"All the More Indebted to His Love"

I have been so busy this week finishing my book review of God Calling that I have gotten behind on emails. Here is another devotion from Look Unto Me. It is true--I am "all the more indebted to His love" and serve Him as thanksgiving for such love unto me.

February 3
So then, brothers, we are debtors. (Romans 8:12 ESV)

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

As people of God's creation we are all debtors to Him, owing Him obedience with our entire body, soul, and strength. And having broken His commandments, as each of us has, we are also debtors to His justice, therefore having a vast debt we are unable to repay.

For Christians, however, it can be said that we are not debtors to God's justice, for Christ has paid the debt His people owed. For this reason believers are all the more indebted to His love. I am a debtor to God's grace and His forgiving mercy but in no way am I a debtor to His justice, for He will never accuse me of a debt that is already paid.

Christ said, "It is finished" (John 19:30), meaning that whatever His people owed was forever wiped away from His book of remembrance. Christ has utterly and completely satisfied divine justice; our account is settled; and the final receipt, signed upon His cross, has been delivered. Therefore we are no longer debtors to God's justice. Yet, for the very reason we are no longer debtors to our Lord's justice, we are ten times more indebted to Him than we would have been otherwise.

Dear Christian, pause for a moment to ponder what a debtor you are to the Divine Sovereign! Think how much you owe to His unselfish love, for He gave His own Son to die for you. Consider how much you owe to His forgiving grace, for even after ten thousand offenses He loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to His power--He has raised you from your death in sin, He has preserved your spiritual life, He has kept you from falling, and although a thousand enemies may have crossed your path, you have been empowered to continue on your way. And finally, consider what you owe to His unchangeable nature-though you have changed a thousand times, He has never changed even once.

You are as deeply in debt as you could possibly be to every attribute of God. Therefore you owe the Lord all that you are and all that you have. "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship" (Rom. 12:1).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

We owe everything to Christ, for "he bought us with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). As a result many may declare as Peter once did, "I will lay down my life for you" (John 13:37). Of course, he said this just before he denied Jesus three times! To be fair, Peter made this bold claim before the Holy Spirit was given.

Yet it is still easy to say, "I'm willing to die for you, Lord." The question is: How many of us are willing to live for Him? After all, Paul said to "offer your bodies as living sacrifices." Not dead sacrifices!

"For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!" (Ezek. 18:32). "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Luke 20:38). "For in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

"He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Cor. 5:15).