Four Christian friends were riding in a bus; as they neared the place where the bus stopped, a youth stepped inside and asked for the fares. One of the four friends paid for all, which led one of the party to say to the youth, "You won't ask me for my fare, will you?”
"No, sir," was the reply.
"Then you are satisfied?”
"Quite.”
"But I did not pay you?”
"He paid," said he pointing to the one who had done so.
This circumstance, simple in itself, brought to my mind the great transaction which took place nineteen hundred years ago, when God delivered Christ for our offenses, and raised Him again for our justification (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)).
"Behold the Lamb! 'Tis He who bore
My burden on the tree;
And paid in blood the dreadful score,
The ransom due for me.”
Reader, do you believe, that Jesus Christ was delivered for our offenses—the offensive thought, look, word, and deed? that He bore our sins on the cross, and suffered for them there?
"He gave Himself for our sins.”
This was the only way sins could be disposed of. God "made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
Three blessed results flow from Christ giving Himself for our sins, and being made sin for us, to all who believe; sins are gone; sin is judged; and righteousness is conferred.
"He paid." Who? The one who was personally and perfectly free from the debt. Jesus, the Son of God, "He paid." How? With His precious blood.
"Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.”
And just as the youth in the bus did not require payment twice, neither will God.
"Payment God will not twice demand; Once at my bleeding Surety's hand, And then again at mine.”
Dear reader, are you satisfied with what Christ did once for all on the cross? God grant that you, by faith, may look up to where Jesus is in heaven, and say, with an adoring heart, "He paid.”