Paid In Full: A Modern Parable
The Crucifixion of Christ Painting by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1677
At The Accountant's
A man had a dream in which he found himself in an accountant's office. As he entered, he noticed all round the room were shelves of leather-bound ledgers, each beautifully tooled and engraved in gold with the names of individuals. There were thousands of them.
A large ledger lay open on the desk in front of him. As he looked, he saw his own name at the top of the page and rows and rows of entries. On closer inspection he saw the page ruled off in columns:
DATE |
THE SINS OF X [John Smith] |
TO PAY / PAID |
It was a list of all the sins he had committed in his lifetime, many of
which he had forgotten about till that moment. As he looked, he
noticed that in the right hand column the words "PAID IN FULL" had
been entered against every one of his sins. He began to weep as he
realised that God pardoned all his sins because he had placed his faith in
Jesus' death on the Cross as the only means whereby his sins could be
forgiven.