A few years back there was a story line on one of the 'soaps' I used to watch about a a man called Zak who borrowed £1,000 from a loan shark. He then fell ill and was unable to make the required payments which resulted in an extortionate amount of interest building up until the amount owing rose to £8,000. The heavies were making menacing threats and demanding immediate repayment. Of course it was impossible for Zak to come up with that amount of ready cash or even to make any inroad at all into the constantly increasing debt.
The dangers of borrowing money from loan sharks like this has been highlighted in the media so often but people who are desperate still take the chance, thinking it will be a quick fix to their problems. It never is though. The debt gets bigger and bigger.
It’s like that in our spiritual life as well. We all have a massive debt which we cannot pay no matter how hard we try. That debt is to God for the sins we have committed. And the debt grows larger each passing day as the tally of our sin rises and places more and more burdens upon our shoulders and we are surrounded by the ‘heavies’ of despair, loneliness, desperation and anger, to name but a few. And no matter what we do we can never repay it or get rid of it.
The only way any of us can be free of this massive debt of sin and of those ‘heavies’ is by accepting Jesus’ offer to pay it for us.
Jesus already paid the price for all of us in full when he died in agony on that horrible cross, with a back raw from lashing, a head pierced with thorns and great nails in his hands and feet.
But in order to be free of our debt of sin we need to turn to Jesus and ask him to forgive us and turn our lives over to him. When we do that the debt is cleared completely and we have a clean slate, a fresh start and a new life free of sin and its consequences. It’s not our own efforts that make the difference but accepting that Jesus has paid the required price with his own blood. He has paid the ransom demand; recognise that and you will be free.
The dangers of borrowing money from loan sharks like this has been highlighted in the media so often but people who are desperate still take the chance, thinking it will be a quick fix to their problems. It never is though. The debt gets bigger and bigger.
It’s like that in our spiritual life as well. We all have a massive debt which we cannot pay no matter how hard we try. That debt is to God for the sins we have committed. And the debt grows larger each passing day as the tally of our sin rises and places more and more burdens upon our shoulders and we are surrounded by the ‘heavies’ of despair, loneliness, desperation and anger, to name but a few. And no matter what we do we can never repay it or get rid of it.
The only way any of us can be free of this massive debt of sin and of those ‘heavies’ is by accepting Jesus’ offer to pay it for us.
Jesus already paid the price for all of us in full when he died in agony on that horrible cross, with a back raw from lashing, a head pierced with thorns and great nails in his hands and feet.
But in order to be free of our debt of sin we need to turn to Jesus and ask him to forgive us and turn our lives over to him. When we do that the debt is cleared completely and we have a clean slate, a fresh start and a new life free of sin and its consequences. It’s not our own efforts that make the difference but accepting that Jesus has paid the required price with his own blood. He has paid the ransom demand; recognise that and you will be free.
