Scripture for Study and Encouragement: Isaiah 53

Jesus paid it all! There are no bills due for your sin!
You are now free to simply trust and obey.

Stop trying to earn something from God. Stop trying to gain more of his acceptance. Stop trying to earn his favor. Stop trying to win his allegiance. Stop trying to do something that would pay for his blessing. Stop trying to morally buy your way out of his anger. Stop trying to reach a level where you will know lasting peace with him. Just stop trying. Just stop.

So many Christians load onto their shoulders a burden that they do not have to bear. They get up every morning and pick up the heavy load of trying somehow, some way to achieve something with God. They work hard to exercise what they do not have in hopes they can achieve what is impossible. It simply cannot work. So where does it lead? It leads either to the scary pride of self-righteousness—a culture of moralistic self-backslappers, who have no problem judging those who have not achieved the level of righteousness they think that they have—or to fear and discouragement—a culture of people who don’t run to God with their sin because they’re afraid of him.

Paul wipes out this distorted, debilitating “buy your way into grace” culture with a striking economy of words: “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident” (Galatians 3:11). It is a statement that requires no preamble and no amendment. No one is ever accepted by God because he or she has kept the law. No one. That’s it; no compromises and no deals are needed. They are not needed because, first, it is impossible to buy your way into God’s favor because sin makes you a lawbreaker and, second, your bills were fully and completely paid in the single payment of the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ did not make the first payment on your moral mortgage; he paid your entire moral mortgage in one single payment so that you could live in relationship to God debt-free forever. God’s law is not your payment plan because there is no payment plan when the demands of a mortgage have been satisfied once and forever in one single payment.

So stop trying to measure up to get whatever from God. Stop hiding from him when you mess up. Stop comparing yourself to other people, wondering if God loves you less because you’re not as “good” as them. Stop naming the good things you do as righteousness that not only gets you closer to God, but also proves to others that you are. Just stop asking the law to do what only grace can achieve, and start resting in the fact that you don’t have any moral bills due because Jesus paid them all on the cross. And when you sin, don’t pretend you didn’t, don’t panic, and don’t hide. Run to Jesus in faith and receive mercy in your time of need, the kind of mercy he paid for you to have.

Adapted and modified excerpts from Paul David Tripp, 40 Days of Faith
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.