Spiritual debt mounts, but Jesus paid it for the faithful

Ivan Grindlay contemplates indebtedness that goes beyond finance and explains how that debt is forgiven.

In today's consumer society, it's hard to stay out of debt. How can you have a credit rating if never in debt?

Home loans are painful in the early years, until inflation dulls the effect, but don't purchase at the height of the market. But then you can refinance ... at a price!Isn't spending good?

We buy, keeping someone else in a job. Spend and enjoy now, though the terms can be perilous! Home mortgage rates at an all-time low, but we still pay 19% interest on credit card debt, the banks encouraging us to increase our capacity.

Right now, European Union nations are feeling the pain of habitual debt generated by a lifestyle assumed to be their birthright.

Consumerism is the norm and, if Francois Hollande and Barack Obama have their way, it will continue, as the world economy needs to be stimulated. Austerity measures only choke. David Cameron will hope the Olympic Games lift Britain from her recession.

But indebtedness goes beyond economics and finance. Of greater eternal significance is our debt to God, and to one another. Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" and "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 39).

An old song comes to mind that puts it well: "There was a time I know, when in the book of heaven, an old account was standing for sins yet unforgiven. My name was at the top and many things below . . . Now the old account was large and growing every day, for I was always sinning and never trying to pay; but when I looked ahead and saw such pain and woe, I went unto 'the Keeper' and I settled it long ago. Long ago, down on my knees, long ago, I settled it all; yes, the old account was settled long ago; now the record's clear today for He washed my sins away, when the old account was settled long ago."

The symptoms of our sin-sick society are marital and family breakdown, guilt and lack of forgiveness, greed and anger, misapplied knowledge and dubious business ethics, arrogance, selfishness and deceit. This hopeless malaise, so evident in humanity, deepens from generation to generation as we become increasingly alienated from our Maker, the Giver of life, the One who set the standard, having our best interests at heart. We have come to believe the lie that we are masters of our own destiny, elevating ourselves to the level of gods. The more self-sufficient and independent we become, the greater the debt owing to He who put the guidelines in place. In our sinfulness, we fall short of the mark and our indebtedness to God grows by the day.

The answer is not in science, technology, trade, health, education, investment, the media, or our favourite pastimes of sport and movies. It lies in the holy and omnipotent hands of One who is Creator, Saviour and Judge, to whom we will one day give account.

It is evident to the discerning that we are out of control.

Evil is rife and our laws cannot stem the avalanche. We legislate to block the gaps but the system quickly springs a leak elsewhere, for "the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure" (Jeremiah 17:9). Our judges and courts are unable to wrest the drift and the legal profession exploits it, almost at will.

We have become too clever for our own good; so advanced that we are unable to stop the rot; impotent to plug the gaps or fill the hole that we have dug for ourselves. There is a day coming when the Lord of all the earth will judge this world in righteousness and justice, and the crooked ways will be made straight. He still sets the standard and calls the shots, but chooses to let us reap the results of our godless behaviour, rather than turn to God.

If you have come to an end of yourself, Jesus (the Son of God) still extends His hand of love and compassion to you. His offer remains: "Come unto Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest ... rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29). You can be forgiven; freed from the bondage of sinful habits through the cross where Jesus died for you. There is nothing you can do to earn His cleansing mercy, for it has all been done in Christ's death on your behalf. He paid the debt in full. When in faith you turn to and receive Him, the debt is cleared completely and forgotten. I know, I experienced it first-hand, and so can you.

Ivan Grindlay is an elder at Caversham Community Church.

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