PA I D IN FULL

YOUR DEBT

GOD'S PAY M E N T

P A U L

C H A P P E L L
 Copyright © 2014 by Striving Together Publications.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version.
Special emphasis in verses is added.

First published in 2014 by Striving Together Publications, a

ministry of Lancaster Baptist Church, Lancaster, ca 93535. Striving
Together Publications is committed to providing tried, trusted, and
proven books that will further equip local churches to carry out the
Great Commission. Your comments and suggestions are valued.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—
without written permission of the publisher, except for brief
quotations in printed reviews.

Striving Together Publications

4020 E. Lancaster Blvd.
Lancaster, ca 93535
800.201.7748
strivingtogether.com

Cover design by Andrew Jones

Layout by Craig Parker
Writing assistance by Monica Bass
Special thanks to our proofreaders

ISBN 978-1-59894-278-1
Printed in the United States of America
 Contents

INTRODUCTION—Paid in Love . . . . . . . . . v

Part One: Your Debt

ONE—I Don’t Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

TWO—Coming Up Short . . . . . . . . . . . 7
THREE—Evaluating the Damage . . . . . . . . . 17
FOUR—Insufficient Payments . . . . . . . . . 23

Part TWO: God’s Payment

FIVE—Substitute Payment . . . . . . . . . . 37
SIX—Forgiven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
SEVEN—Believe It, Receive It . . . . . . . . . 53
EIGHT—Take It to the Bank . . . . . . . . . . 61

FINAL NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . 69

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
 Introduction

Paid in Love

There are many reasons we pay for things.

Sometimes we pay out of sheer responsibility.
(Yes, electric company, I’m talking about you.)
Sometimes we pay out of a sense of obligation.
(When your eight-year-old neighbor comes by to sell
Girl Scout cookies, what kind of an ogre would you be
to say no?)
Sometimes we pay out of selfishness. (We see; we
want; we buy.)
But sometimes we pay out of love. These, of course,
are the best purchases. They include the engagement
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Paid in Full

ring you buy for the one you want to spend your life
with. They include the “just because” gift you purchase
for your mother or your child.
Gifts purchased out of love involve sacrifice and
feeling. They are more than just “a thing”; they often
represent blood, sweat, and tears. They are hard earned
but freely given.
This little book is a story of the greatest gift in
the history of the world—a gift purchased with the
greatest love we will ever know. It is a gift purchased
with the love of God. And it was purchased for you.
I don’t know what you think of God. Or if you
even believe in Him at all. But I do know that He
loves you with a great love. And I know that He has
purchased a gift for you—not out of responsibility,
obligation, or selfishness—but out of love. It is a gift
that required tremendous sacrifice—costly for Him,
but freely offered to you.
Does this sound attractive to you? Do you struggle
to believe it could be true? What if I told you that this
gift is the gift of eternal life? A promised eternity in
Heaven. A personal relationship with God. Eternal life.

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 Introduction

Does it sound preposterous that this could be

a gift? Everyone—at least everyone who believes in
Heaven—knows that you have to earn Heaven, right?
Or some people take a softer course—God is kind, and
all roads lead to Heaven. Others reject the belief of
Heaven outright. We are simply bodies, they say, and
when our bodies die, that’s the end.
But what if these theories are wrong? What if you
are trying to earn a gift that has already been purchased?
What if you are on a course that doesn’t lead to Heaven?
What if Heaven is real—and Hell is too?
What if there really is an incredible gift purchased
by God—with your name on it? What if it was wrapped
in the love of God and offered freely to you?
Would you be willing to explore with me what
this gift is, how it was purchased, and why you and I so
desperately need it?
This book is small because its message is simple.
That is, it is simple to understand, but it is about
profound love and grace. It is about the gift that cost
God everything—a gift that is offered to you.

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 Part One

Your Debt
 ONE

I Don’t Know

They weren’t the three words you would expect to hear

from someone of his rank and stature in life—City
Attorney for Los Angeles. We were sitting together at
a lunch table, and the conversation turned to spiritual
matters. I had asked him if he knew for sure if he
would go to Heaven.
And then he spoke those three words: “I
don’t know.”
Realize, we’re talking about a man whose job it is
to know things. If you’re a prosecuting attorney, you
study, learn, examine evidence, and come to solid
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conclusions. Then you present these conclusions in

court and argue them with the strength of personal
conviction of the facts and a commitment to see
justice served.
And yet, when it came to life after death and
where he would spend eternity, his answer was the
same as I have heard not once, but thousands of times:
“I don’t know.”
Of course, there are many variants of this phrase.
Ask several people, “If you were to die, do you know
for sure you would go to Heaven?” and you’ll hear
similar answers:
“I don’t know.”
“I hope so.”
“I think so.”
“Probably.”
“I’m pretty good; I should go to Heaven.”
“Maybe.”
When I talked to my friend, who was at that time
the City Attorney for Los Angeles, he hoped, too, he
would go to Heaven. But like so many others, he wasn’t
sure, and he didn’t know how to be sure.

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 One—I Don’t Know

Could we pretend for a moment that you and I

are sitting across a lunch table? And could I ask you
the same question I asked my friend, “Do you know for
sure you’ll spend eternity in Heaven?”

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

You’ve heard the saying: “What you don’t know can’t
hurt you.” That may be true in a few situations, but it’s
surely not true when what you don’t know involves the
greatest questions of life and of life after death.
You see, we are more than a body; we have a spirit
as well. That is, we have a part of us that has the ability
to deeply communicate with other people and has the
capacity to have a relationship with God. We have a
spirit that will live somewhere forever—even after our
body dies.
And that is why what we don’t know can hurt us.
That is also why God has revealed the truth to
us—the truth about His existence and about life after
death and about the gift that He has provided for us.
That is why God wants us to know the answers to life’s
greatest questions.
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Jesus told us that knowing the truth will make us

free: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free” (John 8:32).

What If You Could Know?

This is the question I asked my city attorney friend,
“What if you could know your eternal future?”
Many people hope their good works, continual
learning, open-mindedness, or sincere efforts are
enough. And yet, God has promised us that we can
know for sure that we have eternal life and a future
home in Heaven.
You see, God does want us to know—not hope, but
know. He even told us, “These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye
may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).
God does not want us to be left wondering about
this important issue of eternal life. And so I ask you,
would you like to hope about eternity? Or would you
like to know?

