There is a debt we all were born with, that every single person... past, present and future owes. There is no amount of wealth that can pay if off, nor any number of good deeds or works performed that will retire or even reduce it.
The Bible
states in Romans 3:23 that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God". It matters not that one person may have tried to be good from
their youth, while another has rebelled and lived a life full of destruction -
both of their eternal outcomes will be the same... unless they receive the
atonement, the payment for their sins that is the centerpiece in all of God's
Word provided by His Son Jesus Christ.
Those who believe that doing good works will get them to Heaven lack the understanding of what God says in His own Word that our righteousness and best deeds and justice are as "filthy rags" in Isaiah 64.
Thinking that
being good or performing works will suffice is like a person owing a financial debt to the banker and then arriving at the bank to pay with Monopoly money. It doesn't
matter how much they brought, the banker will certainly not accept it as payment for the
debt. God states in His Word what is the only payment for sin... in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin
is death.
However, the remainder of that verse contains our hope..."but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." He was the one who paid our debt, by the shedding of His blood for our sins - paying our penalty, and God credits that to the account of those who believe and He declares them righteous because of what Jesus did in His awesome love for humanity.
Consider that if there really was any way possible for man to pay for his own sins... that would then mean Jesus left Heaven, came to earth and suffered an excruciating death for no reason.
The late Charles Stanley simply stated it as "Jesus is called Savior because He came to rescue us from the penalty of our sins."
We have been given the ultimate gift in Christ, and have done nothing to earn it. Our proper mindset is to be humble and receive it as a gift and be grateful. What if you had given a gift to someone, and they instead regarded it as something they earned from you? How would you feel? Salvation is a free gift extended to us.
If you have
accepted Jesus, as we have remembered and celebrated this month His
crucifixion and triumphant resurrection over death, let us regard that we owed a debt
which we could not pay... and He paid that debt for which He did not owe.
If you have
not yet accepted the free gift of salvation, given by the blood Jesus shed on
the cross for your sins, there is no better time than right now to answer the
call God has placed on your heart, and be reconciled to Him forever.
You can ask
God right now to save you, to accept Jesus as your Savior. In Romans 10:9 it is
written "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your
heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." And you
can know that your debt has been paid in full.
God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to
you,
Paul
