February 3, Morning
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors." — Romans 8:12 · KJV
As God's creatures, we are all debtors to Him, bound to obey Him with all our body and soul and strength. Having broken His commandments, as we all have, we are debtors to His justice, and owe Him a vast amount we are unable to pay. But of the Christian it can be said that he owes God's justice nothing, for Christ has paid the debt His people owed — and for that very reason the believer owes all the more to love. I am a debtor to God's grace and forgiving mercy, but I am no debtor to His justice, for He will never charge me with a debt already paid. Christ said, "It is finished!" and meant that whatever His people owed was wiped away forever from the book of remembrance. Christ has fully satisfied divine justice; the account is settled, the record is nailed to the cross, the receipt is given, and we are debtors to God's justice no longer. But because we are not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to God than we would otherwise have been. Christian, pause and ponder a moment. What a debtor you are to divine sovereignty! How much you owe to His selfless love, for He gave His own Son to die for you. Consider how much you owe to His forgiving grace, that after ten thousand offenses He loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to His power: how He raised you from your death in sin, preserved your spiritual life, kept you from falling, and, though a thousand enemies beset your path, enabled you to hold on your way. Consider what you owe to His unchangeableness: though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once. You are as deep in debt as you can be to every attribute of God. To God you owe yourself and all you have — so yield yourself as a living sacrifice; it is only your reasonable service.