What’s your credit score?

Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness…. He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. —Romans 4:9b,20 (CSB)

I’m old enough to remember taking my checkbook with me whenever I went shopping. Before getting into line, I’d glance at the little register where I had carefully recorded the debits and credits, making sure I had enough money in the bank to cover my purchase.

It was serious business. Make a math mistake and you might bounce a check, which meant paying a penalty to the bank and perhaps seeing your photo above the cash register the next time you came to the store warning “Do not accept checks from this man.”

Credit cards were a godsend to those of us living paycheck to paycheck. Visa or Mastercard would pay for whatever tickled your fancy with just the swipe of a piece of plastic, at least until the end of the month. Then, if you didn’t have enough in the bank to pay back Mastercard, no worries, they would just tack on interest and make the balance into a loan.

Plastic credit and ever-growing unpaid balances begat credit histories and credit scores whose purpose is to evaluate who is a good credit risk, and who isn’t.

Paul uses the language of assets and liabilities, debits and credits, to illustrate the plight we’ve found ourselves in because of sin. Jesus used similar metaphors in his parables. They both conclude that before God, we have very, very poor credit.

In fact, if it’s possible to have a negative credit score, the human race has achieved it.

Our pettiness and anger and lies and deceptions and hypocrisies — all those daily acts of rebellion against God’s commands — have rolled over in our moral bank accounts month by month and compounded into a debt so great, no financial counselor could ever hope to help us dig our way out. From the perspective of the Holy God, we are morally destitute.

But if we put our faith in Jesus Christ and accept the exchange he offers — his blood for our sin, his gift of good credit freely exchanged for our mountain of debt — we are no longer insolvent before God.

Our credit score in Christ is 1000, our bond rating is AAA+, our righteousness is backed by the full faith and trust of Jesus Christ and God, his Father.

By faith alone, our wretched credit history is wiped clean by Jesus Christ. All you have to do to receive this gift is to admit that you’re insolvent, under water, you’ve lost your shirt, and then put yourself under the management of the Son of God.

God is able to rescue you. God will set you on your feet again. The cross of Jesus Christ is a place of grace and forgiveness and new beginnings.