Christ can pay the deficit and offer peace that lasts

• And what we find in relationships, in our interactions is that there is always a cost.

• Because our lives are marked in fierce rivalry and competition between others for what is not ours.

• There is always a cost in our relationships because there is always something that we desire that is more than what the relationship costs.

Back to the 10th Commandment

• The law begins to really ask the question, what happens when there is an imbalance in the relationship?

Exodus 20:17 ESV

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

• Why is this a problem?

• We want, we desire, we do what we can to eliminate our neighbor to have that.

› What begins happening in ch 21 and 22 is that we see that there is a cost to this rivalry and a cost to this competition.

Broken Trust

Exodus 22:9 ESV

For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak, or for any kind of lost thing, of which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before God. The one whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.

– In these two chapters there are more than 20 references to repayment. To when you do something wrong you are to pay restitution for that repayment.

• two things become true when trust is breached:

• 1- it becomes harder to restore trust that it is to keep trust

• 2- we see the value on trust as a primary glue in relationships.

• Trust is the ability to hold up weight that the other person requires of us.

• Trust needs to be protected

• Trust needs to be prepared.

• But even in these chapters there are more than 20 instances where when trust is broken you need to offer restitution.

Endless Repayment

Exodus 21:23–25 ESV

But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

• as we go through life we recognize that there is always payment to be remade somewhere.

• But eventually we build a deficit.

There is deficit and There needs to be a final payment

• Shalem: Repayment

• Shalom: Wholeness

• The word Shalom is from the same root Shalem, but it is beyond repayment. Shalom starts with a sense of repayment but it is beyond that because in Shalom repayment exists.

Luke 7:41–43 ESV

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

• When we cannot pay, Christ can. When our burden is too much, His is enough. Whatever the weight, whatever the amount, Christ’s repayment can cover it.

John 14:27 ESV

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

• His sacrifice is enough to pay, and that sacrifice offers us peace. His Shalem gives us full Shalom.