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We cannot pay with what we do not have
Some people have suggested that all a person needs to do is sincerely reform, do better in the future, and thus live down past shortcomings. This is supposed to make one fit for heaven. Will this work?
Let us assume that the manager of a business goes to his accountant and finds that his company owed $50,000 to the manufacturers and other merchants. He says, “Write letters to all those people and tell them that we are not going to worry about the past, that we have turned a new page in our ledger, but we promise to pay 100 cents on the dollar in all future business, and from now on to live up to the highest standard of business integrity.”
The accountant would think his employer had gone mad, and would refuse to put such a proposition to the creditors. Yet thousands of otherwise sensible people are trying to get to heaven by just such a proposal, offering to meet their obligations towards God for the future, but refusing to worry about the past at all. Yet in Ecclesiastes 3:15, we read, “God requireth that which is past”. Even if we assume that we can somehow begin to live an absolutely perfect life – which is certainly impossible – we are still sinners.
It is said that Jesus came to pay a debt He did not owe for us who owed a debt we could not pay. God’s Word declares, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). In His death, He laid down His divine, sinless life in our stead, settling once and for all, the debt we owe.
Thought: Jesus calls – “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.”
Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for dying for me, that my sins may be forgiven.
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This audio CD is approximately 59 minutes, divided into 34 chapters.
Edited by Dr SH Tow
Please note that the last paragraph of some chapter texts may not be present in the audio tracks.