Sin + Student Loans

It was a sunny Atlanta, Georgia day in May 2019, when a group of men from Morehouse College prepared to graduate.

The commencement ceremony began with long robes, caps, beating sun, and pure excitement. As the ceremony progressed, commencement speaker Robert F. Smith, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, began his remarks.

Speeches are normally a portion of the ceremony that graduates anxiously wish to rush through in order to receive their diplomas. But Smith did something that made the commencement speech the most memorable moment of the night.

Smith said,

"On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we're gonna put a little fuel in your bus. This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans."

He and his family had established a grant that would pay off each graduate's student loans, to the tune of an estimated $40 million.

In a school where most students borrowed money in order to finish their degree, this news would make this not only the most memorable speech, but perhaps the most memorable moment of their lives.

They owed debts that had to be paid, and someone came in and removed it altogether.

Imagine what those young men felt like! Imagine the nights they had agonized over spreadsheets wondering how they would manage their student loan payments. Imagine the freedom and relief knowing that they didn’t have to pay the debt they rightfully owe?

Friend, I hope the metaphor isn’t lost on you. You might not be a college graduate facing student loans. But you have a debt of sin that has to be paid. Jesus isn’t a billionaire CEO, but he did the work to remove the punishment for you.

Jesus paid the debt, so you might have freedom.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

- Ephesians 2:4-5

Rich. In. Mercy.

God is rich in mercy. He is merciful. Mercy is forgiving the sinner and withholding the punishment that is justly deserved.

Paul tells us in Ephesians we were dead in our transgressions, we owed a debt too great to pay. And God showed us mercy. He forgave us and withheld the punishment that we rightly deserved, by sending His Son to die for us.

That’s the God we follow. A God who looks at the student loan bills that are piling up and pays them all off. A God who looks at the mistake we keep making and doesn’t punish us for it.

A God who looks at a broken and rebellious people, deserving of death, and instead offers us eternal life.

You’ve felt the weight of something big before. Maybe it was student loans, the mortgage, the impending divorce, or the grief. You’ve felt the way that it weighs on you. Do you know there is a God who removes the weight of our sin and instead offers us life through Him?

The wages of an education are student loans. But 300 some students in Atlanta got their debts paid. The wages of sin is death. But God put on flesh, lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, and rose from the dead so you might be alive.

Are you ready to receive it?

Christina Schmitter

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