Settling the Account

         I went to college, the first time, in 1957 with my course paid for due to a scholarship and a check book with $100.00 in it. That was going to have to last me for the entire semester. In those days, it was a lot of money and was for anything extra that I wanted to purchase. My room and board had been paid for and so I really didn't need anything else. That was the idea, however a few purchases here and there eventually used up the amount in my check book. Maybe my math had not been perfect and I ended up being overdrawn on the account but the bank never stopped payment on a check for a slice of pizza but instead notified my mother who made up the difference. Philemon 1:18 says, “If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account;”

        The word that makes up the phrase, “put that on my account” is used here and only one other place, in Romans 5:13 where it is translated as “impute.” Paul had made a promise to Philemon that if Onessimus had any debt to Philemon that it was to be put on Paul's account. Paul, at that point, stepped in and placed the debt on his own account rather than having it owed by Onessimus. It is a good thing to notice that there are some things that we cannot pay and that there is someone who has stepped in and made the payment for us. The earth probably would not stop spinning because of a two dollar overdraft or the price of a piece of property but there is a lesson of greater importance in this passage. There was a payment that we all owed that we could not pay ourselves no matter how hard we might try to fulfill it. The price of redemption for that payment was well beyond our means and so we needed Someone to step in and say, “Put that on my account.” As a result, we can look back to see the Lord Jesus Christ dying on the cross at Calvary and paying the price we could not pay as our sins were “imputed” to Him and His righteousness was imputed to us.. The amount paid at Calvary was far greater than we could imagine but in the end of the events of that day, the Lord Jesus Christ declared, “It is finished.” That meant that the debt had been paid in full. The Lord Jesus Christ was saying at that point, “Put the payment for those sins on my account.” Sometimes, we may forget just what happened at Calvary and we are remembering only the general things such as, Yes, Jesus paid it all, but the words don't reveal just how great a debt that was. The debt was going to keep us from eternal life as God would not allow sin in heaven. The payment was made and now we can go to heaven just because He paid it all. Praise God today for the Gospel message of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He lives, we too shall live.