A Great Debt

A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the $23 bill, the New Straits Times reported.

But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a $218 trillion bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.

Receiving a $218 trillion bill in our world would be laughable. Outside of fraud or something similar it is simply outrageous. For a moment, though, imagine that it was your bill... and that it was real. Imagine that you were actually faced with a bill that was humanly impossible to pay (even governments can't pay that kind of bill!), and if you didn't there would be prosecution for the unpaid debt.

The Scriptures tell us that we are born into this world with that kind of debt--a sin debt--and God's holiness demands that it must be paid or prosecution results. Romans 6:23 tells us that the prosecution is death. There is no mistake, no fraud, no going back to the company and demanding an investigation. No, we simply face the debt and, being unable to pay it, we face an eternal punishment for our inability to pay what was owed.

"But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." The word "propitiation" means to be satisfied. While we were unable to pay the debt, God satisfied the righteous demands of payment by dying for us. What you couldn't pay God did... it is His free gift to you.