Financial debt can feel debilitating. According to a CNBC report published earlier this year, the average American has roughly $90,000 in debt. That number includes all types of consumer debt, ranging from credit cards to mortgages. That number becomes even more staggering when you realize that the real median personal income in the United States was just below $36,000 in 2019. With an average debt so high and a median income so low, it can seem impossible to pay off those debts.
As difficult as it is to fathom finding a way to pay off your financial debt, it’s important to understand that all of us were born with another type of debt. Many theologians refer to it as a sin debt. When Adam and Eve made the decision to disobey God’s one rule for them in the Garden of Eden, all of us inherited a sinful nature. Since sin separates us from God, that means that something had to be done in order to wipe out this sin debt.
None of us were holy enough to pay that sin debt on our own. Instead, we needed a benefactor. A benefactor of grace. When Christ gave His life, He paid our sin debt, allowing us to enter into a relationship with God. The Bible is clear about this topic and provides multiple verses that speak to why we needed our sin debt paid, how it was paid and the peace that comes from having our sin debt paid in full.
The Price of Sin
Romans 6:23 (TPT)
For sin’s meager wages id death, but God’s lavish gift is life eternal, found in your union with our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.
If you have a job, you already understand the concept of working for a wage. Regardless of how much you enjoy your job, you probably wouldn’t want to commit 40 or more hours a week to something that didn’t pay you. Every day that you work, you do so with the expectation that you will receive financial compensation for your time and labor. At the base of this agreement is the fact that your employer is indebted to you between the first hour that you work and the day that they pay you for that pay period.
Sin works in the opposite direction. You don’t earn anything when you’re sinning. In fact, sin is taking from you the entire time that you’re living in it. Until we enter into a relationship with Christ, the Bible says that we are “slaves to sin” (John 8:34). That means that not only are we actively sinning, but we also aren’t even getting any type of benefit for it! Instead, sin only generates death.
The death that sin generates is an eternal separation from God. All of us, regardless of our relationship with Christ are going to experience death. The Bible teaches us that it is appointed for all of us to die before we stand in judgement (Hebrews 9:27). The death that sin brings about is an eternal separation from God.
The more alarming part about our sin debt is found in the fact that we are not able to pay it on our own. We are not holy enough to wipe away the wages of sin. Instead, someone else had to do that for us.
Paying Another’s Debt
Luke 10:35 (TPT)
The next morning he took his own money from his wallet and gave it to the innkeeper with these words: ‘Take care of him until I come back from my journey. If it costs more than this, I will repay you when I return.’
This story ends Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. In this story, we find a beautiful example of sin, it’s impact on us, and our need for someone else to pay the debt that we rightfully owed. The story opens with Jesus painting a picture of a Jewish man who was attacked by bandits on a trip. These thieves “beat him, stripped him naked, and left him half dead.” Multiple people passed by the man. Some of them were religious leaders and professing believers. However, they ignored him and left him in his pitiful state.
It wasn’t until a Samaritan, someone who had nothing in common on the surface with the man, came along that anyone made the decision to help the fallen man. Upon discovering him, the Samaritan administered first aid, cleaned the man’s wounds and even put him on his own donkey before coming to the inn. Once he got there, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper some money up front and promised to pay for any additional expenses when he returned.
While Jesus was using this story as an example of how we should love others, it also paints a beautiful picture of how Jesus paid our sin debt. We’ve established that sin does nothing to benefit us. In fact, you could easily argue that it beats us, strips us and leaves us half dead. Sin causes us to lose relationships with others, it strips us of our joy and leaves us in a position where we are dead and eternally separated from God.
Religion can’t fix us. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t attend church. It simply speaks to the fact that like the religious leaders couldn’t fix the injured man, our religious traditions can’t fix us. Instead, we need someone who will come to us, clean our wounds and take us away from the place where sin has left us for dead. That’s what Jesus did. When we accept His free gift of salvation, He takes us from our sin-stricken state on the side of the road into His marvelous light.
Additionally, He paid our debt. Without diving too deep into a lesson in the original Greek of the New Testament, let’s take a look at something that Jesus said while He was on the cross.
John 19:30 (ESV)
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
While we read the phrase “it is finished” as three separate words, the original Greek text only has one word there. The word “tetelestai” appears where we read “it is finished.” This term was a business term. Shopkeepers would use the word “tetelestai” when someone who owed them money came in to finish their debt. In ancient times, this term was used when someone’s debt was paid in full.
In the same way that the Samaritan who took the injured man to the inn paid his debt in full, Christ paid our sin debt. The Samaritan in Jesus’ parable had no obligation to the man on the side of the road. He could have simply walked around him and continued on his way. Instead, he got down, cleaned the man’s wounds and paid his debt. That’s exactly what Christ did for us!
The declaration that His sacrifice on the cross paid our debt in full allows us to live in the freedom of forgiveness. It means that we do not have to walk around feeling the guilt and shame of our past sinful behaviors. It also means that we don’t have to fear the wrath and judgement of God. Yes, sin comes with a cost. However, it’s not a cost that we are responsible for paying. Instead, Jesus came down to us, cleaned our wounds, took us from a sinful state and paid our debt. And He didn’t simply pay part of the debt. Instead, His last words were a declaration that our sin debt had been paid in full!
A Closing Prayer:
God, I’m not coming to You to ask for anything. Instead, I simply want to say thank You. Thank You for forgiving me, for cleansing me of my sins and for creating a way for me to enter into a relationship with You. I know that I owed a sin debt that I would never have been able to pay. However, Your love for me prompted You to give Your Son as the ultimate payment for my sin. I embrace the freedom of your love and your grace today. Thank You for paying my sin debt in full. In Christ’s name, Amen.