January 17, 2014
The Greater Debt
I stumbled onto an interesting phrase that
apparently has been around for a long time, but it was new to me. “If I owe you
$1,000 I’m in trouble; if I owe you $1,000,000 you're in trouble.” The thought
provoking observation has a familiar sound. Jesus was having dinner at the home
of a Pharisee when he told his host about two men who owed money to a
moneylender. One man owed 500 denarii, the other 50. Neither had the funds to
repay their loans, so the moneylender cancelled the debt for both. Jesus then ask
Simon, “Now which of them will love him [moneylender] more?” Simon judged
correctly when he said, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.” So,
now I’m wondering about our debt in salvation and whether one person’s debt is
greater or less than another’s. (Luke
7:42-43 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----It depends on whether your talking about getting in, or getting in how far. Any debt whatsoever keeps us out. Even a penny owed is an account too great. I can understand the antinomian thinking, “If you’re going to be forgiven of anything, it may as well be for a lot!” Then the mere getting across the chasm seems to be an equalizer of debt.
-----But there is this strangeness of which Paul writes, something about the fire testing what a man built. (I Cor 3) If he built out of fire resistant materials, it implies his work will survive the fire. These are concepts all strangely similar to the elemental melting of II Peter 3, and the lake of fire. So could it mean there is something of this life which becomes less a loss by somehow surviving in us unto the other side? I think so. I think it is an essence of the goodness in which we did things, to state it overly general rather than overly narrow. I don’t think Rom 3:4 says we all are totally false, but that every one of us has some fallacies. I would presume we have far more falsehoods than perfections, but I suppose each of us has a couple of those anyway. Does that mean we leave the judgment seat with a smile upon our face and with a bit of us which was ok by the Judge’s estimation in our hearts? I think yes. I think maybe that is our “reward” in heaven. And sometimes I think it’s a lot more than just a bit. Maybe, even more, it is also all the right ways you desired to do things, but for whatever reason could or did not.
-----If such be the case, the bigger debt of flammable works would seem to constrain the amount of flame-resistant ones to a smaller, less pleasurable-once-there size. Then, although a little or a lot of debt makes no difference in getting in, it might make quite the difference in being what therein.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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