"BTW, I Paid Off Your Debt"

"By the way, I paid off your debt."

I was standing in the entry way of our home a couple of decades ago when my dad said this to me. He went on to explain that he had seen my bill for my student loan laying out in the open and decided to pay it off for me. I was speechless. The debt that I had been slowly paying down on for several years was all of a sudden gone. Wiped away!

I was blown away, but not overly surprised. That's how my dad rolled. If he had it within his power to help out, he did. He would bend over backwards to provide for his family. I didn't ask him to help me out with this debt, he just did. He saw I had a debt hanging over my head and he just took care of it.

It could never be said of my dad that he was a wealthy man. While there were times when he worked to save a little, the truth is his bank account never held a large amount of reserves. He had a family with five kids and sacrificed for them constantly. I make that point to help you understand the magnitude of him paying of my debt. I have no idea where he got the money to pay off my student loan, but I can assure you that it was indeed a sacrificial act on his part. He had to be willing to give up something in order to free me from the debt that I had hanging over me. I'm not sure how long it would have taken for me to pay off that debt but in an instant it was wiped away.

I owed another debt. This debt was a bit heftier than my student loan. It was not a debt that could be measured in dollars or cents. This debt required my life. Scripture declares that the wages of sin is death. Sin had condemned me to death. Yet, in the same way my dad had paid my student loan, someone else paid off this debt as well. While the world is distracted by bunnies and colored eggs, this weekend serves as the anniversary of the day Jesus stepped up to the plate and paid off my debt. It's the time of year I celebrate the moment He set me free from a debt that demanded payment from me. My freedom cost Him dearly.

We've all seen images portraying the horrors of the crucifixion. Images of a man brutally beaten and bruised. Scenes of a man shamed, dishonored, and mocked. We've all seen the images attempting to paint us a picture of what it looked like for Jesus to die on the cross. It was ugly and disgusting. It was a man naked, broken, bleeding, and gasping for air. It was a man nailed...NAILED to a wooden cross hanging along side of common thieves. Have you ever pictured yourself in this moment? Have you ever pictured that as being you? The reality is that it was suppose to be you. It was suppose to be me. He took our place. He paid off our debt!!! It was our cross, our punishment, our debt and in an instant it was all wiped away.

It was wiped away by a God who desperately loves us. A God who loved us enough to take our place on an ugly, disgusting cross. In that moment the One who blesses became the cursed, the Life Giver subjected Himself to death, and the Perfect One became our sin. And it was all for the purpose of setting us free. God's desire for us to live in freedom wasn't simply taken care of by a snapping of His fingers followed by the removal of our debt. He didn't ignore it or sweep it under the rug. He paid our debt!

The day my dad paid off my student loan, I was instantly freed from that debt. I no longer had to concern myself with paying it because he had paid it for me. I was free to live with the assurance that my account was taken care of. In the same way, today I live in freedom knowing that Jesus has paid my debt. My debt has been paid in full and my account has been taken care of! The central message of the Gospel is the powerful truth that God sent His Son into the world to save humanity and set mankind free. God longs for His children to live in total freedom. So, in the middle of all the noise in our world today, I pray you can hear His voice declaring, "BTW, I paid off your debt!"

Author: Tim Stone

Tim is the lead pastor at Westlake Fellowship in Montgomery, Texas. If you live in the area, join us Sunday mornings at 10:30 am at 19786 Hwy 105 Suite 120 in Montgomery (beside Magnolia Diner).

www.westlakefellowship.org

Click here to get a copy of Tim's book, "Yep, Even That One: a believer's guide to loving your neighbor"