No Burden, No Debt (Repost)

I recently read, for the first time, an excerpt from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress that I found quite moving as it pertains to Christian liberty. The story was at a point where the title character, a man appropriately named Christian, is travelling down a road burdened by a load he is carrying on his back. Eventually Christian gets to a hill on which stands a cross - and at the bottom of the hill lies a tomb that is empty. Bunyan writes that, in his dream, when Christian drew level with the Cross the burden broke free from upon his shoulders, fell off of his back, and rolled down the hill to the mouth of the tomb. Then as Christian stood with tears streaming down his face, there appeared three angels who declared: ‘Your sins have been forgiven’. Then - and this is the part that really hit me about as far as something written outside of scripture can - Christian sings this after the angels have departed him:

‘So far did I come loaded up with sin;
Nor could anything ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came here: what a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back!
Must here the chains that tied it to me crack?
Blessed cross, blessed tomb, blessed rather be
The man who here was put to shame for me.’

What a great little bit of writing - what a wonderful song to sing! Can we as Christians ever ponder enough the fullness of what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did for us upon that cross? Let us not ever downplay, trivialize, over-intellectualize - or, heaven forbid, forget - Christ's saving work upon the cross. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:24: "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed". Was ever there a more wonderful thing then that which Jesus Christ did for us upon the cross? I regret to call it a 'thing' but my words are tripped up by the glory of it all! My eyes are quick to tear and my heart quick to flutter at the greatness of His sacrifice! What a horrible thing to think of the state of our utter hopelessness; to think of our death because of sin; to think of eternal seperation from God our heavenly Father. Ah, but what a marvelous contrast to then "fix our eyes on Jesus"; to find our righteousness in "him who justifies"; to be healed from the sickness of sin! What can we do but stand in awe - for there is by no means a manner in which we can repay. For this ransom was not paid so that the purchased would live a life of debt - it was a debt that was cancelled! No, we cannot repay. Nor should we serve to try. ( Continue on to the rest of No Burden, No Debt)