Debt Canceled
Like erasing words
on a white board,
You wiped away my
sin.
You left no trace of
transgression
and brought me to
life again!
“And when you were dead in your transgressions
and the
uncircumcision of your flesh,
He made you alive
together with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions,
having canceled out the certificate of debt
consisting of decrees against us
and which was hostile to us;
and He has taken it out of the
way,
having nailed it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:13-14 (NASB)
ĕxalĕiphō1813 – to smear
out, i.e. obliterate (erase tears, fig. pardon sin): - blot out, wipe away.
I’ve had an interesting array of jobs in my life, and the
best was the venue God worked through to give me my children. That one also
involves a story of canceled debt. Howard originally hired me to keep an eye on
his teenagers while he traveled with his job. That evolved into helping them
with their home-schooling as well. Then I quit my full-time teaching job and
spent every morning teaching Tom and Esther. Howard purchased a new home
computer and printer to enable me to work from home transcribing, to be able to
create lessons for his children, and to allow my students to type reports and
stories at my house. The understanding
was that I would deduct a small monthly payment for the computer from the bill
I sent to Howard. After just a couple of months of slowly paying him back for
the computer, Howard canceled that debt telling me not to deduct it from my
wages anymore. What a generous gift!
However,
I still had tremendous debt due to medical and dental expenses charged on
credit cards. I was depressed and could not see a way out. About the time Tom
and Esther became adults and left home, my father was diagnosed with cancer. I
moved in with my parents to help around the house. No one blotted out my over
$25,000 of credit card debt; but under conviction that my debt was not
glorifying to God, I began slowly paying it off. After my father passed away, I continued to
live with my mother; and God enabled me to pay off all those credit cards. Talk
about a burden lifted!
An old
chorus begins, “I owed a debt I could not pay.”
The deficit created by my sin was comparable to owing millions of
dollars with interest compounded daily. There was no way I would ever be able
to satisfy the righteous requirements of God. However, Jesus obliterated that
debt when he died on the cross in my place. He nailed my bill to the cross
marked “paid in full.” When I realized what Christ had done for me, I went from
being dead and defeated by my sin to being forgiven and alive in the Lord. God
also allows me to start fresh with him each day by confessing my sins and
allowing him to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).
Lord Jesus, thank you for paying my debt on the cross.
May the change you’ve wrought in my life bring honor and glory to you. Help me
to express my gratitude in service to you and enable me to show others how to
be debt free.
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