Balance Paid in Full

One of my least favorite tasks each month is paying bills. Most of them are taken care of via autopay directly out of my bank account. I’m not referring to those. Instead, I’m talking about the random medical bills that tend to pile up in my “to do” basket on my desk. It is difficult to budget for them because they are never the same each month. 

One particular charge keeps arriving in the mail from a clinic visit six years ago during COVID. Each time I try to pay it online, or by phone, something doesn’t go through, or the reference number isn't accepted. My responsibility gene twitches because I can’t pay it and be done with it—secretly fearing the “powers that be” will one day come pounding down my door and haul me off to jail.

Imagine my surprise as I bring in the mail the other day, only to recognize the familiar clinic envelope with the see-through window signifying another reminder of … the bill. I almost don’t open it and am tempted to file it in the “circular file” next to my desk. 

Sighing, I hesitantly open it, and my jaw drops to the floor. Across the top, a red-stamped message glares back at me:  Balance Paid in Full! I don't know why or how it’s been paid, but a large weight immediately releases from my shoulders and floats into the air.

When all our bills are paid, it is an incredible freeing feeling—to have no outstanding balance hanging over our heads. 

As followers of Jesus, we can experience this same freedom because of His death and resurrection. Scripture tells us, “You were dead because of your sins … then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.  He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14 NLT). 

It’s as if our “sin bill” keeps coming in the mail each month, but we cannot pay it, no matter how hard we try. In Romans we learn, “When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death” (6:23a ERV). The only way it can be paid is through our death, both physically and spiritually.

But here’s the good news:  the rest of Romans 6:23 says, “But God gives His people a free gift—eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When we decide to follow Jesus, that same bill will now be stamped in red—with Jesus’ own blood: Balance Paid in Full! He paid the death penalty for us, so that we might have eternal life with Him. We can know for certain that it has been paid in full and we no longer need to face death for our sin. 

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:1-2 NLT).

Feel free to pray with me:

Thank you, Jesus, for paying the penalty for my sin on the cross. I believe that you have paid my “sin bill” in full, and I will now live forever with You. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may walk and live in the freedom Your death and resurrection bring. In Your name I pray, Amen.