A Zero ($0.00) Balance

Devotional – John Clardy – 4/25/08

Romans 6:14     For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 8:1       There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

I am not sure of the following story’s origin or authenticity, but it is strange enough to be true.

In March 1992, a man living near Boston, Massachusetts received a bill on his unused credit card for $0.00.  He ignored it and threw it away.  In April he received another and threw that one away, too. The credit card company then notified him they would cancel his card if he didn't send them a payment of $0.00.  Upon speaking to a service representative, he was informed that is was a computer error and it would be corrected.

A few weeks later the man decided to use the credit card.  However, upon producing his credit card for payment for his purchases he found the card had been canceled.  After again calling the credit card company, he was again told apologetically that it was again a computer error and it would be corrected.

The next month he got a bill for $0.00 stating that he had 10 days to pay his account or the company would have to take steps to recover the debt. Finally in frustration, he mailed them a check for $0.00.  The computer duly processed his account and returned a statement to the effect that he now owed the credit card company nothing at all.

A week later, the man's bank called him asking him what he was doing writing a check for $0.00.  After a lengthy explanation, the bank replied that the $0.00 check had caused their check processing software to fail.  The bank could not now process ANY checks from ANY of their customers that day because the check for $0.00 was causing the computer to crash.

The following month the man received a letter from the credit card company claiming that his check had bounced and that he now owed them $0.00 and unless he sent a check by return of post they would be taking steps to recover the debt.

We may not have had this man’s experience with a credit card, but we have all found ourselves in exactly the position when dealing with the accusations of our adversary, the devil. We all owed a debt we were unable to pay because of sin!  There are none of us righteous!  We have all sinned and fallen short.  The wages of our sin is death.  And satan is very good at reminding us of that debt. 

But for those that have accepted the payment that was made  through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we owe $0.00!  The cross has canceled our debt -- we owe nothing! It is Paid in Full! We have a zero balance! As Paul reminds us in his letter to the Christians at Rome, sin no longer has any claim or control over us!  Because of the grace and the spirit of God we are not under condemnation!

So let satan continue to accuse us and to make claims against us! Let him try to send his bogus bills our way – they mean nothing! The fact remains that our past failures and our past sins have been removed as far as the east is from the west! They are under the blood. 

Revelation 12:10-11 KJV

(10)  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

(11)  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.