forgive OUR debtors..." We pray, asking God to forgive us in the same way we forgive others; but are we forgiving others to such an extent, that we are pleased with the answer to our prayer? Convicting, isn't it?
God, may we never be like the unmerciful servant of the Master's parable, who, after having been forgiven an impossible debt, refused to forgive a pittance owed him by a debtor of his own. God is displeased with such selfish ingratitude and will judge it for what it is. How absolutely humbling:
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[g]
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[h] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[i] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Matthew 18:21-35
To humble oneself and heed His call to repent and love is to experience the joy of a Father's heart for the return of the prodigal of us all, welcomed home in unconditional grace and acceptance. Once having depended on self and one's own wisdom and way, we now see the error and foolishness of such a path and run home as fast as we can:
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
Luke 15:11-31
I close with a thought regarding the cross. The verse above from Paul's letter to the church at Colossae is profound in it's simplicity. We don't often think of Calvary as a place where a transaction of debt was made, but that is precisely the case. At the cross, the eternal perfect Son of God took our debt and paid, with His own precious life and blood, what we owed to the Father. In exchange, those who trust the efficacy of His payment and the reality of His resurrection life, receive not simply an account devoid of debt, but one filled to overflowing with all the riches of the Father as joint heirs with the Son. (1 Peter 1:17-21; Rom. 8:17)
In fact, incredibly, it is the debt itself that is nailed to the cross, dead forever, while we live continuously in the eternal riches of Christ Himself. Our Savior has triumphed in that day's transaction, and His victory will never end. (Col. 2:13-15)
From no limit to our debt to no limit to our surplus, in Him. Oh, that men would choose to accept the power of love that breaks the shackles of debt, and live in the glorious freedom of the surplus of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21
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