Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, 'Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb' (Exodus 12:21, TNIV).

We live in a society where the concepts of sin and debt don’t mean the same as when Jesus was growing up. The Israelites knew that sin against God had to be taken care of. Sin created a debt that had to be paid. Today, we don’t sacrifice lambs or take a man’s hand when he steals from us. People fudge what’s considered a sin and don’t always pay the consequences of their actions.

But the same principles of sin and debt still apply. If your enemy hurts you, you feel there’s a sort of “debt” owed to you. Either your enemy pays that debt with some form of punishment, or you choose to forgive your enemy. If you forgive, then you are paying the debt for your enemy’s actions.

When we sin against God, no matter how small, there’s a debt that needs to be paid. Rather than us paying for our debt, Jesus has. He’s the sacrificial lamb. At the Lord’s Supper, which was the passover meal, there wasn’t a lamb on the table because Jesus was the passover lamb. He’s the sacrifice for all our sins.

Let that sink in. Jesus is the lamb that was killed to pay your debt. If we forget that, we take for granted what Jesus should mean in our lives.

 

FAITH STEP: What can you write or draw on a card that will remind you to hold close your debt and how Jesus died to pay it?