To Encourage You

Romans 13:7-8 “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

You’ve heard this version of the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”  We don’t hear this King James Version of the prayer too often, for the following is often substituted: “Forgive us our trespasses.” However, the Greek word that is used is better translated “debt” as it refers to something that is owed.  So, in what sense do we owe others something in the context of this prayer.  What are our debts?  What are we responsible to give to others, and in what sense do we fail? 

Usually with this word, we think of money.  All of us face this kind of debt, or obligation, if you will, with our money.  We all owe taxes of one sort or another. We owe on things we might buy on credit. We may owe a debt if we borrow money from a friend or family member.  And the Bible is clear that we are to pay our financial debts. As Jesus taught, we are to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:21). In other words, we are to pay our taxes.  We aren’t to cheat.  We are to be faithful to meet this or any other financial obligation we owe.  To do otherwise is to sin. 

But then we are obligated in other ways, as well. As the verse above states, there are some people we owe respect to.  For example, we are to honor our father and mother.  We owe them this much by virtue of who they are.  As parents, they have worked to meet our every need.  In return, we are to respect them. Likewise, we are to “honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17), i.e., we are to honor those in civil authority over us. That’s God’s command.  But then there’s another debt that each and every one of us has according to God’s Word. The verses above tell us to “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

Isn’t that an interesting perspective?  We owe it to each other to love each other.  And why is that?  It’s because it’s God’s greatest command.  As Jesus said to the Pharisee when he asked what the greatest commandment of God was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). 

So then, anyone who violates this command finds himself or herself in debt, so to speak. They become someone who the Bible speaks about when it tells us to pray “Forgive us our debts.”  This is what sin is in one sense. It’s an unfulfilled obligation to love someone. That obligation may include something of a financial nature, such as when someone acts as a thief or cheats or their taxes, but it is much broader than this, extending to every interaction we have with another person, as well as with God.  That’s why one of the offerings of the Old Testament sacrificial system was called a “Guilt Offering” (Leviticus 6:14-15). It dealt with this idea of sin being a debt, something that had to be paid for.  And the offering included paying that debt be it with the cost of a sacrificed animal, which had financial value, or a repayment of money itself for a sin against a neighbor. 

But if every sin we commit incurs a debt, then how much in debt are we?  Well, in fact, it’s an astronomical debt. It’s one that we can never pay enough to make right.  It’s a mountain of debt that no amount of good deeds could ever hope to adequately address.  That’s why any religious system based on good works is so futile. It not only has no idea how great our sin debt actually is, but even if it did, it is absolutely futile in providing a means to repay it. 

So, what are we to do?  What hope is there for anyone?  And that is where our Savior, also known as our Redeemer, steps in.  He offers Himself, through His death on the cross, as the payment for all our sin.  Wonderfully, we are told that believers are those who are “knowing that you were ransomed (i.e., “redeemed”) from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).  Similarly, we are told this: “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, . . .  gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:13-14).

Do you hear that?  Redeemed . . . and zealous for good works.  What truth this is in just a few words. A debt we could not possibly repay has been paid for us by the precious blood of Christ, and with gratitude, we should practice good works, not to earn forgiveness, but in praise to God for HIs forgiveness.  And it’s because of the fact that there is One Who has so magnificently forgiven us all our debts, that we are to likewise forgive our debtors, i.e., those who sin against us. 

So, do you want to rid yourself of some debt, a debt that you will carry to the grave unless you go to the one and only Redeemer who can forever forgive that debt?  Then simply go to Him and ask for it, for as the psalmist has so wonderfully said “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you” (Psalm 86:1).  It’s all summed up so well in the words of this old hymn, something to reflect on if the debt of sin has you down:

“He paid a debt He did not owe, 
I owed a debt I could not pay, 
I needed someone to wash my sin away 
And now I sing that brand new song: Amazing Grace 
For Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay”