Sin is a debt because we owe God continuous and perfect obedience, and we have not given us. We owe it because he is our Creator who has given us life, and written his law on our hearts. As the landlord of the universe we are in debt to the Lord in many ways. We owe the Lord a great debt of gratitude which, before he touches our hearts and draws us to himself, we never pay. We never worship him, we never thank him, not even for being here, not even for life itself, and our various gifts and powers and abilities to enjoy certain things. He has given us these things and we are greatly in his debt. We owe him our love and we don't pay it. Even before we come to the problem of sin, we owe a great deal to God. But we are so small and self-centred that until God by the Holy Spirit begins to make us think, we don't pay these debts; we don't think we owe God anything.
How many years behind you have you got, during which your debts have not been paid? Not even your gratitude, your worship, your recognition and appreciation, let alone your love and service and obedience to God. We have got a debt in respect to our life and body, in respect to every lungful of air we breathe, every mouthful of food or drink. How many years have you stolen? How much of your life have you taken for yourself? God's lent it to you, it belongs to him by right, but you've made it your own. You've taken it from him. You've just seized it with your hands and called it your own. You've taken your powers, your youth, your years. We are in debt to God the great provider who has made us and by his power who sustains us here in this place. We cannot sustain ourselves. All the atoms that make up our being: they are sustained in position by the hand of God. It is by the great supreme life force, the Lord himself, that all these things are held in place. God calls you across the threshold of eternity and life collapses beneath you. The body folds, and life flees, and you die and your soul has gone to face him in eternity.
The word ‘pence’ here is not a modern-day penny; it’s the Authorized Version translators in Elizabethan days trying to be helpful. But the unit of currency translated there ‘pence’ was a Roman coin which was roughly what the ordinary working man earned as the result of a day's labour, so an amount of money which the average working man would have taken 500 days to earn, and 50 pence the amount which he would have earned in 50 days.