Most of us know how it feels when we’ve made that last payment on something—whether it’s a car, a house, a credit card, a student loan.
It is so freeing, isn't it, to finally be done with that debt? But what if, out of sheer habit, we just kept making payments? What if we continued to write checks every month even though our debt had been paid in full?
That’s just crazy, isn’t it?
And yet that is exactly what many of us do with God’s grace. We still try to pay on an account that has been paid in full. We keep trying to impress Him with the good things we do. But our good works not done out of a profound sense gratitude for all God has done for us. They are born out of guilt; performed in an attempt to prove ourselves worthy.
We continue to try to earn God's gift of grace, even though it's been given to us for free.
The truth of the matter is this: Our Heavenly Father didn’t simply help us out with a couple of payments on our debt to Him. He tells us over and over again in His Word that He has paid our debt in full. He paid the price for our sin--the wrongs we've done in the past and the mistakes we continue to make--through the death of His Son. We owe nothing. We are in the clear. The cross of Calvary stands as an exclamation point that we have been declared debt free!
When we find ourselves spiritually strapped, trying desperately to compensate for our sinful behavior; when we continue to try to wrestle our burden off of Jesus' shoulders so we can carry it ourselves, we are not experiencing the freedom that Christ came to give us. We must let this incredible truth set in--Jesus bore our sin so we don’t have to. Our Heavenly Father has issued this statement: So if the Son sets you free you are free indeed. (John 8:36, NIV) At the bottom of our personal account, God has stamped, PAID IN FULL.
Our Heavenly Father’s astonishing gift of grace can never be earned. We can't possibly do enough good things in our lifetime to repay Him. But, thanks be to God, we don’t have to.
It is so freeing, isn't it, to finally be done with that debt? But what if, out of sheer habit, we just kept making payments? What if we continued to write checks every month even though our debt had been paid in full?
That’s just crazy, isn’t it?
And yet that is exactly what many of us do with God’s grace. We still try to pay on an account that has been paid in full. We keep trying to impress Him with the good things we do. But our good works not done out of a profound sense gratitude for all God has done for us. They are born out of guilt; performed in an attempt to prove ourselves worthy.
We continue to try to earn God's gift of grace, even though it's been given to us for free.
The truth of the matter is this: Our Heavenly Father didn’t simply help us out with a couple of payments on our debt to Him. He tells us over and over again in His Word that He has paid our debt in full. He paid the price for our sin--the wrongs we've done in the past and the mistakes we continue to make--through the death of His Son. We owe nothing. We are in the clear. The cross of Calvary stands as an exclamation point that we have been declared debt free!
When we find ourselves spiritually strapped, trying desperately to compensate for our sinful behavior; when we continue to try to wrestle our burden off of Jesus' shoulders so we can carry it ourselves, we are not experiencing the freedom that Christ came to give us. We must let this incredible truth set in--Jesus bore our sin so we don’t have to. Our Heavenly Father has issued this statement: So if the Son sets you free you are free indeed. (John 8:36, NIV) At the bottom of our personal account, God has stamped, PAID IN FULL.
Our Heavenly Father’s astonishing gift of grace can never be earned. We can't possibly do enough good things in our lifetime to repay Him. But, thanks be to God, we don’t have to.
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