Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. There are debts which a
man cannot repay even though he may owe them. These are those
debts wherein the lender expects no payment, having settled the
debt with his own money. This is the debt of love. Love
does not demand payment, yet love desires to pay. This is
that debt which is spoken of by Paul when he says, For the
love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them and rose again. For ye know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be rich. This is the sort of debt that
Paul has in mind when he writes, we are debtors not to the flesh. All men are born as debtors to
this monster which inhabits their body and would possess them completely. We have been its willing subject
since the day of our conception and have come forth from our
mother's womb speaking lies. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. We shall be plagued with
its presence until it is completely consumed in the grave and the
worms have utterly destroyed it. Job expressed the hope of
those whose every debt is paid by that one whom he rightly describes
as my Redeemer. Our body and flesh are closely
related, though not exactly synonymous. Where you find one in this world,
you will find the other. Yet just like the Word of God
divides between the soul and the spirit, so too is there a
division between the body and the flesh. Job has regard to
the consumption of the body and the subsequent resurrection of
it in the day when Christ shall open the graves of those that
sleep, causing His elect to behold Him in His glory, not in the
body of another, but in the same body that He deposited in the
earth, but is then raised in a glorified body which is incorruptible,
without the flesh which demanded their allegiance while they dwelt
in this lowland of sin and sorrow. We owed a debt which we could
not pay, as the law demanded our total destruction. For the
soul that sinneth shall surely die, since the wages of sin is
death. We were gladly the bond slaves
of sin, and our innate corruption was not even a concern to us
when we walked according to the Spirit, that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. By nature we were no different
than they. In such a state we embraced the flesh and acted
in a fashion which manifested our allegiance to it. Christ
Jesus the Lord came into this world in the likeness of sinful
flesh on the account of the sin of his elect. In order to cancel
their debt of sin, which the law demanded to be paid, he did
gladly and fully pay every jot and tittle which was owed by
them, satisfied that law completely, and demonstrated his ability
and desire to be their justifier. Therefore it is clear that the
debt which his people had incurred has now been settled, and there
is nothing left for them to pay. Religious men often speak of
Christ dying for sin, yet they are reluctant to give him the
glory due unto his name. They tell us that it is true
that Christ paid for our sin, but in order for his payment
to take effect, the Lord yet requires something from us which
they call faith, and is a debt which we must take care of or
perish. This is a false gospel which gives glory unto men, and
in reality denies that Christ has obtained eternal redemption
for every one for whom he bled. The truth is that redemption,
justification, and sanctification are complete in Christ, who has
not only satisfied the sin-debt of every one of his children,
but has set them free from the law of sin and death, which ruled
in their members from the very beginning. He has canceled any
debt which even in their imagination they could have owed. By the
power of His Spirit, which works in them both the will and to
do of His good pleasure, He has delivered them from the power
and ability of the flesh to condemn them in any wise. Those who are
awakened by His Spirit and brought out of the darkness and into
the light are no longer debtors to the flesh, which at one time
ruled in their minds. They are free from the obligation
to serve this sinful flesh, being inhabited by the same Spirit
which raised Christ from the dead. and are now constrained
by the love of Christ. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. But God, bethink that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered you. Being then made free from sin,
ye became the servants of righteousness. The sons of God were once bond
slaves to the flesh. Being born again, they are now
even more willingly debtors to Christ alone. Whom do you serve? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.