The Great Debtor

I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. (Rom 1:14)

When we walked according to the spirit of error we considered everyone and everything to be our debtors. When we gave, it was usually with an expectation that our generosity would be rewarded or reciprocated. We were creditors. Why would Paul consider himself a debtor to peoples he never had met or had had any dealings with? The answer is love. Paul was completely soaked with God’s love.

We humans have never quite figured out why God loves us so cordially. His love has an ethereal dimension which is very unfamiliar to the unregenerate man. He, the creator of everything, expresses His love as He was a debtor to every one of us. Hence He gives and gives abundantly. It is His nature. That is His way of life. We are receivers and that is the intention of our design. We are thus conduits through which the quality of His love will be spontaneously expressed.

John asserts that as He (Christ) is, so are we in this world. It plainly denotes that there are no “ought to be” left in our lives. We are everything we are supposed to be. When we are saved we begin to share with others this wonderful new life which is burning with an eternal flame in our hearts. We have become debtors to those God sends in our way. And we find that it isn’t a burden, because it is unconditionally love in action. We love, because He loved us first.

Twice the New Testament exclaims that God cannot lie. A lie is an obvious sign of self-seeking love. The motivations behind a lie can vary, but a liar is ultimately seeking his own ends. God cannot lie, and thus His love will always seek the benefit of others, that is, Christ being formed in every human. A debtor is always in need of a creditor. Hence Paul repeatedly in Romans 5 make statements such as “the free gift”, “the gift of God”, “the gift by grace”, “the gift unto justification of life” and “abundance of grace.”