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 TWO

Coming Up Short

You know that embarrassing feeling when you’re

standing at a checkout line digging in your pocket for
sixty-five more cents?
I do—from experience. And every time it happens
to me, I wish I didn’t know the feeling.
Actually, I don’t like the feeling of coming up
short in any area. Who does?
And yet, all of us do come up short in a very
significant way. Let me explain.

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One-Word Diagnosis
To understand why all the uncertainty about eternity—
why everyone doesn’t automatically spend eternity
with God—you have to understand a comprehensive
diagnosis of the human race—a single word that
describes us all.
If you could use just one word to describe yourself,
what would it be?
Good? Kind? Well-meaning?
You probably are all of those.
Maybe today you’re going through a tough season,
and you’d use a different word.
Struggling? Lonely? Lost?
There are many words that could describe us all,
but one of the words that describes every single person
is not a word we like to own: sinful.
“But wait a minute!” you may say, “I’m not sinful!
Sure, I’m not perfect, who is? I may come up a little
short, but sinful? No way. I mean, I give to charity. I
help my neighbor. I’m a caring parent and a loyal
friend. I may struggle sometimes, but I’m definitely
not sinful!”
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 Two—Coming Up Short

Let me clarify. I use sinful in the sense that the

Bible uses it. I’m not speaking only of the greatest,
most awful acts of sin. I don’t mean that you’ve robbed
a bank, murdered someone, or are on the FBI’s Most
Wanted list. I also don’t mean that you’re alone—I’m
sinful too.
Every honest person will acknowledge that he
or she has done something wrong—that we are not
perfect. The Bible verifies this in Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For
there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good,
and sinneth not.”
Romans 3:23 says it this way: “For all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God.” Did you catch
that phrase “come short of the glory of God”? We all
know that we sometimes fall short. We don’t always
measure up to our expectations or to the demands life
places upon us.
Sin, however, is a different kind of falling short.
It’s not simply bad judgment (like when you’re short
on change at the checkout) or human error (like
forgetting an appointment). It is any action, thought,
or motive that is against God’s law. It can be something

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categorically criminal (like robbing a bank) or

seemingly insignificant (like a white lie to look good
to the boss).
And we all have done it. The best of us. The worst
of us. You. Me. We have all sinned.

In the Beginning—a Choice

If it makes you feel any better, we came by our propensity
to sin honestly. (Wow, is that an oxymoron!) You see
we inherited a sin nature.
Go back with me several thousand years to the
Garden of Eden. Perhaps you’ve heard of it and of
our first parents—Adam and Eve—who lived there.
The garden was perfection like we can’t understand.
Beautiful. Fruitful. Wonderful. And the best part of it
was that Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with
God. They even walked with Him in “the cool of the
day.” How awesome is that?
You maybe know the story already, but if not, you
can read about it in Genesis 3:1–7. I’ll summarize here:
God gave Adam and Eve the complete garden. They

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could enjoy and eat of any part of it—except for the

fruit from one tree: the “tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.” What did Adam and Eve do? They ate of the
one tree. And thus, the first sin was committed.
Remember, God had given Adam and Eve a choice.
He could have kept them from the tree. He could have
rendered them physically and emotionally incapable
of sinning. But then they would be robots, not humans
with a choice.
Having a choice meant that they were free to love
or free to rebel. Even in this choice, they had everything
in their favor: they knew God personally. They had
the consequences of their choice clearly spelled out in
advance. They were in a perfect environment.
And yet they still chose sin. And that choice has
descended upon us all. Romans 5:12 explains it this
way: “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered
into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
We’ll see in our next chapter what the part “death
by sin” means. But for now, consider that all of us, as

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descendants of Adam, are born with a “sin nature”—a

bent toward doing wrong.
If you’re a parent, this is not hard to understand.
You never had to sit your toddler down and say,
“Today, I’m going to teach you how to lie. If you do
well, tomorrow we’ll learn how to throw a tantrum.
Maybe next week, I’ll show you the best way to steal
and hurt people.” We don’t teach our children how to
sin—just as no one taught us. We’re all born already
knowing how.
Sin comes from within us. This is why God says
that we are all sinful.

The Divine Measuring Stick

Maybe you admit that you aren’t perfect—that you
sometimes fall a little short—but you still hesitate to call
yourself a “sinner.” After all, you have good intentions
and a kind heart, and compared to your neighbors,
co-workers, or your mother-in-law (especially your
mother-in-law), you’re actually a very good person.
Enter the divine measuring stick—the law of God.

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 Two—Coming Up Short

You see, we like to think of ourselves as being

mostly good with occasional lapses of judgment.
But since we are not the ones deciding our fate, we
should look at God’s standard. And He’s given it to us
throughout the Bible, perhaps most succinctly in what
we call the “Ten Commandments.”
There’s something you should know about this
measuring stick, though. Many people assume that if
they keep the Ten Commandments, they’ve measured
up to God’s standard and are on their way to Heaven.
This assumption is riddled with problems—not the
least of which is that most people who believe this
cannot even name the Ten Commandments, let alone
live them.
But of even greater significance is that God never—
not even once—told us that the way to get to Heaven
is to obey all the commandments. On the contrary, He
knows that we can’t live up to His commandments. He
didn’t give them to us as a checklist, but as a mirror. He
wants us to see our condition for what it is.
In other words, we may think we’re doing
pretty good until we look in the mirror of the Ten

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Commandments and see “Thou shalt not bear false

witness” and realize that we do—at least sometimes—
lie. Then we realize we’re not quite as faultless as we
wanted to think.
In fact, if we look at all ten of these
commandments—God’s measuring stick—with
honest transparency, we don’t measure up. Not by a
long shot. This is why God says we “come short of the
glory of God.”
Nobody likes to come up short, and so we find
a way around it. We might compare ourselves to
someone else. “Maybe I’m not perfect,” we reason, “but
at least I’m not as bad as .”
This reminds me of the little boy who told his
mother, “Mom! I’m six feet tall!” When she asked him
how he came up with that height, he answered, “I used
my shoe.” His mom smiled and told him that his shoe
was not a foot long. “But, Mom,” he insisted, “it’s got to
be—’cause my foot’s in it!”
Many people believe they are pretty good
because they are using a faulty standard—comparing
themselves to someone else.

