The Debt

The Debt

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. . . .

 

If someone really, really wrongs you; I would suggest there is a debt between you and that person, and it cannot be washed away or ignored.  One thing that you can do with a debt is to can make the other person pay the debt down by hurting them and by finding ways to make them suffer.  As you see them paying for the debt, you can sense that it is being paid down and at a certain point it is gone. 

 

The other thing you can do is to forgive them.  To forgive means that when I want to hurt someone, when I want to slice up their reputation by talking to other people, when I want to just think hateful thoughts about how they have done awful things, I do not do it.  And if I do that, I will find as time goes on that my anger slowly subsides because I am paying the debt down myself.  It is costly and difficult; but when a real wrong is done, it does not just go away and it cannot just be just forgiven without someone paying for the debt.  Someone has to pay the debt or the barrier is there.

 

We have wronged God and our neighbor, and there is a debt that must be paid.  There is a debt that must be paid and when Jesus Christ cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me, the Father paid the debt for us -- Jesus had to die.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining