My mobile phone came off contract recently, and so I renegotiated a better plan with my Telco, which would see me paying half of my normal monthly phone bill. You beauty!! When the first bill arrived, I almost fell over. It was three times the amount I was originally paying. Naturally, I was a bit steamed up … wouldn’t you be? After being a diligent customer for 37 years with the same Telco, I was determined to get to the bottom of it. I marched into one of their shopping centre stores, and after explaining my dilemma, the customer representative saw that my account manager had selected the wrong plan option on the screen when changing it over for me. “No worries - it will all be adjusted on the next bill”, the nice lady told me. OK, that’s fine I thought, hoping that they would get it right next month.
A couple of days later I received a call from one of the Telco’s overseas operators. She was great. She understood everything completely, and then shocked me when she told me not to worry about my bill. It was their mistake - they will pay my debt. All of it! And they gave me credit on everything from the previous bill. I was stunned. For the rest of the day I felt like I was walking on air. I couldn’t stop telling all my family & friends what had happened to me. Against all the odds, I had been ‘let off’ from paying my debt.
Sin (of so many kinds) is my debt. I know it. They gnaw away at me from the inside. They grip me and won’t let me go. Like my bills, if they’re not paid for, the debt-collector will come calling. That I’m sure of. There is no escape. No-one has escaped death. No one that I know of … with the one exception of Jesus Christ. On a torture-hill surrounded by both those who both loved & hated him, as God’s Son he chose to pay for my sins/death with his own blood. Nailed and pierced and dying, I hear Jesus’ blood cry out … “I’ve paid your debt. Have a great life!”
My life IS great. Because of this one pivotal event in history, I know that God has forgiven me. My sins are ALL paid for. I’ve been translated to a better contract - the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33). As a result, I can't stop telling my family & friends about what has happened to me. Please God, remind me again & again what a great life I have been given. Forgiven, free & no unpaid debts. Now, that’s a great day!!
“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [ Romans 6:21 - 23 ]
Enjoy the great life you have been given in Christ.
Marshall