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 Two—Coming Up Short

Here’s the problem with that reasoning: God

is not comparing us to someone else. God is holy—
absolutely free of sin. If He compared us to any
standard other than Himself, He would no longer be
holy, because every other person is sinful. He cannot
be holy and compare us to an unholy standard.
Even if the only commandment we ever broke was
one—say, stealing—we’d be in trouble. The Bible tells
us, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
Think of the law like a chain. If every link was sound—
except for one—would you count on that chain to bear
your weight? Of course not. If one link is broken, the
whole chain is broken.
Why then would we count on our goodness to take
us to Heaven, when we know that we are not perfectly
good? To count on our goodness is like counting on
a broken chain. If we are going to justify ourselves by
the law, we have to be absolutely perfect in every point
of the law.
But we’re not perfect. We fall short. In another
word, we are sinners.

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Why You Need to Know This

If by now you’re getting the picture that achieving
God’s standard of perfection is impossible, you’re
absolutely correct.
But there’s more: God doesn’t expect us to achieve
perfection. He simply wants us to see ourselves for
what we are—that way we can see His answer for what
we need.
In fact, in a few pages we’re going to see that
acknowledging the fact that we are sinners actually
brings some wonderfully good news. But before the
good news, we have to understand one more thing
about sin—its price tag.

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 T H REE

Evaluating the Damage

Several years ago, I was driving with my wife and

daughter in the car when the driver in front of us
made a sudden left turn without moving into the left
turn lane. It didn’t help that I was in the middle of an
intense phone conversation when it happened.
As the driver of the other vehicle and I got out
to look at our cars, I was relieved to see it was just a
fender bender.
My insurance adjuster, however, saw things a
little differently. He called the accident a “liability,”

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and he included increased insurance premiums in his

evaluation of the damage.
In this chapter, we’re going to look at the problem
of sin a little like that adjuster. We’re going to evaluate
what the damage of sin actually is. After all, as people
who do lots of good but sometimes sin, we can’t be
looking at too much damage, can we?

Minimum Costs
Everyone wants to get paid for what they do. Politicians
argue endlessly on what the “minimum wage”—the
lowest an employee can be paid by the hour—should
be. And most people search for the job in which they
will be paid the highest amount for their labor.
When it comes to payment for sin, however, the
minimum wage is pretty steep. Romans 6:23 tells us,
“For the wages of sin is death….”
Death!
Really? The payment for sin is death?
We already saw in Romans 5:12 that death came
into the world by Adam’s sin: “Wherefore, as by one

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 Three—Evaluating the Damage

man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by

sin….” If you’re familiar with the account of Adam and
Eve eating the forbidden fruit, you’ll remember two
things: First, God did promise that death would be the
consequence of sin (Genesis 2:17). Second, Adam and
Eve did not keel over and die the moment they took a
bite of the fruit.
So what is this death all about?

Separation
Death in the Bible refers to “separation.” This is
obvious to us all in the sense of physical death. When
our bodies die, we are separated from our families and
loved ones. If you’ve lost a loved one, you understand
the separation pain of death.
But remember, you are more than a body. You
have a spirit as well. The physical death that every
person eventually experiences is the result of the fact
that there is sin in the world. But, more personally, the
spiritual death that you and I face is the result of our
own sin.

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Or we could say it this way: The payment of sin

is eternal death—eternal separation from God—in a
lake of fire that the Bible calls Hell: “And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death”
(Revelation 20:14).

High Wages
These are high wages indeed! So much so that we are
tempted to think them extreme. Many people even
reason, “Surely a good God would not send people
to Hell!”
And yet, this is absolutely what the Bible says. God
tells us the wages—the payment—of sin is death and
that this death includes eternal separation from God.
By our calculations, the wages of sin may be high,
but remember, we are not the Judge. God is.
The story is told of a Jewish woman who was
approached by a Christian friend about the matter of
eternity. In the discussion her friend began to tell her
of the payment for sin. She cried out, “I don’t believe
in Hell!”

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 Three—Evaluating the Damage

“Why not?” asked the Christian friend.

“Because over six million of my Jewish brothers
and sisters were murdered at the hands of Adolf Hitler
and his Nazis. I cannot believe they will all go to Hell!”
Her friend then asked her, “So I suppose that
when you get to Heaven and walk down the streets of
gold, you’ll see Adolf Hitler there. Will you tell him
‘hello’ for me?”
“Adolf Hitler!” she shouted. “Why, he won’t be in
Heaven, he’ll be in Hell!”
Yes, even this woman saw that God is just to punish
sinners. The difference was simply in her definition of
who is sinful.
The truth is that we are all sinful—not on the
scale of Hitler, but on the scale of God’s law.
And the Bible tells us that because of our sin, we
face eternity apart from God. What are we to do?

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 F OUR

Insufficient Payments

A Brooklyn man was once arrested for burglary and

sentenced to several years in the state penitentiary. A
few years into his sentence, the man escaped from
prison and disappeared. Police detectives spent hours
searching for him, following leads, and analyzing his
escape, but to no avail. Although many detectives gave
up on the case after several years, one young detective
never gave up. Bit by bit, he tracked down every clue
and kept searching for the escapee until one day, many
years later, he finally found the escaped criminal.

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Following him to a convenience store, the

detective approached him from behind, laid his hand
on his shoulder, and notified him that he was under
arrest. Shocked, the escapee said, “What’d I do, officer?”
“I know what you did years ago. I know how you
broke out of prison, disappeared out west, got married,
then came back to live with your family.”
Realizing he would serve years in prison, the
man asked the officer if they could at least go to his
house so he could say goodbye to his family. Seeing
the sorrow in his eyes, the officer agreed. When they
arrived at his house, the man asked his wife, “Have I
been a good husband to you? Have I been a good father
to our children?”
“Why yes,” replied the wife, “you have. But why are
you asking me this?”
At that point the escaped man explained everything
to his wife, relaying past events he thought would stay
hidden. He begged the detective to recognize how he
had turned his life around and to pardon him, yet the
detective still handcuffed him and led him away.

