Paid in Full

It is finished!  John 19:30

I have signed a lot of contracts in my life.  I am especially careful about signing contracts because I know the contract means that I have to deliver what is in the contract.  If it is services, we get paid for services we deliver.  If it is a loan, we have an obligation to repay the loan.  In our culture, we seemingly can get out of obligations by defaulting or filing bankruptcy, or even failing to deliver the services promised.  However, at the time of Jesus if you did not fulfill an obligation, you or your family could be sold into slavery to repay the debt.  It means you taking on an obligation that you are sure you can repay. 

But how about a debt you could never repay?  That is the debt you have incurred because of your sin.  Your debt is astronomical.  We have a picture of this in the parable in Matthew 18.  The king (master) wished to settle accounts with his servants (slaves).  One of those owed 10,000 talents.  A talent was 15 years wages so the man would have had to live 15,000 years to repay the debt.  Yet the man falls prostrate and still makes the unbelievable claim that he would repay everything if the master had mercy.  I don’t think so!  Yet somehow we feel we can justify ourselves by our works before a holy and righteous God.   To quote our vernacular – seriously?

At the cross, Jesus redeemed this ENTIRE debt in one fell swoop.  The Greek word teleo indicates to fulfill or bring to an end.  It was used being placed on papyri in receipts for taxes meaning “paid in full”.  Not only was the historical debt paid, but any future debt was also paid.  But the debt was costly.  When a contract is forgiven, we think in terms of the contract fulfillment being waived.  But this contract of sin had to be paid and was paid in full.  Jesus bore it in his life on the cross taking every single sin of you and me upon that cross.  The full weight of God’s fury was laid on Him.  We tend to focus on the physical aspects of the cross (because we can somehow relate to them), but God judged Jesus with the full weight of hell on the cross.  We can scarcely imagine that.

“He made him who knew no sin to BE sin so we might become the righteousness of God in Him” 2 Cor 5:21.  How great is that love!