Someone's Gotta Pay

One of the things I've seen with Windows 8 is a host of "free games" available. You download them, play them to your heart's content, and don't pay a thing. Of course, that doesn't mean they're free. There are advertisements. There are advertisements on your broadcast television and there are advertisements on your "free games" and there are advertisements on your Facebook. Why? Someone has to pay.

You remember the story last month. Ethan Couch, 16, was given probation for drinking and driving and killing four pedestrians. Probation rather than the expected 20-year sentence. Why? "Affluenza". The boy never learned responsibility or morals from his rich parents. It's not his fault. And, of course, there was a serious outcry over this. Why? Because that's not justice. And just what is justice? Someone has to pay.

Remember Anders Breivik? Okay, maybe not the name. He's the Norwegian mass murderer who set off a car bomb at the government housing for the Prime Minister of Norway killing 8 and wounding more than 200 and then went to an island youth camp where he killed 69 participants of the camp (mostly youth) and injured 110 more in 2011. Well, they found him sane (yeah, I get that ... or maybe not) and "sentenced" him to "preventative detention" for a minimum of 10 years in what Time deemed "the world's most humane prison". Apparently even this resort living is too harsh because he's complaining. And we sit stunned. Really? The worst mass killing in Norway since World War II and they don't put him in prison? They put him in "preventative detention"? Why are we complaining? Because that's not justice. Someone has to pay.

Some always has to pay. When the needy get "free money" to help them out, it's not free. Someone had to pay. When the homeless get a "free meal", it's not free. Someone had to pay. When a thief steals something and gets away with it it's not free. Someone has to pay. And if you are wronged by another and choose to forgive them, it's not free. Someone has to pay. Sometimes it is the person obtaining the thing. Sometimes it's the person providing it. But someone has to pay.

Remember that when you wake up in the morning forgiven. Yes ... you know ... redeemed, forgiven, your sins are blotted out. When you are shown mercy by God by having your sins removed and being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. These are wonderful things, but they are not justice. Justice requires that someone has to pay. Even in the case of mercy, someone had to pay. And we who have competed with Paul as the chief among sinners, who have fought with God, have shaken our fists in His face and declared, "I will be like the Most High", who have committed Cosmic Treason in the form of sin, we who were hostile to God (Rom 8:7) and now find ourselves forgiven, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ... we need to remember that. We need to remember it in a big way. Someone had to pay. That "Someone" was Christ. He who is forgiven much loves much (Luke 7:47). And, trust me, if you are among the forgiven, you have been forgiven much. We should avoid taking that kind of payment and that kind of mercy and that kind of grace for granted.