Articles
Paying My Way
Paying My Way
By Paul R. Blake
(12/16/18)
A young married couple obeyed the gospel. At their first Sunday worship service, they observed the communion and offering with the rest of the disciples. Their little boy watched them closely as they ate the Lord’s Supper. But when they placed their offering in the tray, he could no longer keep quiet; he tugged on his mother’s sleeve and whispered, “Who’s paying for me?” The lollypop logic of children is amusing. We understand that the contribution is not a payment Christians make for eating the Lord’s Supper; rather, they are two distinct parts of the New Testament instructions for worship. Yet perhaps there is some accidental wisdom in the child’s question.
What debt must every man pay? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). All men sin, and all men die. We do not have the resources to pay for our sins and purchase eternal life; someone has to pay our way. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins… But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:1, 4-5). We had nothing to offer, and so God sent Jesus to pay our way. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). And by the death of Jesus, the price for our sins was paid. “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed” (1Peter 2:24). Jesus paid our way.
And if he had not paid our way? We would not be worshiping today. We would not be singing of our Redeemer, nor praying to God through Jesus’ mediation, nor listening to a Gospel sermon, and especially, we would not be eating a supper to remember that Jesus paid for us. If Jesus had not paid our way, there would be no Gospel, no prayers, no hymns of praise to our Savior, no offering to build up the Kingdom, and no Supper at the Lord’s Table. There would be no purpose for coming together in fellowship; we would still be in our sins and outside the family of God.
So as you sit this day with the family of God eating at the Lord’s Table, ask the Father, “Who’s paying for me?” The answer will be, “Jesus paid it all.”
