The Receipt

“in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

Colossians 1:14 · NKJV

Paul uses the present tense for the possession and points to a finished act for the payment. We have it. He paid it.

Redemption was a market word. A price was named, the price was paid in full, and the person walked out free. Paul names the currency. His blood. Nothing else was ever going to be sufficient, and nothing else was ever asked of you.

Anyone who has paid off a car knows the strange feeling after the last payment. For years the bill came every month, and part of your mind was always tracking what you still owed. Then the title arrives in the mail, and it takes a while for the rest of you to believe it. You still tense up on the first of the month out of habit. Many believers live that way with God, bracing for a bill that was paid long ago. Paul says the redemption is yours now. There is no balance left on the account, and the title is in your name.

The forgiveness of sins sits right beside it, as if to say this is what redemption looks like in practice. Not sins managed, monitored, or kept in a file. Forgiven, because the price cleared.

The price was paid in blood and the account is settled. The receipt says paid.

Go deeper: The Receipt Says Paid →