Paid in Full

By David A. Sargent

    Author James Herriot tells of an unforgettable wedding anniversary he and his wife celebrated early in their marriage.  His boss had encouraged him to take his wife to a fancy restaurant, but Herriot balked.  He was a young veterinarian and couldn’t really afford it.  “Oh, do it!” the boss insisted.  Herriot reluctantly agreed and surprised his wife with the news.

    En route to the restaurant, Herriot and his wife stopped at a farm to examine a farmer’s horse.  Having finished the routine exam, he returned to his car and drove to the restaurant, unaware that his checkbook had fallen in the mud.  After a wonderful meal, Herriot reached for his checkbook and discovered it was gone.  Quite embarrassed, he tried to offer a way of making it up.

    “Not to worry,” the waiter replied.  “Your dinner has been taken care of!”

    As it was, Herriot’s employer had paid for the dinner in advance. *

    God has done the same for us. Jesus’ utterance on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), is a Greek term meaning “paid in full.”  On the cross, Jesus paid for the debt of our sins and He paid the debt “in full.”

    In Today’s Walk in the Word (7/22/21), Joe Barnett stated this sublime truth succinctly:

Jesus paid our sin debt.

We owed it but couldn’t pay it.

He didn’t owe it but paid it.

The debt is no longer owed —

It has been paid in full.

We could get by on nothing less.

We need nothing more.

We rely on nothing else.

“Hopelessly in debt” is now past tense. **

    All we have to do is accept God’s offer of forgiveness and eternal life on His terms.  God will cancel the debt of sin and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

    Your debt has been paid if only you will accept God’s offer on His terms.

    Won’t YOU?

- David A. Sargent, minister for the Church of Christ at Creekwood in Mobile, Alabama, is also the editor of an electronic devotional entitled "Living Water." To learn more about this excellent resource contact David via their website: http://www.creekwoodcc.org

* As qtd. by Darryl Dash, www.dashhouse.com. 

** “Paid in Full.”  Today’s Walk in the Word (7/22/2021) by Joe Barnett, Pathway Evangelism, www.pathwayco.com.