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 Four—Insufficient Payments

We read a story such as this, and we immediately

understand the futility of an escaped criminal using
his current behavior to erase his guilty record. As
upstanding as he may have been in the moment, he
was still guilty of burglary and had not finished
his sentence.
Even so, people today make similar—although
even more futile—attempts as that burglar. Although
many people have not specifically considered what the
Bible says is the wages of sin (eternal death), we all
intuitively know that we come up short in some way,
and so we try to make up the difference by goodness in
another way. Consider these methods:

Religion
After all, religion is made for reaching God, right?
Surely this is the way to Heaven!
Religious systems may seem logical, but they
cannot pay the debt created by our sin. God declared
that the payment for sin is death—not church
membership, catechism, giving money, daily prayers,

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or any other “installments” we may try to make

via religion.
Many people actually use religion as a fashionable
substitute for biblical belief. One such man was
Nicodemus, and you can read his story in John 3. In
short, Nicodemus was not only religious, he was the
picture of religion—a leader, a conscientious follower,
a good man. But when he came to Jesus one night and
asked Jesus how he could know he had eternal life,
Jesus told Nicodemus that his religion wasn’t enough.
It didn’t even tip the scale. Jesus told him he had to be
“born again.”
No, religion won’t pay the debt created by sin.
It’s insufficient.

Good Works
Being a good neighbor, volunteering for community
service projects, giving to the poor, and loving and
nurturing your family are all excellent ways to invest
your time. But the Bible tells us plainly that none
of these are payment for sin. Ephesians 2:9 says that

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eternal life is “Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

If we could earn our way to Heaven by our good works,
we’d get there with another layer of sin—pride in what
we did!
Actually, even our good works are tainted by our
sinfulness. That’s why the Bible says “…and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6). This
is not hyperbole; it is a real comparison. Our good
works may look good when we compare them to
another person’s, but they are unclean when compared
to God’s holiness.

Money
Some people try to buy their way into Heaven.
Whether that be by giving to a church or to a charity,
they hope God will see their sacrifice and let them in.
Former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg,
famously gave $50 million to a cause he believed in and
commented, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I
get to Heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am

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heading straight in. I have earned my place in Heaven.

It’s not even close.”1
Actually, the mayor is only partially right. He
was right that “it’s not even close,” but that is because
money can never buy Heaven. The Bible tells us that
redemption—having our sin paid for—can’t be
bought “with corruptible things, as silver and gold”
(1 Peter 1:18).
In all honesty, can you imagine what one moment
in Heaven would cost if it could be bought with
money? Considering that several years ago someone
paid $351,000 just to have lunch with Warren Buffet, I
don’t think Mr. Bloomberg could even buy a vacation
in Heaven.2 All the money in the world is insufficient
as a payment for Heaven because money cannot atone
for sin.

Self-Inflicted Punishment
I’ve watched people climb the steps to St. Peter’s Basilica
in Rome on their hands and knees until their skin was
scraped, torn, and bleeding. I’ve read the accounts of

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people in the Philippines who ask to be crucified as

Christ was in an attempt to pay for their sins. Some
who don’t torture themselves in this life believe that
purgatory will do it in the next.
Here’s the thing: if self-crucifixion—or any other
form of torture—could earn a place in Heaven, it
would be worth it. But not only is it unnecessary pain,
it is pointless. The wages of sin is not pain, it is death,
eternal separation from God.

Sincerity
You’ve heard the statement: “All roads lead to the same
place.” Many people assume that as long as they are
sincere and believe in God, they’re on their way—
perhaps on a different way than others, but on their
way nonetheless—to Heaven.
This is one of the most popular theories in our
pluralistic day. It sounds noble and broad-minded.
In fact, saying otherwise seems to many people to be
backwards and narrow-minded.

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One problem: God said otherwise. Proverbs 14:12

says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.” In other
words, it’s not what seems right to us that matters.
It’s not our sincerity that will gain us entrance into
Heaven—for we can be sincerely wrong!
Jesus was very plain when He said, “I am the way,
the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me” (John 14:6). We’ll look at this verse again in
a little bit, but for now, notice that Jesus said there is
just one acceptable way to God.

Acceptable Payments
What you use to pay for something matters. For
instance, I can’t pay my mortgage debt in exchange
for baking thousands of cookies. (Although I would
try it if I thought it might work.) I can’t pay it by
telling my banker I’ll mow his lawn every week for
twenty years or that I’ll use my home to house poor,
orphaned children. The only acceptable payment for
my mortgage debt is cash.

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Similarly, we can’t pay our sin debt through

religion, good works, money, self-punishment,
sincerity, or any other method. The only acceptable
payment has already been set by God, and it is death.
Regardless of our sincerity, it’s not what we think will
gain us entrance into Heaven that counts. It is what
God says that matters. But more than what God says,
it is what God did that makes all the difference in
the world!

Where Grace Steps In

It is only when we understand our sin and the severe—
but just—penalty that God has placed on sin that we
understand the greatness of God’s love.
You and I are sinners. There’s no way around that
fact. As 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If you
deny it, make up your own answers for how you think
God should deal with it, or try to pay for it yourself,
you will be making futile and insufficient payments
toward a tremendous debt.

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Paid in Full

If, on the other hand, you see your sin for what
it is—a separation between you and God that makes
you fall short of His glory—you’re beginning to get an
accurate picture of your helpless condition.
This is exactly where God’s amazing grace steps
in. Jesus said, “They that are whole have no need of the
physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17).
To those who think they have it all together
or who assume their method of paying for their sin
is enough, God’s grace seems unnecessary. It’s like a
person who goes to the doctor. The doctor tells him he
has a large cancerous tumor, but the person insists he
doesn’t. That person isn’t likely to follow the treatment
plan the doctor may prescribe because he doesn’t even
realize how sick he is! Similarly, if we think we’re okay
on our own—that we don’t have sin or that we can deal
with it our own way—we won’t see how desperately we
need God’s grace. And I’m not just talking about God’s
grace in general; I’m talking about a specific, tangible
way that God demonstrated His grace to us.

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 Four—Insufficient Payments

Read this next verse slowly; it is a game changer:

“But God commendeth [showed] his love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8).
Did you catch that? Jesus didn’t die for those who
could earn salvation on their own (and remember,
none of us can). He died for sinners. Sinners like me.
Like you.
There is only one truly unconditional love in
the world—and it is God’s. Although we are sinners
separated from Him, He still loved us. And that love
is not merely a nice sentiment—God feeling kindly
toward us. It is real and powerful, and it prompted
unbelievable sacrifice.
Remember I told you there was some good news
coming? That good news is what we’ll see in our
next chapter.
If you’re ready for the good news, turn the page.
You’re about to discover the gift God wants to give you.

