Have you ever heard of the term “life debt?” It is mainly used in a literary sense in books or movies, but the meaning of this phase is “a literary phenomenon in which someone whose life is saved or spared by another becomes indebted to or in some way connected to their savior.”
For example you may have read in a book about a man saving another from death, and the man who was saved was so thankful that he pledged his life to the other man’s service. Whatever needed to be done he would do it, because if he hadn’t been saved he would have died. He was indebted to the other man.
But the Bible is no fictional movie. This is not a made-up story in a book on a shelf. This is real. Jesus died for our sins in order to save us from the punishment of eternal damnation that would awaited us otherwise.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
We really do owe the Lord a life debt, because He died for us so that we could have eternal life and live. We owe our lives and souls to Him, because without what Jesus did for us we would have all certainly perished.
We need to realize that Jesus wasn’t forced to do what He did. No one made Him take the nails on the cross. No one made Him come down from His throne in Heaven and come to live amongst sinners. He did it on His own, because He loves us. Jesus could have left us to drown in the depths of our sins and reap the punishment for them. But He didn’t.
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
The love of Jesus is a gift that we did nothing to earn. We have done nothing to merit this love and forgiveness, but He offered it to us anyway, and so the question remains: what are you going to do with it? How can you show your appreciation to Jesus? Will you give the rest of your life to the service of Christ?
Jesus died for you. Will you live for Him?
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 