Debt

If you aren’t a Christian, whether you’re aware of it or not, you owe a debt. You owe a debt so great that you, by yourself, could never pay it off. This debt will increase with every bad decision you make.  Ultimately, the penalty for not paying this debt is your eternity. If you are a Christian, or even if you aren’t, you probably know what I’m talking about - This debt is our sin. As Christians, we have that debt paid by the only one worthy to pay it; Jesus the Christ. Because he lived a sinless, selfless life, he was worthy to be the ultimate sacrifice for the sinful. When he died on the cross, he gave us a way to pay our debt, all we must do is accept that offer, and follow the instructions he has given to receive it. When one is baptized, and all of their debt is paid in full. They now do not have to worry about facing the penalty they would have had to otherwise pay.

However, once ones debt is paid, they can again accumulate more debt. As life goes on, mistakes are made and there is once again a debt held to our name, and once again there is only one way for it to be lifted from us. Jesus, when we truly ask for forgiveness, and repent, will pay our debt yet again. Throughout life, we will all accumulate debt, some more than others. In order to reach heaven, we will all have to minimize our debt, and maximize our profit (profit being our good deeds, rather than our bad).  I’m not saying that good deeds alone will allow us to reach heaven because as the Bible teaches in Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 through 16, the amount of time spent as a Christian does not necessarily matter, and that if there is not enough time, or possibilities to preform what one would consider “good works”, you can still reach heaven. For example, I’m sure that everyone has heard the name Jeffery Dahmer. I was surprised to learn that while he was in prison, he had multiple Bible studies with a preacher from the Church, and was baptized because of it. Very shortly after he was murdered in prison by a fellow inmate. (I do not know the heart of Dahmer, and I do not know the true level of sincerity he truly felt, but I have to assume that he was sincere in his being baptized and living as a Christian) The point of this example was to show that being a Christian for even a short amount of time is enough, if you die faithful.

In short, being baptized is the only way to receive the forgiveness of our debt (1 peter 3:21, Acts 2:38), and with our debt still to our name, it is not possible to make it to heaven, no matter how good the person (1 Corinthians 6:9).