God’s Word teaches that when we were unsaved, we owed God a debt we could not pay. Jesus makes this clear in His Parable of the Two Debtors in the Gospel of Luke. Two men owed money to a creditor, the one owing ten times as much as the other. But neither was able to pay, so the creditor “graciously forgave them both” (literal translation). No matter how much morality a man may have, he still comes short of the glory of God. Even if his sin debt is one-tenth that of others, he stands unable to pay, bankrupt at the judgment bar of God. God in His grace, because of the work of Christ on the cross, is able to forgive sinners, no matter how large their debt may be.

Thus when we trust Christ, we become spiritually rich. We now share in the riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 1:7), the riches of His glory (Ephesians 1:18; Philippians 4:19), the riches of His wisdom (Romans 11:33), and the “unsearchable riches of Christ”
(Ephesians 3:8). In Christ we have “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), and we are “complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10). Once a person is “in Christ,” he has all he needs to live the kind of Christian life God wants him to live.

Verse for today: “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs— heirs of God and coheirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17, NIV).

Also read: Go back to the reading and look up the verses listed in the second paragraph.

Action assignment: From memory jot down on a piece of paper the riches mentioned above—plus any others you can think of. Keep the list handy and read it from time to time until you have it well in mind. Thank God for making you a joint heir with Christ.