-Final Notice!

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How we hate these two words – especially if we are hard-pressed to pay our debt. Yet these two words will not go away, but they will result in action if we do not settle with our creditor. How easy it is to incur debt. The hours seem like minutes as we spend, spend, spend. People swarm around us with smiles as we choose the more expensive model or order more things. We are also courted by those who entice us with easy payment terms. But the climate changes when we cannot pay. When we defer to settle our accounts, those who sold smilingly undergo an instant personality change. The sun stops shining as thunder clouds blacken the sky. Already the party is over and the funeral has begun. When we are buying everyone is our friend. But when it comes to paying, we do not have a friend in the world. Unless, of course, some pitying patron comes to our relief, to whom we may find ourselves even more deeply indebted. Indeed, the second creditor may prove worse than the first.

Debtors To God
To those who may suppose that they are punctual payers, it must be said that every responsible human being is in debt to God. The Lord Jesus compared our trespasses to monies or goods owed to the Lord. That is why He taught His disciples to pray that God would forgive them their “debts” or “trespasses” (Mt. 6:12, 14).

Obviously, for a greater debt we are likely to see greater consequences. Those who owe millions may expect a severer reaction than those who owe thousands or hundreds. But no one can expect God to overlook their trespasses with a benign smile.

We can see how easy it is to run up debt, even with God. If we sin ten times a day then we sin 3,650 times a year. In fifty sinful years we have run up a bill of some 182,500 “Bank of Heaven” dollars. That is, we are spiritually bankrupt. For we have no means of paying God who values the so-called “meritorious” acts of the unforgiven as worthless currency.

Even well-behaved sinners are already millions in the red. And if you think you have done no harm, remember that the sum of your “little” sins amounts to a sizable figure.

God’s Only Final Notice
The only means of cancellation of our debt is to believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to release you from all of your trespasses, large and small. If you are prepared to confess your guilt and beseech God to forgive you, He will have compassion on you and freely forgive everything. Why? Because “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16 NKJV). Otherwise, do not be deceived – God will call in all His debts and those who left this earth too late for remission will pay back every penny with interest in “the lake of fire and brimstone where … they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10).

Balancing The Books
To relieve debtors of their burden, God has exacted payment from His sinless Son, whom He punished in our place for “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

By this means God has what is owed Him paid in full, for the debt has been paid by Another, Jesus Christ, who owed nothing but suffered in the debtor’s stead. To “balance the books” God raised His Son from the dead three days later, that all who repent and believe may have their sins forgiven and begin a new life (Rom. 6:4-8) with a permanently clean balance sheet!

By Tom Summerhill

Would you like forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ? We can tell you more.

With permission to publish by: Sam Hadley, Grace & Truth, 210 Chestnut St., Danville, IL., USA. Website: www.gtpress.org

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