Paid in Full!

 

CANCEL = to erase v. — to remove by or as if by rubbing or wiping off, to cause something to cease by obliterating any evidence, eliminate, do away with, wipe out, abolish.

At one point in our lives we had two mortgages. One was on our current residence and the other on a new house we were building. That debt was scary — at least until we moved into the house and sold the condo. Years later, that second mortgage was also paid and we will never forget the feeling of being debt-free.

How much greater the joy of knowing that my debt of guilt for sin has also been paid, obliterated, abolished.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13–14)

This CANCEL word is translated several ways. Acts 3:19-20 says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord . . . .” Revelation 3:5 also uses the same term: “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” (Revelation 3:5)

Revelation 7:17 and 21:4 refer to God wiping away every tear from the eyes of those who join Him in eternity. As wonderful as that is, the vital truth is that God wipes out the record of our debts which were against us. When Jesus said, “It is finished” He may as well have said, “Sin’s debt is paid in full!”

This morning the news came to me that a dear friend’s husband died of Covid. He believed in Jesus and had his debt of sin wiped clean. The Bible says:

God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, (2 Timothy 1:9–10)

Yet people still die, at least physically. A commentator answers this by saying: “The fear of death as having power to terminate or affect our personal existence and our union with God, as a dreadful stepping out into the unknown and unknowable and as introducing us to a final and irreversible judgment, has been removed.” Hurray!

Christ has abolished the sting of death and destroyed the devil who has the power of death. His resurrection defeated that foe taken death’s sting away by blotting out all its hurtful power. Death is under His control: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:17–18)

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) Jesus ‘inactivated’ death and brought to light the incorruptible life beyond physical death, eternal life with Him! This comforts me — my friend who died is now with Jesus and more alive than he ever was!

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Jesus tells a parable to illustrate the response to knowing He has wiped out and totally cancelled my debt of sin.

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” (Luke 7:41–43)

The longer I’ve been a Christian, the more I realize the power and presence of sin and how easily I can fall into running my own life, ignoring God and adding to that debt of sin. Yet it is paid in full! As Jesus says, realizing the size of it and enormity of what Jesus has done for me deepens my love for Him. This is what that should do in my life — just as a paid mortgage frees up funds to be used in other ways, the Lord wants my debt-free life used in other ways — clearly to express my love for Him by obedience and by loving others as He has loved me.