“Comfort, oh comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem, but also make it very clear that she has served her sentence, that her sin is taken care of—forgiven! (Isaiah 40:1,2 The Message)
Paid
I had a recent encounter with a computer hacking identity thief. Our bank was quickly involved and restored all of the funds that had been taken. But they added a word on the bank account statement. The stolen money, a debt, was restored provisionally.
It was in my account, but those funds were not really, really, really there.
But last week I received a letter. The refunds were no longer provisional. The debt was absolutely gone.
When the bank was provisionally giving me credit, I was glad. But when the payment of that debt became absolute, instead of merely nice of the bank, kind of the bank, understanding of the bank… my heart relaxed.
God does not forgive us provisionally. He forgives our debt because Jesus paid it for His people. Our sin debt is not hanging around out there somewhere, waiting to ruin some future day. Jesus paid it.
We are peculiar, our debt is paid.