… having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness …
Summary: Understanding what it means to have our “legal indebtedness” canceled requires an understanding of the law.
We know from previous passages that Paul often mixes metaphors with reality. We also know it can be hard to tell the difference. This passage presents us with the same question: Is Paul speaking literally or metaphorically?
The concept of “legal indebtedness” depends on the existence of law. Without laws, nothing is illegal.
God’s law is like that. God doesn’t need a legislature to confirm his laws or a police force to enforce them. All God has to do is speak, and his words become law.
When God spoke to Adam and said, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:16-17), he was speaking Law. Eve knew the Law, but she chose to listen to the serpent instead. Adam, of course, chose to listen to Eve.
Because they broke God’s Law, all of their descendants (us) are legally indebted. Born with a debt under the law, and having added our own transgressions to that original debt, we are guilty under the Law.
God’s Word describes the serpent as “the accuser” (Revelation 12:10). The serpent is tireless. He “accuses them before our God day and night” (ibid). People who know the Law are bound by the Law. If you know right from wrong, you are bound by that knowledge (Romans 2:14). Whatever our transgressions, even if they are only inherited through our connection to Adam and Eve, the Accuser can find something to point at.
Until Jesus paid the debt by dying in our place, he “canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness.”
In this sense, Paul is speaking literally. We are literally guilty under the Law. Sin has many faces, whether inherited or earned, and because of it, we accumulate legal indebtedness. Jesus literally paid our debt. He “canceled” the charge of legal indebtedness by providing something of greater value.
God made the Law, and when we failed to keep it, God made a way to buy us back.
It is hard being perfect.
A lesser god might have just cheated and said, “Well, fudge. Look what those critters I made went and did. They broke my law! Shucks … what should I do? I could change the rules, I guess…”
Our God could never do that.
Thank you, Jesus!
Application: Thank God for his kindness. Thank Jesus for his sacrifice.
Food for Thought: How does God measure “legal indebtedness”?
How does God measure “legal indebtedness”?
Human reasoning will often speak of sins as having degrees, big sins to little sins. God is Holy, Pure, without sin. Any sin no matter how small, will contaminate purity, making all sin equally contaminating to God who will not allow even a spec to be in His presence.
At the same time our bible clearly tells us there are degrees of sin.
John 19:11, Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
James 2:10, For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Galatians 5:19-21, Matthew 5:21-22, Luke 16:10.
Jesus has paid the price for the sins of all mankind, John 3:16, and His presence in our hearts has made us acceptable to God. Free from all legal indebtedness.
“Degrees of sin …”
Hmmmm…
So, Ron, are you telling us that God measures sin with a thermometer???
🙂
Kinda, Maybe, No. But it is a thought!
🙂
I agree with R2T2. The first passage I thought of was James 2: 10 – which he quoted.
Our God has a perfect standard. Any sin thus puts us into the category of needing to be saved and needing a Savior to pay the price we cannot.
Thanks, Rich.
It is kind of like asking how much can you break glass and still call it “glass.” Once broken, in even the smallest corner, the glass goes from “useful” to “garbage” pretty quickly.
How does God measure “legal indebtedness”?
We are measured against righteousness, and even “one sin” is less than righteousness. “One less” than righteousness is still unrighteousness.
But wait, there’s more…
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Who then is capable of being the judge? Only the righteous. The “almost righteous” (if there was such a thing) cannot judge because it brings into question their own “righteousness.” God is righteous, and Christ is righteous. Only Christ can stand before the judgment seat of God and say His righteousness covers the sins of those who call Him Lord.
Romans 10:3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Romans 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
Thank you, Chris!
You have ‘flipped the script’ on us. Instead of measuring righteousness by what we don’t do (i.e. – breaking the law), you point us to our need to fulfill the whole law (i.e. – doing what the law requires us to do for God and our neighbors).