We owe God "ten thousand talents of silver," but we have no way to repay. Now God is doing the same thing for us. Because He loves us, He cannot ask us to pay Him back. But because He is righteous, He will not tell us that we have no need to repay at all. For us to pay Him back is impossible. Yet for God to release us from our obligation is unrighteous. Thank and praise Him that He has come to give us the "money," that we can pay back what we owe Him. The collector is God, and the payer is also God. Without collecting, there is no righteousness; but if we are made to pay, there is no love. Now God Himself is the collector; hence, righteousness is maintained. And God Himself is also the payer; hence, love is maintained. Hallelujah! The collector is the payer. This is the biblical meaning of redemption from sins.

Therefore, Jesus the Nazarene came and bore our sins in His body onto the cross. God Himself came to bear our sins. Our sins were judged by God in the person of Jesus Christ. The blood of the Lord Jesus shed on the cross is proof of this judgment. We come to God by this blood. Through the Lord Jesus we tell God that we have been judged. Now we are turning over to Him what the Lord Jesus has paid for us. It is true that we have sinned. But we are not irresponsible; there has been the judgment. It is true that we had a debt. But we are not avoiding it; the debt has already been paid. We have the blood, which signifies the accomplished salvation of the Lord Jesus, as the receipt proving that God has paid our debt back to Himself. This is why the blood in the Old Testament was sprinkled seven times within the veil. This is why it had to be brought to the propitiation cover on the ark. God has to forgive every sinner who comes to Him through the blood of the Lord Jesus. There is no way for Him not to forgive us.

Let us return to the previous illustration. Suppose I borrowed ten thousand talents of silver from a brother and I have no money to pay him back. One day he comes to my home and says, "You owe me ten thousand talents of silver. Now you must pay me back. I am not an irresponsible or loose person. Whatever I do, I do seriously. You have to pay me back. Now here are ten thousand talents of silver. Bring this to my house tomorrow and pay back your debt. Then you can take back your promissory note." I would expect that when I go to his house with the money the next day I will be able to redeem the promissory note. But suppose that after I hand him the money, he says that because the money was given to me by him the day before, he will not return the promissory note to me. Can he do such a thing? When I hand him the money, does he have the right not to hand me back the promissory note? No. He had the right not to give me the money the day before. If he did not give me the money the day before, at most I can say that he does not love me. I cannot say a word more. But if he has given me the money and I pay him back, he is unrighteous if he still keeps my note; it is not simply a matter of him not loving me. If he is righteous, he has to hand me the note when I hand him the money.