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 Part TWO

God’s Payment
 FIVE

Substitute Payment

Some years ago, a well-known Bible preacher was

pulled over for speeding in a small southern town
and taken to traffic court. The preacher pleaded guilty
because he had been speeding. He knew he would have
to pay a fine for speeding, and sure enough, the judge
pronounced him guilty and stated the fine.
But the preacher didn’t expect what happened next.
Suddenly, the judge recognized the preacher, and
he didn’t want to fine him. He wouldn’t be a just judge,
however, if he simply said, “Yeah, you’re guilty, but
because you’re famous, you can go free.”
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Paid in Full

Instead, the judge reached into his pocket and

pulled out the amount of the fine. “You’re guilty,” he
said, “and the fine must be paid. But I’m going to pay
it for you.”
This is a very small picture of what Jesus did for
us when He died. We are guilty of sin. The payment is
death. And Jesus died for us.
Did you catch that? The Judge Himself came to
Earth to pay the price of our sin. He died in our place.
He made Himself the substitute payment for our sin.
Let me explain.

Jesus Came for This

To understand Jesus’ substitute payment, there is
something else you must understand: Jesus is God. He
didn’t just claim to be God (although He did claim
that1); He actually is in fact God.
Why is this important? Because if Jesus is just
another human—even a good human—His death can’t
be a substitute for our death. He would be paying for
His own sin—not ours.

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 Five—Substitute Payment

Think about it this way. Let’s say that I was a

convicted criminal on death row, sentenced to be
executed tomorrow morning. Suppose you and I are
dear friends and you voluntarily ask the judge to allow
you to die in my place.
In some judicial systems, this would be allowed—
an innocent person can take the punishment of a guilty
person while the guilty person goes free.
But let’s say that you were also a condemned
criminal on death row. There is no way the judge could
allow you to die in my place; you are already sentenced
to die for your crimes.
The only reason Christ’s payment could be a
substitute for our punishment is because Christ never
sinned—He is God. And the only reason that Christ’s
payment can be a substitute for everybody’s sin is
because, as God, Christ is infinite. His payment is
enough for the sin of every person in the world.
Jesus came as God in the flesh to reveal to us who
God is and to suffer for our sin. The Bible says, “God
was manifest in the flesh…” (1 Timothy 3:16). That’s
talking about Jesus. John 1:1 and 14 says of Jesus, “In the

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Paid in Full

beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God…. And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth.”
Jesus is God, and when He came to pay for our
sins, He came as a just Judge who can’t overlook sin—
but paid for it Himself.

Costly Payment
Jesus was supernaturally conceived of a virgin2 and
humbled Himself to be born as a helpless infant living
in an earthly family.3 At the age of thirty, He began
His public ministry—healing the sick, curing the lame,
cleansing lepers, and even raising a few dead. If you
had lived in the first century and were an intellectually
honest and unbiased observer of Jesus’ miracles
(especially raising the dead miracles), you’d have to
acknowledge that this was no ordinary man. Surely
this was God. In fact, the miracles did prove His deity.

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 Five—Substitute Payment

To make a long story short, after three years of

preaching, teaching, and performing miracles, the
jealous religious leaders of Jesus’ day were finally
successful in having Jesus condemned to the horrific
death of crucifixion.
What Jesus voluntarily 4 endured at His crucifixion
is the supreme evidence of the love of God. (You can
read a full account of this event—from four different
perspectives—in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and
John 19.)
First, Christ was scourged—fiercely whipped with
a Roman flagrum until it was a marvel that He still
lived. Other victims had died from the scourging alone.
Next, Jesus was led to the judgment hall, where
Roman soldiers mocked Him as “King of the Jews” and
further tortured Him by placing a crown of thorns on
His head and driving it into His skull.
Jesus was then forced to carry His cross. When He
stumbled under it, weakened from loss of blood, the
soldiers made a bystander carry it for Him.
And then they got to Calvary, the place of
crucifixion. They nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the

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Paid in Full

cross. They lifted the cross and dropped it into place,

no doubt causing Jesus’ body to jerk and tear the flesh
while dislocating his arms from the shoulder sockets.
The searing pain of this moment was so terrible that
crucifixion victims often fainted.
For six hours, Jesus hung on the cross, suspended
between Heaven and Earth in unspeakable pain and
unbelievable sacrifice.
For crucifixion victims who lived through the
scourging and the crucifixion itself, Roman soldiers
would sometimes end their lives by breaking their legs
so they could no longer lift themselves up to breathe.
But when the soldiers came to break Christ’s legs, they
found He had already died. (This, like every other
aspect of Christ’s crucifixion, fulfilled prophecies
and sacrificial requirements given by God hundreds
of years before Jesus came to earth. Of this moment,
John 19:36 says, “For these things were done, that the
scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not
be broken.”) Just to be sure Jesus was dead, the soldiers
rammed a spear through His side. Water and blood
flowed from the gaping wound. Jesus had died.

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 Five—Substitute Payment

Paid in Full
Just before Jesus died, He uttered three final words: “It
is finished” (John 19:30).
“It is finished.”
What did those words mean? How could Jesus say
“It is finished”? There were still sick and unbelieving
people in the world. There were still people who were
lame and blind and suffering.
What was finished?
The Greek word Jesus used that is translated
finished in our English Bible is tetelestai. It is a financial
term that means “paid in full.”
Paid in full!
Remember what God says the wages of sin is?
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And so what
did Jesus do? “But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8).
The wages of sin is death; Jesus died for us. Literally,
He paid our debt for sin.
And, as God, He paid it in full.

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Paid in Full

Proof
Three days after Jesus was crucified and buried, He—
and let this sink in—rose from the dead. Jesus didn’t
just say “It is finished”; He proved it by His resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is, as one man
put it, “the crowning proof of Christianity.”5 He didn’t
rise from the dead quietly or without anyone knowing.
In the Bible, there are over ten different recorded
appearances of Jesus after He rose from the dead.6 He
showed Himself multiple times—one of which was
to over five hundred gathered at once who testified as
eye witnesses.7
So what does all of this mean for you—right
now, today?

