"And I owe it all to you Jesus
I owe it all to you
All my life I lay before you
I owe it all to you."
I owe it all to you
All my life I lay before you
I owe it all to you."
I Owe It All
by Paul Colman
Girlfriends, how are you? I hope you are both good and well in this rampant flu season.
Today, may I also ask, "How are your debts?"
Have any of your conversations of late gone like these:
"Sooooo, honey, how deep in debt are we now that Christmas is over?"
"Does it really matter how much I spent on gifts? I was already so far in debt. I don't know how I will ever get out. I would have to win the lottery to ever pay it all back."
"Ha! I am a poor college student with thousands of dollars in loans. I don't even want to talk about debt. I will be working for years before I am in the black. That is if I can even find a job."
"Yeah, well, at least you did not buy a price inflated house in 2006 which now has you underwater by $100,000. Talk about hopelessly drowning in debt. We will never be able to move."
"Ohhh, please, that's nothing. I heard that Santa had to borrow from the Easter Bunny just to make elf payroll the last week of 2012!"
Debt.
In the United States, we are surrounded by debt. We owe personal debts from sources like schooling, housing, transportation, living expenses, or leisure expenditures. We read the news or turn on the television, and we hear about the growing national debt and the fiscal cliff. As we drive around town, we cannot help noticing the empty storefronts of businesses that collapsed under the weight of debt. Even our kids have debt: "Mom, can we go to the store? I owe Tommy a pack of gum at lunch tomorrow because he gave me his Oreos today at lunch."
Debt.
The dictionary defines debt as "an obligation or liability to pay or render something to someone else." As an American, I cannot imagine a single citizen who has no debt, especially after lavishing gifts upon our loved ones during the season of giving. "Christmas" appears to motivate us to spend beyond our means, whether due to capitalistic trickery or actual altruistic benevolence of the heart.
I owe. You owe. Everybody owes somebody. Yet, we have programs floating around to help people who owe in order to become debt-free. Take Dave Ramsey's plan for example: an amazing concept that seems to be working. I have met many people who rave about Dave Ramsey and boast of their financial freedom. And while I smile, nod my head, and dream about how wonderful that feeling would be, I also ask myself, "Are any of us truly DEBT FREE until we give our lives to Jesus Christ?"
Debt.
According to thesaurus.com, debt is synonymous with words like "indebtedness," "deficit," "liability," and "obligation." Debt creates a situation where we owe what we do not have the means to repay. We come up short when the bill is due. The funny thing is, we created the bill; we are the authors of the obligation. We are liable. Individually. Collectively. As a nation. United as a people. We are in debt.
Fortunately God has a plan far surpassing anything Dave Ramsey could dream.
Using the Bible, God speaks to us about debt, about forgiving debts owed us and staying out of debt ourselves.
The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. Matthew 18:27 NIV
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12 NIV
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Romans 13:7-8 ESV
There’s danger in putting up security for a stranger’s debt; it’s safer not to guarantee another person’s debt. Proverbs 11:15
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. Proverbs 22:7 NIV
But the question remains: Are we in debt to God? If so, what is this debt we cannot repay, so immense that a holy God had to leave His perfect heaven and come to earth as a Man? Girlfriends, this is the biggest debt question I have ever struggled to answer. I believe the answer is complicated. In one respect, I owe God the perfect life He created for me--the one I am unable to maintain as perfect because I choose to sin against Him. On the other hand, I do not owe God because His offer of eternal life and reconciliation with Him is a gift. Gifts are not debts. They cost the Giver, but they do not cost the receiver. And yet, I feel the need to repay God's kindness by glorifying and honoring Him in all I do with the new life He gave me. Complicated. So I turn again to my Bible.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23 KJV
What Paul tells us in Romans is that we should get paid death for our sins--our wages for our sinful life should be death. Yes, we should be dead. But God pays us with life. This is God's great plan of debt-free living. He gifts us eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who lived sinlessly and was still paid death. Jesus took our wages--our death--and in its place, He gave to us eternal life. He bought our lives with His life.
...You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV
Ladies, if I have not already thoroughly confused you, I will conclude with this thought: I am debt-free because I am in debt to Jesus Christ! Remember that definition of debt: "an obligation or liability to pay or render something to someone else"? I may have earthly debts until that day when I return to dust, but I will eternally remain debt free because God gifted me with life bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. For that gift, my soul will forever be thankful and obliged to surrender all to HIM.
I pray today you will wrestle with the debt question and emerge victorious in Christ. You have a choice.
Peace be with you!
