Paid in full…

 

Not too familiar with many legal terms. I had to look up the meaning of a surety. This is a person who takes responsibility for another's performance of an undertaking, for example their appearing in court or the payment of a debt. In the Bible, this is a representative who offers himself under obligation for whoever he represents, in this case, Jesus is my surety before God the Father. He is “the guarantor of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22) who willingly offered Himself to pay the debt owed for my sin against God. He said:

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. (Isaiah 50:5–7)
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:18)

Last night our church had a prayer gathering. I wound up in a small group that included the mother and her daughter whose life is in turmoil. Mom needed assurance and daughter needed to know that the Lord would not give up on her. Those who prayed wanted to convey the love and power of God to these two and give them hope. While we didn’t use all the verses in today’s devotions, the Lord gave us what we prayed for, and affirms this to me today. He says:

Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jeremiah 32:37–40)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved… In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3–14)

The love of Christ is our surety for He will never give up on us, no matter what we do. He said:

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:37–40)

Whatever God required for our salvation, Christ agreed to perform for us. He willingly became responsible to God for His people and His work as the Surety of the covenant will not be complete until he presents all God’s elect before Him in glory. He will not fail any one of us.

PRAY: My life and the lives of all who know You are safe in Your care. You keep every promise and love us without measure. Grace overrides performance. We cannot do it ourselves. You stand in our place and You died for all, giving not only security and eternal hope, but also deep joy and peace. Your commitment to Your people is the most precious gift of all.

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.