Satisfactory Payment
In the previous chapter, we saw insufficient payments.
The one thing all of those payments have in common
is that they involve our work or personal effort. In all
of those payments—religion, good works, money, self-

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 Five—Substitute Payment

inflicted punishment, sincerity in our beliefs—there is

some way that we are attempting to pay for our sin.
In fact, at the heart of every religion around the
world is the idea that we are supposed to do something.
What that something is varies from one religion to
the next. It may be saying a certain prayer or saying it
enough times. It may be giving money to the church. It
may be baptism, meditation, or acts of kindness.
But at the heart of it all is the same philosophy: do.
You have to do something to pay for your sin.
Work.
Try harder.
Earn forgiveness.
The problem with this plan is that anything that
we might do is an insufficient payment. So where does
that leave us?
In contrast to all of our systems of working, Jesus
offers another option—the only option that could ever
work: full, complete forgiveness for sin through what
He has already paid for at the cross.
Religion says do; Jesus says done.
We say try harder; Jesus says paid in full.

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Paid in Full

It is finished.
Paid in full.
Do you want this payment applied to your
account? That’s where we pick up in our next chapter.

46
 SIX

Forgiven

Outside New York City is a cemetery with one unique

grave marker. On the headstone is carved a single word:
forgiven. There is no name and no date of birth or
date of death on the stone. There is no ornamentation
and no epitaph offering wisdom or advice. But in that
single word, there is peace and certain hope that is
beyond price.
You see, God’s forgiveness is available to all of us.

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Paid in Full

Our natural thinking is that good people go to

Heaven. But God says, “There is none righteous, no,
not one” (Romans 3:10).
The wonderful truth is that it is not good people
who go to Heaven; it is forgiven people.
If we try to get to Heaven on our merit, we’re sunk.
Because even if from this moment forward you were
perfect—without even a hint of sin—there is still the
fact that you have already sinned, and that every sin
must be dealt with. As we have seen, the payment for
sin is death.
So Jesus stepped in and took our payment for us
so we could be—not good—but forgiven.
In an incredibly divine deal, God offers to declare
you forgiven and righteous. Sound incredible? It is!
But it’s also real—an offer based on the radical love of
God and the incredible sacrifice He made on the cross.
Here’s how it works: “For he [God] hath made
him [God the Son—Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew
no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

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 Six—Forgiven

It really is that simple. Jesus paid for your sin and

is willing to give you His righteousness.

It Is a Gift
Jesus’ payment for sin is why eternal life is—and only
ever can be—a gift. Earlier we saw from Romans 6:23
that “the wages of sin is death,” but that is only the first
half of the verse! The second half says, “but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
You see, salvation—or eternal life—is not
something we achieve; it is something we receive.

An Inclusive Offer
It’s the most well-known verse in the entire Bible:
John 3:16. And it summarizes everything we’ve seen
already. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Did you notice the word I emphasized? Whosoever.

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Paid in Full

That means anybody. It is the most inclusive word

in the entire Bible—and it includes you!

An Exclusive Offer
This offer of forgiveness is inclusive, a personal offer
to you. But it is also exclusive—available only through
Jesus Christ.
Some people like to think that by dying on the
cross, Jesus opened the way to Heaven—as in, He now
made it possible for us to earn our way there.
Others like to think that they are trusting Jesus
and other religions, philosophies, or themselves. They
say things like, “Sure, I’m trusting in Jesus—and
Buddhism” or “and positive thinking,” “and baptism,”
“and…”. Or they use the old quip “All roads lead to
Rome” and assume that all roads lead to Heaven as well.
This sort of thinking may be popular, but it is the
opposite of what Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth,
and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by
me” (John 14:6).

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 Six—Forgiven

In another place, the Bible says of Jesus, “Neither

is there salvation in any other: for there is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
You see, Jesus isn’t just a way to Heaven; He is the
way to Heaven. He is the only One who could pay for
our sins and then offer us full and complete forgiveness
as a gift.

Don’t Refuse Your Pardon

In 1829, two men, George Wilson and James Porter, were
convicted of robbing the U.S. Mail and endangering
the life of a postal driver in the process. Porter was
executed, but Wilson’s execution was delayed as friends
pleaded on his behalf.
In June of 1830, President Andrew Jackson issued
a full pardon to Wilson, allowing him to go free.
Strangely, however, Wilson refused to avail himself of
the pardon.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court was called on
to decide Wilson’s fate. Chief Justice John Marshall

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Paid in Full

delivered the court’s ruling, including the statement:

“A pardon is a deed…and if it be rejected, we have
discovered no power in a court to force it on him.”1
Although Wilson was offered forgiveness, he
rejected it.
Don’t make the same mistake. Jesus offers you
forgiveness—which He obtained at great cost. Don’t
reject it. Receive it!

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 SE V EN

Believe It, Receive It

Several years ago, the Consumer Reports National

Research Center reported that one out of five gift card
recipients never used their cards, representing about
$972 million—almost $1 billion—in unredeemed cards.1
Why? Here were the reasons the gift card
owners reported:

• Didn’t have time: 50 percent

• Didn’t find anything they wanted: 37 percent
• Lost the card: 14 percent
• Card expired: 12 percent
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Paid in Full

These gift cards, regardless of the value on the

card, did the gift recipients no good. To be sure, the
money was available—already loaded on the card. But
without using the card, the money made no difference
to the person who received it.
Similarly, Jesus already paid for our sins on the
cross. But the fact of His atonement is not enough. We
must apply it to our lives by simple faith.
There is a difference between knowing something
and having faith in it. In fact, the Bible tells us that
even “the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19).
Knowing Jesus paid for your sin in full and trusting
His payment is like the difference between having a gift
card and using that gift card.

Believe It
Of course, to receive something, you have to believe
it is real—a genuine offer. If I offer to give you a
geographic landmark, such as the Eiffel Tower, you
might say, “Sure, thanks.” But you would just be saying

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 Seven—Believe It, Receive It

that to be kind. Mentally, you’d be considering the

possibility that I needed serious help!
To receive the gift of eternal life, you must believe
that it is a real offer—that what God has said about it
is true.
Let’s recap. In these pages, we’ve seen from the
Bible the following truths:
All of us have sinned.
For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God;—Romans 3:23

This sin separates us from God, and it has the price

tag of death—in Hell, eternally separated from God.
For the wages of sin is death…—Romans 6:23

But Christ died for our sin. He paid the final and
complete price.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us.—Romans 5:8

And we must trust in Christ exclusively

for salvation.
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Paid in Full

Neither is there salvation in any other: for

there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.
—Acts 4:12

…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus

Christ our Lord.—Romans 6:23

Jesus paid our price in full so we wouldn’t have to.

