Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever been in debt? Signed a promissory note that came due and you couldn't pay it? Day and night the burden rested on you, and you couldn't sleep.
A financial debt hanging over your head is bad enough, but there is another kind of debt that is even heavier to bear--and that is a moral debt. When David committed adultery and murdered Bathsheba's husband, there was a terrible burden on his heart. He says in Psalm 32:4, 5, "Day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledge my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden." Such guilt can take all the joy out of life; it can even kill.
In Colossians 2, Paul rejoices in the Good News of a debt paid, but more is involved than someone else paying it. Paul's big idea is that we actually share in what Christ did, not that we contribute anything. We don't contribute even 1 percent, but we identify with Christ in what He did to set us free. Let's read the passage:
"You, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (vss. 13, 14).
Your debt is paid; your are free. But that doesn't mean that you want to go into debt again. You share in the victory by identifying with Christ, and that means you appreciate what it cost Him to set you free. Forever afterward, as you walk in freedom you also walk in humble obedience.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: 1994 Phone Message.
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