Our debt forgiven, not rescheduled. (Thought for the month – Sept 2015)

Our debt forgiven, not rescheduled.The numbers are eye watering. So much so that they are beyond normal comprehension. Greece is to receive €61 billion euros from the EU. In return, they have agreed to put up taxes and reduce government expenditure. One
way they will achieve the latter is by raising the state retirement age for receiving a pension. However this €61 billion is not a gift. It’s a loan. When this is added to the other loans already received, the national debt for Greece will exceed €250 billion. That’s more than
twice what the country earns in a year and the latest loan is needed because it isn’t able to pay it’s way at the moment, much less start to repay a growing debt mountain.

No wonder the IMF and others are calling for a large part of the debt Greece owes to be forgiven and written off. Those who understand what is a sustainable level of national debt which can be repaid over the long term have concluded Greece will not be able to repay its debts in full and no one else is offering to do this for them. As Judy and I visited Nicaragua via Miami last
month, on a “Boeing 747″,

I was struck that this is another country trying to pay it’s way with currency controls and visible struggles for its people. A country that’s a two hours plane ride south of its rich US neighbour. That’s the same distance south that Greece is from one of its rich neighbours, namely us in the UK.

What a contrast with the picture we find in a “Bible 747″, and explicitly Luke 7:47. Here there is a huge debt. Much sins and much debt to be forgiven is what the passage says – and that is what happens. This persons wasn’t unique. We each have a debt mountain that alone we couldn’t possibly repay. The great news is that we can receive total debt forgiveness. Jesus makes this possible. He doesn’t reschedule it for us over our lifetime or waive interest. No, he pays our debt in full wiping it out completely. Do you know what it means to have
total debt forgiveness just like the woman in Luke 7?

Kevin Borrett
Elder

September
2015