He offers this salvation from sin to you as a gift. Your
choice to receive it or reject it is the difference between
Heaven and Hell, between eternal life and eternal death.

Receive Christ by Faith

To receive the gift of an eternal home in Heaven, we
must stop trusting ourselves, our works, or our religion
and place our full trust in Jesus Christ alone for the
forgiveness of our sin and eternal life.
Think of these three words: call, turn, trust.
You call out to the Lord for His gift. You turn from
self-effort. And you trust the payment Jesus already
made. In the language of the Bible this is “repentance
toward God [turning from self], and faith toward our

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 Seven—Believe It, Receive It

Lord Jesus Christ [trusting what He has done on your

behalf]” (Acts 20:21).
In Romans 10:13 the Bible says, “For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
That is a promise directly from God that if you will
pray to Him, confess that you are a sinner, and ask
Him to forgive your sins, turning to Him alone to be
your Saviour, He will give you eternal life.
The Bible isn’t talking here about “praying all
the time” or deciding to be a religious person. It is
speaking of a definitive decision to forsake previous
assumptions and turn away from your efforts for
salvation, choosing to trust only in what Jesus did to
pay for your sins.
The phrase “call upon the name of the Lord” brings
to mind an image of someone drowning, stranded
far out in the ocean with no way to make it to shore.
Picture yourself as that person—hopeless and helpless.
But then an ocean liner appears on the scene. You
wave your arms high and call out for help. When the
ship comes to you and throws out a lifeboat, would
you say, “Aw, thanks! But I’m okay. I’ll just keep

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Paid in Full

swimming here as long as I know you’re nearby”? No!

You’re going to throw yourself into that lifeboat—it’s
your only hope of salvation.
Similarly, the Bible tells us we are lost in sin.
Without Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, we will die and
spend eternity in Hell, separated from God. But if we
call out to Him—“call upon the name of the Lord”—
for salvation, He promises He will save us.
In Romans 10:9–10 God tells us we have simply to
call out for salvation—believing the truth about who
Jesus is in our hearts—and we will be saved: “That if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.”
It’s as simple as believing what God says and
then choosing to call out to Him for salvation. You
can make the decision today to receive God’s gift by
praying from your heart something like this:
Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner. I confess
that in my sin, I cannot save myself. Right now,
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 Seven—Believe It, Receive It

I turn to You alone to be my Saviour. I ask you

to save me from the penalty of my sin, and I
receive Your gift of eternal life.—Amen

If you just now made the decision to receive Christ

as your Saviour, allow me to be the first to congratulate
you! In over five decades of life, I can unreservedly and
with zero hesitation tell you that this was the greatest
decision I ever made.
And what’s more, receiving the gift of eternal life
isn’t the end of the gift—it’s just the beginning! Eternal
life is not only a joy to receive; it is a joy to own. In fact,
the more you understand the enormity of what this
gift is and the better you get to know the One who gave
it to you, the more wonderful it is!

Now You Know

Remember at the beginning of this little book when we
saw that God wants us to know that we have eternal life?
Remember my City Attorney friend who didn’t know?
The good news is that he did choose to trust Christ as

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his Saviour. He, like so many others have done, called

upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
If you also just “called upon the name of the Lord,”
you have the promise from God that you are saved! He
didn’t say, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord might be saved.” He said, “whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Look again at the verse that we saw in chapter 1:
“These things have I written unto you that believe on
the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye
have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name
of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). It is through believing
on Jesus that we have God’s promise of eternal life and
the confidence that we know we have it!
In man’s ideas of getting salvation by our works,
we can never know for sure that we have eternal life.
We’re left hoping and trying and wondering. But in
God’s perfect plan, salvation is sure. We receive God’s
gift, and we know He will keep His promise.
And the best of it is, God’s promises are always
good—you can take them to the bank!

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 EIGHT

Take It to the Bank

Have you ever taken a bad check to the bank? Someone

gave you a check indicating they had money in their
account to cover it, but when you attempted to cash or
deposit the check, it bounced?
Or has someone ever made you a bad promise?
They told you something they would do, but when
the time came, they abandoned their promise? There
are some people you just can’t really trust anything
they say.

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Paid in Full

With God, it’s the opposite. When He gives a

promise, you can rest in full confidence that He will
keep it! Including when He promises eternal life.
If you have just received God’s gift of eternal life,
I want to take these last few pages to encourage you
in understanding just how secure this gift really is. In
other words, I want you to know that when God gives
a gift, it’s for keeps!

Secure Promises
I’ve read that the most impenetrable bank vault in
the world is Fort Knox—the United States bullion
depository. If a robber were to somehow get through
the solid granite wall perimeter and pass the squadrons
of machine gun-wielding guards and armed military,
the thief would still have to contend with a twenty-
two-ton vault door. That door is held shut by a lock so
intricate that it requires a ten-person team to unlock
it.1 If you’re looking for easy cash, you’re definitely not
going to find it at Fort Knox.

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 Eight—Take It to the Bank

The gift that God has given you of eternal life is

even more secure than the bullion stored at Fort Knox.
Jesus explained it this way: “And I give unto them
eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which
gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to
pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28–29).
Jesus promised to give eternal life to anyone who
calls out to Him for salvation. By definition, eternal
life can never end or be taken away. But to emphasize
the security of this promise, Jesus painted a picture for
us. He said He holds us tightly in His hand. And the
Father’s hand is wrapped around even Jesus’ hand!
Talk about security! Fort Knox has nothing on the
hand of God.

You Can’t Lose It

Some people who trust Jesus to be their Saviour
begin to worry that maybe something they do wrong
will make them lose the promise of eternal life. Even
though they know God promises to keep them secure,

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Paid in Full

they are concerned that if they sin they will forfeit

their salvation.
If you feel this fear, I have good news for you!
You may be able to lose money, but you can’t lose
your salvation.
Since we cannot earn salvation by anything we do,
we cannot lose it by what we do (or don’t do) either.
The blood of Jesus stands as our continual payment for
sin. First John 1:7 says, “…the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Just a few verses later—to really nail it down—the
Bible continues, “My little children, these things write
I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And he is the propitiation [meaning covering] for our
sins…” (1 John 2:1–2).
These verses admonish us not to just keep sinning
without caring, but they also acknowledge that we do,
in fact, still sin sometimes. And when we do, we know
that we are still secure in the payment Jesus made
for us.

