Sin as debt. When we think of debt in the natural, we would generally think of owing money. But have we ever considered that we are in debt to Almighty God Our Creator?

I vaguely remember a song, we would sing in our home group many many years ago:

“I owe a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to take my sins away. My savor paid a debt He did not owe to wash my sins away”.

Scriptures use various pictures to point out the seriousness of our position before God and behind the ‘trespass offering’ there lies the thought that we sinners are totally unable to pay off what we owe.

we are in debt to God because of our failure to obey Him and to give Him the honor that He  deserves.

Our Lord, Our Redeemer and Our Friend,, in His teaching on prayer, encouraged His disciples to think of sin as a debt. In Matthew 6 verse 12: He gave them a way to pray in the sermon on the Mount which included the request:

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”.

Sin is the debt, because I don’t think creditors would be impressed, if we were to tell them God has forgiven my debt, that we owed to them. They would most likely still ask were is the money.

Our Lord and Our Friend also told two parables in which He depicted sinners as debtors to God,

Matthew 18 verses 21 to 35: The unmerciful servant;

Luke 7 verses 41 and 42: The moneylender:

These stories were told to show, Firstly, that, though we are in great debt and deserve the severest of punishments, God does forgive great debtors. Secondly, that as followers of Christ Jesus we must also have a forgiving spirit towards others, and Thirdly we should be ever grateful to God for releasing us from our burden of debt {sin, wrong-doing against Him}.

This explanation, that God needs some kind of satisfaction before He can forgive us, sounds ridiculous to some. But that is the reason why Christ came, He could have stay on His throne in heaven.

The reason God The Son came, to be born as one of His creations, this whole salvation story, culminating in Christ Jesus’ once and for all offering Himself on The Cross at Calvary, emphasizes that sin is not something that can be taken lightly.

This is the heart of The Gospel message: ‘That Christ died for our sins’.

To Have Fellowship with God: 1 John 1 verse 6 to 10:

V6: “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with Him,’ and walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth”.

V7: “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin”.

V8: “If we say,  ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us”.

V9: “If we confess our sins {debts}, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins {debts} and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

V10: “If we say, We have not sinned, ‘we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us”

Acceptance through repentance, free us from the debt that separated us from Him, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God Bless

O F J