We are God’s creation. He loves all humanity. He made us and put us on the earth. But we sinned, and as sinners, we deserve to be punished for our wrongdoing. However, God has made it possible to be released from that debt. Despite all our sin and iniquity, God was driven by His great love to forgive us. The price that Christ paid for our forgiveness with God also pays the debt our brother and sister owe to us.
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Show Notes:
When we talk about sin, we are really talking about debt. Since God is righteous and just, He cannot simply overlook sin—this is a debt that must be paid. Therefore, in His great love, He provided a way for our debt to be forgiven.
Through His sacrifice, Christ came to set us free. But He did not come to just set us free from the debt that we owe God—He came to set us free from all debt, especially the debt that we owe to one another. God wants to cover and forgive our sin, but He wants us to cover and forgive the sins of others in the same way and through the same method, which is the sacrifice Christ made on the cross.
When Jesus taught His followers the Lord’s prayer, He then commented on only one point: “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:14-15).
When we think about salvation, we always use the terminology of grace: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). It is true that our salvation is a gift of God. But it is a gift that we can forfeit. If we want to be forgiven, we must forgive. If we do not meet the requirement of forgiveness, then the Father is able to remove His grace from our lives. God help us.
Key Verses:
- 1 Peter 4:8. “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
- Matthew 6:14-15. “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
- Ephesians 4:32. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
- John 15:12. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
Quotes:
- “When we talk about sin, we’re really talking about debt—and it’s a debt that must be paid.”
- “The Lord forgave you and He washed away all your sins, but now if you do not forgive, all that sin literally comes back on your head and none of it is forgiven—and you have to repay it.”
- “Will you now accept the suffering and sacrifice of Christ and honestly cancel all debts and IOUs that you hold against others, or is His blood not enough to pay your brother’s debt?”
Takeaways:
- Let us receive the suffering and sacrifice of Christ as full and complete payment and at this moment cancel every debt and IOU others owe us.
- Let us recognize Yeshua and His sacrifice on the cross as full payment of every debt and IOU that we feel that others may owe us.
- Let us reach into the same love that God demonstrated to forgive us our debts, so that we are able to forgive the debts that others owe us.
- Let us remember Yeshua’s admonition to each one of us: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).