Credit or Debit

Hebrews 13:20-21

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Credit or debit? You’ve had to answer that question thousands of times at the cash register, I’m sure, in the last several years. And it dawned on me recently when I was at the store about how this looks to my children. We were shopping, and my son wanted something expensive, and I said, no, it’s too much to spend right now. And he says, all you have to do is give him your card. When do you give them your card, they’ll let you take home whatever you want. So I understood that from his perspective, it looked so easy. Just hand over your card, put it in the machine, and you get to take home whatever it is you want to buy.

But we know that there’s more to it than that. That there’s the second side. The fact that you need money and you need to make a deposit to back up that purchase, whether it be on a debit card or a credit card. When it comes to us looking at the blessings that Jesus gives, sometimes it can seem too easy. Scripture calls Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep, and as our great Shepherd, he brings us so many blessings. Hebrews 13 says this.

Now may the God of peace—who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, in connection with his blood, which established the eternal testament— may he equip you with every good thing to do his will, as he works in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)

So we can look at those blessings that our good Shepherd brings to us, whether they be spiritual blessings like forgiveness and salvation and eternal life and hope and comfort and courage in this life, or physical blessings, everything that we need to support our body in life, we can sometimes look at it like it’s too easy. Why doesn’t Jesus give us more and more and more? But we need to remember that in order to give us these blessings, Jesus had to pay for them. To do that, he makes a deposit. He establishes an eternal testament, an eternal covenant, a promise from him to you. And to do this he gives himself.

He lives perfectly fulfilling every single commandment, every single law. Then he dies for us innocently on the cross, paying our price. Now he’s able to bless us because he has done this. So now he comes to us and he says, yes, I can give you forgiveness because I earned it. I paid for it with my innocent life, my perfect death. I can give you holiness. I can bless you with holiness because I myself was holy. I can give you hope and life. Because I died and rose again to give you new life. It was through this that he established for us an eternal testament and eternal covenant.

Our checking account, our balance can run out. We can spend more than we have. But there is no amount of sin or guilt or shame or unrighteousness that can overwhelm the grace and the forgiveness that Jesus has won for us. Every single time we turn to him in repentant faith, there is forgiveness. Your sins are forgiven because of what Jesus has done for you. Through faith in him all of those blessings are attributed to your account. So every time we look at him, he is there not in anger and wrath and retribution and revenge, but he is there as our great Shepherd, with compassion and grace and forgiveness and comfort.

Remember the blessings that Jesus brings. Remember what it took for him to win these blessings for you. They’re not just free, but that he went to the greatest lengths imaginable to win them for you. When we view his gifts in this way, it makes his love for us become all the clear. Amen.