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 Eight—Take It to the Bank

The certainty of God’s promises and the security

of our salvation are woven all throughout the Bible in
multitudes of direct references and poignant analogies.
For instance, God uses the analogy of sonship—that
those who have trusted Christ are now God’s sons and
daughters.2 He even likens salvation to a new birth.3
Just as you cannot biologically change the family into
which you were physically born, when you become
God’s child through a spiritual birth (by asking Jesus to
be your Saviour), you are forever His son or daughter.
He will never disown or expel you from the family.

It’s for Real

If you were to decide to purchase a house today, you
would likely need to call a banker and work out a
mortgage plan in which you would pay for the house
over a period of years. But most lenders (except
maybe your mother—maybe) aren’t just going to take
your word on the payments and give you the key to
the house. They will ask you for “earnest money”—a

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Paid in Full

large up-front sum to prove you are serious about

the purchase.
Well, when it comes to our salvation, God
voluntarily gave us an earnest to assure us that He is
going to follow through on His promise of giving us
a home in Heaven. And you’d better be sitting down
before you read next what that earnest is.
It is God Himself.
The Holy Spirit—the third Person of the trinity—
takes up residence in us the moment we trust Christ as
Saviour. The Bible says that God has “given the earnest
of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:224).
If you received the gift of salvation, you also have
the continual presence of God. The Holy Spirit will
never leave us. Ever.

Rest in God’s Promise

In all of these promises, we know that God absolutely
does not—indeed, cannot—lie. Titus 1:2 says, “In hope
[meaning confidence] of eternal life, which God, that
cannot lie, promised before the world began.”

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 Eight—Take It to the Bank

Bank accounts run empty, and human guarantees

fail. But God’s promises are always sound! When God
says, “If you call to Me for salvation, I will give you
eternal life,” you can rest in that promise.
Your gift is secure.

67
 F I NA L NOTE F ROM T H E AUT H OR

If you received the gift of God while reading this little

book, I would love to hear from you and would like to
send you a gift copy of God’s Word and another small
book titled First Steps for New Christians that will help
you grow in your relationship with the Lord.
Simply contact Striving Together Publications
with your name and mailing address so we can send
you these gifts. May God bless you in your new
relationship with Him!
email [email protected]
Call 800.201.7748
Write Striving Together Publications
4020 E. Lancaster Blvd.
Lancaster, ca 93535
69
 N ot e s

Chapter Four
1. Cheryl K. Chumley, “Michael Bloomberg: I’ve earned
my place in Heaven for anti-gun crusade” (The
Washington Times, April 16, 2014), http://www.
washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/16/michael-
bloomberg-ive-earned-my-place-in-heaven-fo/.
2. Bloomberg Businessweek, June 8, 2006.

Chapter Five
1. Matthew 9:2–6; John 10:30–33; John 20:28
2. Luke 1:35
3. Luke 2:7

71
Paid in Full

4. Isaiah 50:6; Romans 5:6–8

5. Henry M. Morris, Many Infallible Proofs: Evidences
for the Christian Faith (New Leaf Publishing Group,
1974) 97.
6. See John 20:11–18; Matthew 28:1–10; 1 Corinthians 15:5;
Luke 24:13–35; John 20:19–24, 26–28, 21:1–23;
1 Corinthians 15:6–7; Acts 1:3–10, 9:3–9.
7. Acts 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:6

Chapter Six
1. Legal Information Institute, “United States v. George
Wilson” (accessed September 22, 2014), http://www.law.
cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/32/150.

Chapter Seven
1. Jae Yang and Adrienne Lewis, “Americans Neglect a
Billion in Gift Cards” (USA Today, November 20, 2006).

Chapter Eight
1. CMI Gold and Silver, “15 Most Impenetrable Bank
Vaults,” December 16, 2010, http://www.cmi-gold-silver.
com/blog/15-impenetrable-bank-vaults/.
2. John 1:12; Romans 8:14
3. John 3; 2 Corinthians 5:17
4. See also 2 Corinthians 5:5 and Ephesians 1:13–14.

72
 About the Author

Paul Chappell is the senior pastor of Lancaster

Baptist Church and president of West Coast Baptist
College in Lancaster, California. His preaching is heard
on Daily in the Word, a daily radio broadcast aired
across America. Pastor Chappell has been married to
his wife Terrie for over thirty-three years, and they
have four married children and six grandchildren.

You can connect with Dr. Chappell through his blog,

Twitter, and Facebook:
paulchappell.com
twitter.com/paulchappell
facebook.com/pastor.paul.chappell
Also available from
Striving Together Publications

First Steps for New Christians

First Steps for New Christians provides basic information and
insight to help you grow into an abundant relationship with Jesus
Christ. This workbook covers topics that address the foundational
beliefs of the Christian life such as accepting Christ, baptism, the
local church, and more. Each topic has been developed into a
brief, easy to understand Bible study.
As you discover these truths and apply them to your life, you
will begin to see God bless you in unbelievable ways. Life can be
tough, but when you have the Lord on your side, you will face life
refreshed and with a new hope. (72 pages, paperback)

strivingtogether.com
Also available from
Striving Together Publications
A Word to the Wise
An important part of the Christian life is
getting to know your Saviour. And the best
way to know Him better is by reading His
Word. This book includes a Bible passage
and helpful tips for every day of the year
that will encourage your spiritual growth.
(424 pages, hardback)

Stewarding Life
God has given you one life and filled it
with many resources—time, relationships,
finances, influence, and more. This book
will show you how to steward these
resources to fulfill God’s eternal purpose
for your life. (280 pages, hardback)

The Heart of the Shepherd

God’s Word gives us a beautiful and
encouraging portrait of our relationship
with Him. He calls us His sheep and Himself
our Shepherd. He is a loving, gracious, and
good Shepherd. This small volume sheds
light on the twenty-third Psalm revealing
God’s love and His eternal plan for our lives.
(96 pages, mini hardback)

strivingtogether.com
For more information about
our ministry visit the
following websites:

strivingtogether.com
for helpful Christian resources

dailyintheword.org/today
for an encouraging word each day