I’m very much an advocate of getting out of debt. You’re probably aware of that if you’ve browsed my site. Nearly all of the debt in our lives comes from the choices that we made. But one debt that all people have is something that no human being can ever repay. But it has been paid thanks to what happened on Resurrection Sunday.
All human beings to ever walk this earth have a fallen and sinful nature. We are sinners by default. From birth, we are born into sin and are in bondage to our sin.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
Psalm 51:5
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Everything we do in accordance with this nature is in open rebellion against God and his righteousness.
They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
Psalm 14:3
This sinfulness is our debt, a burden from which we can never free ourselves. We cannot achieve righteousness through our own works, and can never atone for the unrighteousness in our hearts and deeds.
Resurrection Sunday Means Hope and Life
But in spite of this tragic situation, there is hope. Out of the eternal abundance of God’s grace and generosity, he offers forgiveness of this debt for those who call on His name.
This great debt, a debt that demanded our lives as payment, is no longer on our account when we accept the gift of salvation and turn from our wicked ways. One sacrifice paid the price for all the believing on that Resurrection Sunday.
As the great Old Testament prophet Isaiah wrote hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, He took our sins through his death.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
Isaiah 53:5-6
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
Only a completely righteous person could take the punishment for our sins and free us of our guilt. That man was Jesus Christ who lived on this earth over 2,000 years ago, who offered Himself as a substitute to take that judgment and condemnation.
Why would a God of judgment and wrath offer a way of forgiveness? This same God of righteousness and justice is also a God of mercy and grace. And though no sin can go unpunished, He offers forgiveness and healing to those whom He has called according to His purpose.
That was true 2,000 years ago and still is true to this very day.
How Now Shall We Live?
As a financial coach, I teach people to handle their money according to God’s ways. God’s ways seem to work best, perhaps that’s why he gave us a handbook that He calls us to live by. Many of the principles I teach come directly from that book.
“The borrower is a slave to the lender.”
“Do not cosign a loan for anyone.”
“The hand of the diligent will prosper.”
These are practical teachings that have great merit. But these principles and practices do not grant us salvation. They will not pay our spiritual debt. The only payment that will suffice for our eternal spiritual debt is the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
This Resurrection Sunday, I hope you seriously contemplate the weight of that sacrifice, and what it means for those who follow His Word. God has set us apart. That means we must live differently than the world around us. As Dave Ramsey might say, this means we’re “weird people.”
In my mind, that’s perfectly okay, because sometimes being weird is the best way to be. Normal is broke, normal is destitute, and normal is lost. But there is a brighter way, and that way is to follow the one who so graciously offers salvation to anyone who believes.
He is Risen!
