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Verse:“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” —Isaiah 55:1, NIV
What an embarrassing situation when you finish eating at a nice restaurant and the bill comes, but you do not have enough money to pay it.
How humiliating it is when you have to wash dishes to pay for your meal. On February 8, 1949, Frank McNamara had a business dinner at New York’s Major’s Cabin Grill. When the bill arrived, he realized he had forgotten his wallet.
He managed to find his way out of the pickle, but he decided there should be an alternative to cash. With his lawyer, Ralph Schneider, and friend Alfred Bloomingdale, McNamara eventually developed the Diners Club Card, primarily to be used for travel and entertainment purposes. Although some oil companies and department stores already issued their own proprietary cards, the Diners was the first credit card intended for widespread use. According to the US Census Bureau, by 2000, there were 1.43 billion credit cards in use in the United States alone.
Credit cards allow us to purchase in advance and pay later. Likewise, in Old Testament times, repentant sinners were genuinely saved with the assurance that the full redemption payment would be made on the cross of Calvary.
Salvation in the Old Testament was effectual—even Enoch, Moses, and Elijah were taken to heaven centuries before Christ paid the redemptive price.
But one wonders what would have happened to them if Christ had failed. We are told that Christ assumed human nature with the possibility of sinning.
Had He failed, “Satan would have triumphed, and the world would have been lost.” But for our sakes, He “took the risk of failure and eternal loss.” How far-reaching the consequence of “eternal loss” would be we simply do not know, and we should avoid speculating. Praise the Lord, Christ paid for the salvation of all humanity, including Old Testament believers who were saved in advance! No debt is left for any of us to pay.
In fact, Christ overpaid the price of our salvation, for “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20).
Let us be thankful for and rejoice in His most gracious and precious gift.