Paid In Full...

This is the first time that I wrote something about it. I want everyone, whether we've met in person or not, to know this. Though it has been many years since I received it, but now, I have the boldness to share that I had found something real. A treasure that I have not known to exist before. I didn't know that the dinner invitation i received from a classmate on the night of September 2001, will be the one invitation that I had been waiting all this time. An invitation that ultimately changed the course of my entire life.

Before that night, I have lived a life thinking about myself. Only me mattered. I cared only for me, for what I feel, what I want, and what I need. Only considered myself until I found Him. Until the Lord met me face to face. He is the treasure that I found. And I am just an earthen vessel holding this treasure. All that time, I was a vessel of no value, until I received that treasure.

I have heard so many times about how Jesus died for us, so that our sins can be forgiven. I have heard so many times that the verse John 3:16 can be recalled from my memory with just a blink of an eye. I grow up reading, and hearing that verse. But do we really know the real meaning of Jesus's death on the cross? I pray that this will give you a new revelation or understanding on the Lord's dying and resurrecting for us.

Christ, who is righteous, was judged on behalf of us, the unrighteous. So that He might remove the barrier of our sins and bring us to God. On the cross, He was made sin for us. And by dying on our behalf, He was able to fulfill God's righteous requirement. Now for the sake of righteousness, God must forgive us( 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:3, John 19:30).

God has no choice but to forgive us. Let me give an illustration with a landlord and a tenant. Suppose the tenant has not paid rent for twenty years, but one day a friend of his pays all the rent he owes on his behalf. Since the rent has been paid, the landlord cannot then demand any payment from the tenant; if he did, he would be unrighteous. The accumulation of the unpaid rent is like a sinner's "wages of sin" which is death and which MUST be paid. However, Christ paid the wages of sin by His death on the cross. He died on the cross to pay the wages of sin for all sinners. Therefore, by dying on our behalf, Christ fulfilled all God's righteous requirement from us.

Furthermore, not only did Christ die as our Substitute, paying the wages of sin for us but He also resurrected. Because the souls who sins must die, Christ had to die to pay the wages of sin as our Substitute. Moreover, every sinner who believes into Christ has also been crucified with Christ and is thereby dead to the demands of God's righteous requirement. We can tell the enemy, "Satan, do not accuse me. All my sins are forgiven. My debt has been paid. I am in Christ. I am crucified with Christ and have been resurrected with Him." In His resurrection, Christ became the "receipt" of the payment for our sins.

It is like when the rent is paid, the landlord issues a receipt as proof of payment. Likewise, the receipt that proves Christ's death has been accepted by God is the resurrected Christ Himself! He is the proof that we have been justified by God.

Being paid in full doesn't mean we don't do anything. There are two things we need to do right now if we haven't done so. We need repentance. To repent does not only mean we ask for forgiveness but it means a change in heart, a turn in our thinking and our mentality. Formerly, I was moving in a certain direction, with my back turned to God. After I heard the gospel, I turned around. This is the meaning of repentance. Then we need to believe. To believe in the Lord Jesus means to come back to our birthright. To come back to the enjoyment of God and to the expression of God! This is the meaning of repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus. It is just so wonderful! This gospel I'm sharing to everyone right now is not just some ordinance, or doctrine that I know. But the real gospel is a Person! The gospel is Christ Himself, who is real and living, and in whom we can experience and enjoy in all things!

Note: Italicized text are excerpts from Crystallization Study of the Gospel of God, The Ministry of the Word Vol. 13, No. 7. July 2009, LSM