Former American Press staff writer Sunny Brown Farley writes "Naked Faith," a look at faith in its natural form: lived out in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people.

An Overwhelming Debt

Posted April 26, 2009 at 8:11 am
Filed Under Faith & Religion | Leave a Comment

I have a friend who has gotten himself into a financial bind. It isn’t hard to do is it? It mounted over time and finally reached a point where it was insurmountable.

With such a debt hanging over his head, he can focus on little else.

He can’t see over it or around it. It is always there before him and it makes him sad and anxious.

I recently thought to myself, what if someone rich just stepped in and paid this debt for him. What would his debt be to someone like Donald Trump or Bill Gates? It would be nothing. What are thousands of dollars to someone with billions?

I was reminded of another debt – one that was satisfied.

There are several theories on the atonement of sin. The idea is that sin comes with a cost. It separates us from God and can only be overcome with atonement – “at-one-ment” – or reconciliation.

How can we, the sinners, be reconciled to God? It would seem an impossible task. Our debt mounted over time and became a mountainous obstacle between us and God.

There was only One who could pay the debt.

I think this concept is best described in the satisfaction theory of atonement attributed to Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109).

God, through the incarnation, came and lived among us and voluntarily gave his life on the cross to satisfy our debt.

Thanks be to God!! The mountain has been toppled and we now have a free and clear path to God through Jesus Christ.

How relieving, how liberating it is to have our debt wiped away. Praise God!

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