Paid

Galatians 3:10-14

My first job right out of high school was as a bagger at Schnucks. Every so often someone would come through the check-out lane only to discover that they didn’t have enough money to pay for their groceries. These situations were always awkward and tense, the customer was embarrassed, the people in line behind them were frustrated, and it often made extra work for the employees. I always felt so bad for those people. More than once since then, I have been the one standing in a checkout lane coming up short—usually when I’ve forgotten that I already spent the money that I thought I had. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world sensing the eyes of the people around you as you’re caught off guard, scrambling to figure out how this happened and what you’re going to do about it.

Checkers would often say that they wished that they could just let the people who were struggling financially go through, but of course, they can’t because then their till would have a deficit. The debt has to be paid, with no exceptions. However, there are times when the person behind you, in an act of unsolicited kindness, steps in and covers your debt. It becomes hard to contain the gratitude felt for this act of grace. I have also found that when someone does this for me, I want to pass it on to the next person when I get the opportunity.

In this week’s Scripture passage, Paul makes it clear that if you’re going to try to justify yourself before God by following the Law then you have to follow ALL of the Law. God’s word teaches that the price of our sin is death, and the only way to get out from under that debt is to be sinless, i.e. following all of the Mosaic laws and commandments. Unfortunately, our sinful nature always gets in the way of obeying the Law of Moses. Simply put, on our own we can’t pay what we owe. Fortunately for us, there is someone who can, and did, cover our debt on a cross. How foolish it would be if someone found themselves in a checkout lane unable to pay for their groceries but stood there frantically trying to find a means to pay with empty pockets or a maxed-out credit card. It would be especially foolish if they continued to do so after someone offered to pay what they owed. Friends, our debt has been paid.  Let’s try to live with the joy of that knowledge and accept God’s free gift of grace.

In Christ’s Service,

Mike Solomon