A Truly Remarkable Friend

God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.   Romans 3:21

God is doing something to make our wrong position right “without keeping the requirements of the law.” In other words, it’s not a matter of God saying, “Get your act together.” That would be an unbearable burden, because we do not have the ability to obey God as we ought.

But this way of being right with God was anticipated by Moses and the prophets. Christ is not an alternative to the law; he is its fulfillment. The law was never intended to be a ladder to heaven. God gave it to us to show us that we need a ladder to heaven.

The only way sinners can come into a right relationship with God is by redemption. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24, NIV). Redemption is erasing a debt by paying a price. A person in the ancient world who went bankrupt could pay his debt by selling himself as a slave. He was redeemed when someone else paid his debt.

Suppose a woman loses her job and is no longer able to pay her mortgage. After a few months, she is so far behind that she has no hope of paying the debt. Now suppose a friend offers to pay the debt for her. He writes a check to pay the outstanding amount and agrees to assume payments for the life of the loan. This friend has acted as a redeemer.

The Bible tells us about a truly remarkable friend, Jesus Christ, who came to pay our debt to God. He offers not only to bring us up to date on our late payments of obedience but to service the lifetime of the loan. To secure this benefit, Christ assumed the price of our sin—that’s why he died on the cross. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Are you still trying to work off the debt you owe God? You cannot pay it back, but by his death, Jesus offers to pay your debt in full.

For further reading, see Hebrews 9