Lost The Plot

While hardly a new thing with this administration, debt forgiveness is a hot topic in today’s divisive political climate. I haven’t really followed the news closely, nor been too concerned with diving into this debate. However, I came across a post on social media that I could not ignore. I awoke the next morning stirred to tackle this Gospel issue.

“Conservative Christians are fully enraged at #studentloanforgiveness, missing the irony that their entire professed religion is based on the idea of a cancelled debt. Way to lose the plot, kids.” (John Pavolvitz)

Is this self-proclaimed “rogue pastor” correct in his criticism of conservative-leaning Christian voices? Have we lost the plot of our gospel when we lament the wonton cancellation of monetary loans by our country’s leadership?

There are certainly many in the conservative camp that demonstrate a lack of gospel love, and forgiveness is indeed a central theme in Christianity. However, as I considered this statement, its source, and its implications, I realized that what is being professed is NOT the true Gospel, but a distortion of it. This is because those like Pavolvitz deny two central doctrines (among others) in their assumptions.

SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT

“[Jesus Christ] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.” –1 John 2:2, NET

There is a cost associated with every individual attending university. Whether by individuals who spend their own hard-earned money, by generous guardians who tap into savings, by the funding of unnamed benefactors through scholarships, or financed by student loans—SOMEONE must pay.

loan | lōn |
noun 
a thing that is borrowed, especially a sum of money that is expected to be paid back with interest.

A loan is not a gift, but a borrowing of funds. Integrity aside (giving your word to pay something back and then not), the act of forgiveness always has a cost. Make no mistake, these canceled loans were paid, and not by tapping into President Biden’s large bank account. No, it has come from the empty storehouse of taxpayers' funds, an account that is already over thirty-one trillion dollars in the red.

See the great distortion? For here we see unfaithful stewards cheapening payable credit by their careless amnesty, the full citizenry obliged to become benefactors of a bill they truly cannot afford. This is NOT a true picture of God’s Gospel.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Romans 6:23, ESV

First, sin is no mere student loan. It far exceeds the national debt and has no hopes of payback. The cost of a single sin is our life (Psa 49:7-8), and yet we have a multitude of charges against each of us (Jam 2:10). We are morally bankrupt (Rom 3:10-18), and even our good deeds (which are faithless and manipulative acts apart from Christ) are but filthy laundry cast upon a stink-pile (Isa 64:6), further tallies in the column of debt. How then can a man imprisoned by sin, who with every borrowed breath accumulates further interest, ever bring his account back in the green (Mat 18:34-35)? Mankind is thus under the penalty of their own wicked decisions, alienated from life and utterly without hope (Eph 2:12).

“But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” –Romans 5:8, NET

Second, unlike the “generous” representatives who played loosely with other people’s money, our LORD personally financed the cost of the pardons, and paid the high cost WILLINGLY (John 10:18). Yet many overlook this enormous payment, and foolishly believe themselves more forgiving than God because they have overlooked the massive debt their sin brings (Mat 18:24-27), and the endless treasury of life found in its Author (John 11:25; Acts 3:15). Instead, they focus instead on their own “generosity” when they don’t demand back the borrowed pennies from another slave (see Mat 18:27-28).

But there is another great error in the above tweet.

REGENERATION

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord. “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people. “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.” –Jeremiah 31:31-34, NET

A friend of mine informed me his sister had $100,000 of student loan debt forgiven. To celebrate, she went out and bought a brand-new financed vehicle. This is not a picture of the forgiveness the gospel brings.

God does not forgive our debt for us to drive our balance back into a sea of red. Our LORD is not interested in pardoning criminals for them to continue their wicked ways (John 8:11; Rom 6:1-2). In fact, if we continue to casually charge, we reveal that our debt was never covered (Heb 10:26-27); our account remains in default; our “forgiveness” was not included in the measure (1Jo 3:4-10).

No, God does not rescue a people from bondage and debt for them to race back to Egypt (Gal 4:9; Num 14:1-4), but to bring them to Himself (Exo 19:4). He redeems a people so that they can joyfully fulfill their purpose of worshipping Him (Exo 8:1; ex: Job 33:24-28).

Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” –John 3:5-8, NET

The Gospel message is not like the old law’s demand for debt cancellation (ex: Deu 15:1), for it was powerless for effectual change (Rom 8:3). God did what the law could not, and His Gospel achieves what debt forgiveness never will (Rom 8:2). Christ’s finished work on the cross does more than forgive sinners. He regenerates dead bones to life (Eze 37:1-14). He trades hearts of stone for hearts of flesh (Eze 36:26). He adopts a people out of the world, not just by giving us a new name, but by transforming our “nature” (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10). He makes us a “new creation” (Gal 6:15), renewed in a rebirth (Tit 3:5). And He comes to dwell within us (Rom 8:14-16), no longer as indebted criminals, but as free children with a lavish inheritance (John 8:36; 1Pe 1:4).

“But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.” –1 John 1:9, NET

I conclude that the American church has indeed lost the plot. However, it is not in regard to the forgiveness of debt, which is a necessary outworking of our relationship with Christ (Col 3:13). No, it is in the belittling of Christ and His sacrifice for our sins and the omission of the transforming power that a relationship with our Creator brings. For if we fail to remember our first love (Rev 2:4), embrace all that Jesus reveals of Himself (Rev 1:13-18), and obey His commandments (John 14:15), then we will  indeed miss the ending and have "lost the plot."

“Once we could follow,

Now we cannot.

You would not fit our image,

So we lost the plot

Once we could hear You.

Now our senses are shot.

We've fogotten our first love.

We have lost the plot.”

–Newsboys, “Lost the Plot”