After plates overflowing with saganaki, salads topped with feta and gyros, Tony asked for the check, in Greek. Something he said made my seminary-afflicted ears perk up. I don't speak Greek, but one word jumped out at me. Tony asked for ton logariazmon - 'the check, please.' I had heard that word before and didn't expect to hear it in a restaurant.
It's part of a family of financial terms in the Bible. While the exact word for 'the check' (logariazmos) isn't found in the Bible, its cousins are. The words refer to an accounting or to the reckoning of a debit or credit.
Paul uses a similar word: 'Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute (logizomai) sin' (Romans 4:8). How can God not impute sin to our account? God can't simply make my sins vanish; that would mean he lowered his standards. And that would land us right back in the lenient, nightmarish cosmos, which both logic and Scripture deny. If my sins are not imputed to my account, then who picked up the check?
Jesus did. When Jesus hung on the cross, God imputed our sins to him. All the sin of all humankind was credited to Christ's account. Actually it was a gigantic debit. He became the Lamb of God who 'takes away the sin of the world' (John 1:29).
You might have heard that Jesus died 'for your sins'. Have you ever thought about what the really means? It means he took delivery of each and every sin of yours and died for them. Jesus picked up your check as if he'd rung up the debt.
What can you say about that kind of love?
You can say only, 'Thank you.'
All my life, my Inner Mess had labored to atone for sins that had been already imputed to Christ.
No wonder God says he has cast our sins into the depth of the sea, put them behind his back, forgotten them and made them white as snow. Not because he is lenient, but becuase he is righteous and has imputed them to Christ's account instated of ours.
From How to Keep Your Inner Mess from Trashing Your Outer World, by Bill Giovannetti
No comments:
Post a Comment