Americans are in debt.

A lot of debt. Recently, the Federal Reserve reported that Americans have set a new record for credit card debt. According to their report, Americans now have over $1.021 trillion in credit card debt. This breaks the previous record level of debt that was set in April 2008.

$1.021 trillion. It's a huge number.

But the quesiton is this: how much of that money will be paid back? How much of that immense amount of debt will be paid back by Americans?

It's doubtful that 100% of that debt will be paid back anytime soon. Yet it's a great illustration of the biblical teaching on sin.

Sin is a crime against a perfect and just God. Sin means you have have not done what God has required of you. You have fallen short of God's standard. That means you owe God. You owe him a perfect life of obedience.

However, instead of obeying God we sin. We live as if we are in control. The Bible calls that sin and teaches that sin creates a spiritual debt you owe God. Sin creates a problem between you and your Creator.

You can try to resolve the problem of your spiritual debt in one of two ways:

1. You can try to pay God back with your life. You can try to be perfect and holy and pay God back with your good works. You can try to resolve the problem of sin with your good intentions and moral effort.

There is only one problem with that solution. It will never work. You cannot pay God back for what you owe him. Trying to live a good life is like offering pennies when you owe trillions. It's impossible. 

2. The second solution is to let the death of Jesus Christ cover your sins. In other words, put your faith in Jesus Christ as the only perfect sacrifice for sin, the only payment for sin that God will accept. When you put your faith in the crucified Christ, God the Father looks on his death as payment for your sin and accepts you - he forgives you.

So how will you try to resolve the problem of your spiritual debt?

Will you try to pay God back with your good works? Or will you let the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross be the final payment for your sin?