"Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin." (Hebrews 10:18 ESV)
Jesus paid it all. We’ve heard it said many times that I think we lose touch with the depth and power of those words. Jesus paid it all. Not some, but all. By God’s grace, we are invited to live within the bounds of this truth. Jesus paid it all. He has forever covered the cost of each one of our sins—not in part, but in whole. We know this truth, but are we living in the freedom such unparalleled forgiveness provides?
If Jesus paid it all, there’s no cost left for us to cover. Any attempt on our behalf to pay for our sin through our own version of self-sacrifice or self-punishment is evidence we do not yet understand this truth. Jesus paid it all because we could not. Our sin created a cost that we could not afford to pay. The good news of the gospel is Jesus lovingly did what we could not.
If Jesus paid it all, then there is no punishment left for our sin. Jesus already took our punishment and didn’t leave us any leftovers. No doubt we still presently experience the consequences of our sin, but those consequences are the tools of God’s discipline in our lives to lead us along the path of life. The pains of those consequences are not an exacting of payment for our sin, but rather an ongoing reminder that sin is a departure from our design. These consequences are lovingly given by God to help us remember the way in which we should go.
If Jesus paid it all, then sin no longer defines us. If Jesus has redeemed us and broken sin’s reigning power in our lives, then sin no longer has a say in who we are. We have been purchased through Christ’s sacrifice and made new by His grace. The old is gone and the new has come.
These truths are foundational for the counsel and care we provide our clients. Our clients will regularly need help seeing the beautiful and deep truth of what Christ has done and recognizing what this means for them in their struggles. When they fall into patterns of trying to pay for their sins, feeling like God is punishing them, or allowing sin to set the frame of their identity, we have the joyful responsibility of reminding them of this simple truth—Jesus paid it all.
