Balancing the Books
BY JACK WARD
When Jesus was tortured, it was the torture that should have been ours. On a very small scale, we all understand this principle.
Imagine a young boy buying a small piece of candy at the store counter. The clerk rings it up, and it comes to 20 cents. He reaches in his pocket, pulls out a pile of change that fills his small hand, and begins counting, and the clerk helps.
He has a nickel; that’s 5 cents. He has a dime; that’s 10 cents more. He has three pennies. Together 18 cents.
You are behind him and reach into your purse and contribute two more pennies to the pile. Everyone smiles. The boy gets what he wants, the clerk gets what he needs, and you have paid the price.
You got no candy, you had no drawer to count, and yet that boy’s shortfall, for a moment, became your debt, and you paid it. It was your effort and earnings that met the need. You had what he was missing; you provided what he could not.
Our sins require payment to the Judge who holds the balance. Jesus paid that price. Since the cost is eternal, and we are mortal, we could not pay it, but Jesus could and did.
Why couldn’t the clerk just let the boy go with only paying 18 cents? After all, it’s only 2 cents short?
It doesn’t matter what the amount is. The fact is that there would be a shortage. The candy cost 20 cents. At the end of the day, there would be an accounting, and there would be a shortage of 2 cents. Someone has to pay to bring the books into balance. If the books are out of balance, then there is no integrity to the business. A business that has its books out of balance is not in good standing with its investors and even its customers. There must be proper accountability, or a business is basically unjust. I would say that it is even immoral for a business to have books that are out of balance. The books are a lie.
Why can’t God just let everyone into heaven?
It’s a question of justice and integrity — God’s justice and God’s integrity. God’s accounting books are always balanced. We sinned and could not pay for our sin in order to be in good standing with God. Jesus died and shed His blood to pay for our sins. All of our shortcomings — all of our sins — are marked “paid in full” when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We then are placed in good standing with God. Our books are balanced with God.
Any judge who sets a guilty person free with no punishment is immoral and unjust. Suppose a judge has a man before him who is guilty but has truly had a change of heart and life. If he is a just judge, he still cannot let the boy go. But if he comes down, stands by the boy, and serves his sentence for him, he can let the boy go and still be moral, righteous and merciful.
God did just this for us. 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
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