Thought for day: 'He paid the penalty for our sinning'

A dad and his four-year-old son were visiting a department store and on entry they noticed a very large sign which said ‘All breakages are regarded as purchases’ in such large letters that you couldn’t miss it.

The dad was comfortable enough with the message but realised that he had a four-year-old son with him who he would need to keep an eye on. However, despite this, he heard a crash as the child knocked over something which crashed to the floor and broke up.

In a flash, a member of staff was there, saw the situation and said that the item would need to be paid for. The dad said that he hadn’t broken anything and it was the child that had done the damage and that the son being a four-year-old didn’t have the means to purchase the item.

‘Well, it has to be paid for’ said the staff member ‘and someone needs to pay’. And, of course, the dad became the means of the child being released from any payment, even though the dad wasn’t responsible for the damage himself.

It’s a picture of what Jesus has done, paying with His life for our sinning and wrongdoing, even though He wasn’t responsible for them. None of us has the power or where-with-all to be released from the penalty of our wrong doing and from the consequences by ourselves.

The result of our sinning, or wrongdoing, is eternal separation from God, yet Jesus came to release us from that penalty, and indeed to renew us and God’s Holy Spirit is there to support and guide us in the right ways. Just as that four-year-old was released from the penalty of the damage he had caused, so we too are released by what Jesus did by standing in our place.

We are the guilty parties, and deserve our fate. But and knowing this, Jesus came down to be there for us and stand in in our place and paid the price for all our sinning. And we can go free as we ask for forgiveness and the strength and power to follow Him and lead clean and blameless lives. Why did Jesus do it? Simple…He loved and loves us that much.