Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How much forgiveness was given to you (and me) when Jesus died on His cross? In a story that Jesus told, He explained it so clearly that a child can grasp it.
"A certain king" found that his servant owed "ten thousand talents" (millions/billions of dollars?), obviously an expression intended to mean an impossibly enormous sum. The "servant ... had not to pay"--he didn't have a dime. So the "lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt." Imagine an electronic transfer of funds; the king's account debited, the servant's, credited. Now think of "all men" being likewise credited--you have a penniless "king." So was Christ "penniless" on His cross--"forsaken" of the Father, bearing the debt of "every man's" sin in His soul, "made to be sin for us," "all men." An infinite transfer of credit! (Matt. 18:23-35).
The "servant" promises in old covenant terms "I will pay thee all," and his "lord … moved with compassion" treats him with new covenant "much more abounding grace." But the servant then demands "a hundred pence" from his neighbor, thus demonstrating he does not receive the forgiveness, although it was truly given him. The king's account was drained by the debit of what He gave His servants; He had given away all His righteousness, "emptied Himself." The servant cannot reverse the transaction, for it was "done" (the cry on the cross was, "It is done!"). But he takes the debt back on himself voluntarily, and totally, unnecessarily, must from now on deal with "the tormentors" until he shall "pay all that is due" (which of course, will be never, ever).
So in the final judgment, when the lost die the second death, they can never "pay" the debt of sin they owe; they can't. Christ already paid it, even though they have never repented. "By grace" they had been saved, but like Esau with his birthright, they had thrown away what "the king" had given them.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 8, 2002.
Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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