[8] Do we owe God anything?

What if all the good we do NOT do and all the bad we DO is put against us?

Many people live without considering how or why they are here.
Multitudes accept that we are the outcome of evolution and therefore we must exploit this, make the most of it and get all we can.

An alternative is that God designed and created us and this world, and therefore we should ask, Do we owe God anything for creating us and this world?

If God did this, then He must have had a plan and a purpose in it all and we are indebted to Him for our lives.

1. How do we pay for what we owe God?

Is humanity bankrupt?

By bankrupt I mean ‘declared in law as unable to pay their debts’ (the Oxford Languages dictionary definition. ¹

If humanity does owe God to our existence, then how much do we owe God?
Can we give God anything to pay back this debt?
The Creator God relies on no one and is completely self-sufficient in Himself.
The apostle Paul told the people in Athens:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.
Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ “

Acts 17:24-28 ESV

The apostle Paul tells us that God ‘gives to all mankind life and breath and everything’ and therefore we are bankrupt because we cannot pay God back for what we owe.

2. Being bankrupt in the game of Monopoly

Have you ever enjoyed a game of Monopoly?
Or should I say, have you ever endured a game or two?
It can be exciting if you’ve got a lot of property with hotels and houses.
It is also good if you’ve got some property with a house or two, and therefore you’ve got a slim chance of winning.

But if you’re the one with no sets of properties, then your fate is certain!
Whether you survive for the next two minutes or another hour, it doesn’t really matter, because you know what the outcome will be.

You are going to end up bankrupt and you will lose.
There is not the slightest glimmer of hope.
Sooner or later, you are going to land on Park Lane, or something similar.

But thankfully Monopoly is just a game.
When the board is packed away, that is the end of the matter.

3. What is spiritual bankruptcy? Do we owe God anything?

What do I mean by being bankrupt?
Basically, it is when you OWE much more than what you OWN, not just what is in the bank account and your savings, but also the value of everything you own.

This huge gap, this debt needs to be paid back and the credit card bailiffs can come knocking on your door.

But how many of us are in debt to Almighty God?
Whether we realise it or not, we are in debt to Him.
We are utterly bankrupt before Him.

If we have not deadened our conscience, it will tell us by giving us no peace with Almighty God and that we’re in trouble with Him.
Our conscience knows God’s laws.
He put a conscience in each one of us, to accuse or defend our actions, and thoughts, in relation to His laws.

If we are spiteful, unkind, or whatever, the conscience gives us a feeling of guilt.
It has nothing to do with Victorian values or outdated morality.

The conscience has been put in us by God.
We ignore our conscience at our peril!
If we do, it will become weaker, and more difficult to hear.
If we persist in this then we can totally kill off our conscience (see an article on our conscience).

4. What is this debt we owe God?

Is it, not our sin? Our wrong actions, and thoughts?
Our ungratefulness to God?
Our disobedience to His laws?
Take what Jesus said for example:

Love the Lord your God, with ALL your heart,
and with ALL your soul,
and with ALL your mind.
And love your neighbour as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37 NIV

Do we obey that command?
The Lord can help us to love him, He does not expect us to do this on our own.

What is our response to what Jesus says?
Are we taking an aggressive attitude?
Do we say: ‘I don’t want to hear that!’
And so we walk away from God in disobedience?
And the debt we owe God mounts up and up.

Does God ever put us in difficult situations?
Is there anything that will help us make better decisions?
What is our goal in life, where are we heading?

5. How are we going to pay the debt we owe God?

We are in a hopeless mess if we are without God in this world.
All our money, our possessions, and our knowledge cannot deliver us from this problem.
In Psalms, it tells us:

A person can never redeem himself;
he cannot pay God the price for his life,
because the payment for a human life is too great.
What he could pay would never be enough to keep him from the grave, to let him live for ever.”

Psalm 49 NIV

It is impossible for us to save ourselves.

6. But ALL things are possible WITH God!

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid the price to redeem us from our spiritual bankruptcy.
And what was the price He paid?
The price was paid with the blood of God’s Son.
The saving payment for human life is too great – EXCEPT for God!
He died for all those who believe in Jesus His Son.

Surrender to Jesus Christ and trust Him for your salvation.
Believe that Christ has paid the price for you and that He has redeemed you.
You will THEN have peace with God and you will no longer be His enemy.

How to feel happy and just feel better.
Temptation comes through these different things…
What gives meaning to life? Perhaps surprisingly the Bible still speaks to millions of people and gives stability in our lives.
Can we rely on our ‘goodness,’ to get us to heaven?
Baptism is often problematic in practice and divisive between the denominations.

Credits and references– open in new tabs:

Image of scales thanks to ‘The Pictorial Dictionary’ published by The Educational Book Company, London

1. Oxford Languages dictionary ↩