Sin: Calculating Our Spiritual Debt To God…
Each year over the course of your earthly life,
if you were to spend the average annual wage (for the United States in 2018)
at the average credit card interest rate (compounding interest!)
for the average life span,
you would owe this amount of money at the end of your earthly life:
87,857,464,412.48.
That’s $87 billion, by the way.
And that’s not purchasing Ferraris and mansions:
that’s making normal, little purchases (at least by American standards)
totaling around $40,000 per year.
Guess what individual has that much money? No one.
Not one single individual on earth could pay that bill at the end of their life.
And that is spending the AVERAGE wage at the average interest rate.
Sin is just like getting a delayed interest credit card at the beginning of your life
with a “credit limit” of what the average person will spend over their life.
Sin tricks us into thinking that the little purchases (“little” sins)
won’t add up (they will!),
sin fools us (and we want to be fooled!) into thinking
that the bill will never come due.
It will.
And like the person who enjoys the snacks in the mini-fridge in the hotel room
and is shocked at checkout when the bill comes due—
they thought those treats were free, were allowed!–
we too will be shocked at the bill that comes
for our sinful beliefs that we passionately clung to
and the sinful actions we enthusiastically enjoyed,
what we believed and did which we thought God approved of (or didn’t care about!)
but that His Word clearly says is sin…
those are part of the bill as well, my friends.
No amount of good deeds can make up for our sinfulness—
no one is spiritually rich enough to pay back the debt we owe to God,
for that is what sin is,
not just breaking a rule
but attacking God personally,
not just “coloring outside the lines”
but also attacking God with our crayons.
A baseball intentionally thrown thru a neighbor’s window
does not just affect the window,
it is a crime against the homeowner as well…
You might say, “Well Bill Gates has $86 billion in assets,
so he comes close to paying off that debt in your illustration!”
But being $1 billion short is still short—
even Bill Gates cannot find that loose change in the cushions of his couches!
And his wealthy friends couldn’t loan him money—
they each have to pay their individual debt which on average is ALSO $87 billion!
And he’d still have to pay taxes on selling all his assets—
“good deeds”—
to even try to pay off his debt.
So even he would fall many billions short.
No amount of good deeds can pay off our debt to God
because of our crimes (sin) against Him…
just as we say about a person in jail,
“He/she has to pay their debt to society for their crime.”
Same is true about our debt to God because of sin.
Only the Lord Jesus can pay our debt, my friends.
Oh how this helps us see the amazing-ness and necessity
of the Lord Jesus’ words on the cross,
His words that are aloe on the deepest sunburn,
His statement
for anyone who will declare spiritual bankruptcy
and receive Him as their Savior & King
to pay their sin-debt:
Christ said as He hung on the cross: “Paid in full.”
Though this imperfect illustration,
do you see the ridiculousness of disbelieving and disapproving of
the Lord Jesus’ words that there is only one way to heaven,
sneering at the Truth that there is only one Person
from Whom we must receive pardon and forgiveness?
If you had an $87 billion debt that you would spend eternity trying to pay off,
if you began to contemplate the suffering you would go through
as you spent eternity under the spiritual weight of such soul-crushing debt,
and if someone stepped up and said that He would pay it for you as a free gift
if only you would turn from your debt,
take responsibility for it,
cry out for mercy for past spending habits
and cry out for transformation to cut up the credit card
and not make future charges to it,
if that Person told you to turn over the deed to your life &
receive Him
as your Owner and Debt-Payer by faith,
how ridiculous would it be to get mad that
ONLY one Person stepped up to pay for you!?
How foolish and insulting to that Man would it be to say no to Him
and try to find your own way to pay off the debt!?
Oh loved ones, praise the LORD that He has provided ONE way,
a certain way for all who declare spiritual bankruptcy
and throw themselves at His feet for mercy.
Please don’t argue with Him
& get mad that there aren’t TWO ways of salvation,
don’t fool yourself into thinking that you or others will get forgiven in any other way…
Receive Christ Jesus as your debt-Payer & Master
& praise Him for being your only Way—
Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life…
Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Psalm 51:1-5: “Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
Matthew 6:12: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Matthew 18:21-35: Please click HERE.
Luke 7:36-50: Please click HERE.
Leviticus 22:15-16: “The priests must not desecrate the sacred offerings
the Israelites present to the Lord
16 by allowing them to eat the sacred offerings
and so bring upon them guilt requiring payment.
I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’”
Psalm 49:7-9: “No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on forever
and not see decay.”
But the Lord Jesus can pay the ransom to set us free & pay off our debt!
Matthew 20:28: “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
John 19:30: “When he had received the drink,
Jesus said, “It is finished.” [paid in full!]
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
Colossians 2:13-15: “When you were dead in your sins
and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,
which stood against us and condemned us;
he has taken it away,
nailing it to the cross.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities,
he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.”
Acts 4:11-12: “Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
12 Salvation is found in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven
given to mankind
by which we must be saved.”
Oh the glorious Gospel!!!!!
