The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"Paid In Full"
Those who have received God's freely given grace in the Lord Jesus Christ do not owe Him anything.
"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).
By moral definition, a perfectly just God could not charge for the "free gift" that applies to "all things" (Romans 5:15). Nor could He justly impose a debt beyond our ability to pay. Of course, our natural tendency leads us to feel indebtedness to our Lord, and such a sensibility will be present in every believer when considering the cost and blessedness of our salvation.
The truth remains, however, that the recipient of a free gift cannot be said to owe the benefactor thereof. Herein lies a beautiful truth, namely, the motivation for relationship and service made possible by the grace of the Lord Jesus. Rather than servile obligation, God makes possible in believers a life lived in genuine and loving devotion to Him. We can live "heartily," as opposed to merely dutifully (Colossians 3:23). In fact, God will be satisfied with nothing else, a truth confirmed by 1 Corinthians 13 wherein the Apostle Paul clearly reveals that why we do what we do matters every bit as much as what we do. The "why" is love, the love of God motivating, guiding, and enabling us to "walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2). Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
Do we serve God from servile obligation, or devoted love? One of God's most severe chidings of Israel concerned her failure to relate to Him in genuine devotion: "Thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things" (Deuteronomy 28:46-47). For born again believers who now live with the love of God lavishly resident within our hearts through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the truth even more applies (Romans 5:5). Only loving devotion qualifies as the motivation acceptable to God for anything we do by Him, through Him, and for Him. "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity (love), it profiteth me nothing" (I Corinthians 13:3).
Certainly it seems as if we owe God everything. Believers inevitably feel this. However, He does not view the matter in the light of debt. He sees His relationship to us through the "Paid In Full" of grace, that is, of loving favor freely bestowed upon us because of His wrath furiously executed upon the Lord Jesus for our redemption. In such holy light of our debt fully paid by untold sorrow, suffering, forsakenness, and death, how could God ever relate to us in any motivation other than the grace purchased at Calvary? Thus, as challenging a truth as it may be to understand and embrace, we owe God nothing for salvation and its eternal benefit of "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8). Only in this most holy and solemn light will we ever truly know the love of God in a manner that fosters genuine sincerity and love for Him, made possible by the grace that cost our Lord everything so that we might serve Him in the only motivation acceptable to our Father…
"For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
(Romans 4:3-5)
"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."
(Ephesians 4:24)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous."
(Psalm 112:4)
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