Why do we need to be saved, and how does Jesus resolve our problem of sin? There are many images in Scripture to help us think about it--financial issues, slavery, military battles, family life, legal dramas, home construction, ownership of valuables, employment struggles, farming problems, medical diagnosis, and sacrificial images.
Let's start with what I call "financial imagery." There are several references to the world of finance in the Bible that help us understand spiritual truth, including the following: Matthew 18:23-27; Luke 7:41-43; Matthew 10:8; Colossians 2:14; Revelation 21:6. The Matthew passage is most detailed:
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.” (Matthew 18:23-27, NLT)
The idea here is our sin has racked up an incredible debt, drawn off of God's common grace to us. We are borrowing from God every day for everything we are and do. Even our next breath and heartbeat are on loan, especially because our sin deserves immediate death. Think about Adam and Eve. God said they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit. And they did die...eventually. God loaned them many years of life as an act of grace. But we continue to sin, wasting what we borrow, until our debt reaches epic and overwhelming proportions. We are unable to pay (and sometimes we are in denial to think we can "pay it all" if we just have more time, and try harder to be "good enough"). We deserve punishment. Yet God (the king), chooses to forgive our debt and set us free.One interesting point about this image, which is familiar to many, is that we often forget that the King graciously forgives, but in so doing the King must actually ABSORB the loss we have incurred. We tend to under-appreciate the magnitude of what the King is doing for us. Anyone can say, "Your debt has been wiped off the books and forgiven," but someone is actually losing money that is rightfully his. Jesus didn't just tell me, "I forgive you." He also absorbed the loss I created.
This gives some idea why Jesus had to suffer on the cross. The forgiveness of sins is not simply an acknowledgement that our wrongs won't be held against us. It also means that someone has to suffer the loss created by my sinful actions that I cannot re-create. That Jesus was willing to do this for me should only grow my love for him and exalt the glory of his character as the God who truly is love.
