And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. – Luke 7:42
There is not one among us, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, but owes to God‘s Law a debt which eternity cannot fully meet, even though it is crowded with agonizing regrets! A life of forgetfulness of God and breaking of His Law must be recompensed by a future life of punishment! That is where we stand—can any man be at rest while this is his condition before God? We are debtors—the debt is overwhelming—it brings with it consequences tremendous to the last degree! And we are utterly unable to make any amends for this. If He should meet with us and call us to account, we cannot repay Him one pence of a thousand. We cannot excuse ourselves and we cannot, by any possibility, render to Him His righteous due. If any think they can, let me remind them of this, that to cancel the debt which we owe to God we must pay it all! God demands, righteously demands from us the keeping of His entire Law.
If any of you have any goodness of your own, you will perish forever! If you have anything you can trust to of your own, you will be lost as sure as you are living men and women! But if you are reduced to sore extremity and God‘s fierce wrath seems to burn against you—then, not only may you have mercy, but mercy is yours already! Are you a sinner? Then Christ is the Saviour of sinners! Join hands with Him by faith and the work is done—you are saved forever!
“As soon as we have naught to pay
Our Lord forgives us all.”