What do the looming April 15 IRS deadline and Passion Week have in common?
Both occur in April and they speak of a payment due.
In the case of taxes, we can put it off with an extension, but it’s a debt we have to face.
It’s a lot like the debt we owe God. There’s our holy God and then there’s us. That creates a huge chasm. Jesus tells us no unholy thing will dwell in heaven. How we face this drop-dead deadline dictates how we live now; either in freedom or with an underlying anxiety from this debt.
That leaves the following scenarios:
We’re scrambling to “make up” for our sinfulness on our own by trying to be good or do good things and realizing it’s never good enough for that chasm
We ignore or deny our sins and live with the tension of that looming judgment deadline
We give in, finally die to the idea that we can be our own savior and go to the only one who can finally set us free from all of this worry.
April 15th. What was that saying?
Oh yeah, something about death and taxes.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: The tax deadline is a great portal in that it gives us a chance to face what we must face with some incredible clarity. For those who have allowed Christ to pick up the check, it’s a great reminder and reason to live like He did - in a forgiving manner. For those who are still trying on their own, it speaks of a penalty far greater than anything cooked up by The IRS.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord…having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross…And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Romans 6:22,23 NIV, Colossians 2:14 NASB, Matthew 6:12 [spoken like a true tax collector]