THE ACCOUNT. v.18 Wronged thee. This verse suggests that Onesimus may have stolen something from Philemon when he ran away. Paul uses the word “if” to imply that this was possible, but he immediately accepts responsibility for that loss. He is willing to pay the price of restitution on behalf of this new Christian who was a slave. "Put that on my account" reminds us of the substitutionary work Christ did for us. Paul takes responsibility for any debts Onesimus owed, which may have included stolen goods and lost time while he was absent. Paul covered Philemon's debt. Now he will cover Onesimus' debt.
To assume the debt of another makes one a debtor. Christ paid our debt. Reconciliation can be legally achieved when the cause of the debt has been removed. Those who add anything to the work of Christ in any way are rejecting Him. This denies the validity and value of all that He accomplished. He has already made us complete in Him regarding our standing. We are being made holy concerning our state. He guides and disciplines us as we relinquish control of our ambitions and goals for which we strive to Him. Owes thee. Because a person is born again and becomes a member of God’s family, it does not cancel the debts owed to others. Restitution must be made to right the wrongs and fulfill our obligations. Justice has demands that must be met. We are to “owe no man anything.” We owed a debt to God for the sins we had committed against Him that we could not pay. Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated His love for us when He “Paid the debt He did not owe” for us who “Owed a debt we could not pay” by sacrificing Himself for our sins on the cross.
On my account. The demands of God’s holy justice were satisfied when He paid that debt by His death. Now, He is our Advocate when accusations are made against us for our failures. We have been reconciled to God through Christ, and this reconciliation is permanent. No longer are we enemies of God due to wicked works; instead, we are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. The reasons for enmity have been removed, allowing us to draw near to God with sincere hearts, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [Heb.10:22].
It is a cause for wonder and great joy that God will not remember our sins again. When we confess and forsake them, He is "faithful and just to forgive" us. And then God does what only God can do - He forgets them by His infinite will. Now we can come to Him in true fellowship. Let us draw near with a true heart, and in full assurance of faith. We don't go into God's presence casually but with pure and sincere worship as individuals who know we are accepted in Him. We go without doubting because our conscience and hearts are cleansed when we apply the principles of the Word of God to our lives. This confidence is because of our acceptance in Christ. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ has opened up a whole new life for us, one that is lived on “redemption ground, the ground of peace.” God’s grace allows us to experience such momentous blessings that we are transformed. We died to the world when Christ died. We have been buried to the world and are raised to walk in newness of life. As transformed people, we “walk in the light as He is in the light,” and the unfruitful works of darkness lose their appeal to us.
Now it is our privilege to "Draw near" with a true heart and in full assurance of faith. With a clear conscience in our minds and purity of life in our bodies, we have personal access to God through Jesus Christ and can draw near to Him. We can grow in faith, overcome doubts, and deepen our relationship with God. Our Lord offered Himself in His spotless perfection, and God was pleased with Him. He was also sacrificed for us. God was satisfied with Him, and now we are accepted by God. God was pleased with Christ because of who He is, and is satisfied with us because of what Christ did in our place. "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God." “He was made sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
To bring contentment to someone who has delivered something of value to me, thereby bringing glory to the Lord Jesus, is to minister. To answer the call from One who is superior in every way—our Lord, who knows every need—is to minister. To attend to and fulfill the work He has given me as a steward is to minister. To advance the plans entrusted to me and bring the work to completion is to minister. To fulfill anything lacking in some project for the Lord, or by stepping into the needs of others, is to minister. Believers today who are part of the body of Christ have “relative duties” to each other, which are not rigid but are important.
Isaiah 53:4-6 contains some of the clearest expressions of the doctrine of substitution in the Bible. Our Lord was a man of grief and sorrows, but they were our grief and sorrows, not His. The identification of our Lord Jesus Christ with us was for many reasons. As God, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” [John 1:14]. He identified Himself with our humanity when “He was found in fashion as a man” [Philippians 2:8]. Our griefs and sorrows became personal to Him in this passage of scripture. “He was made sin for us” [2nd Corinthians 5:21], when He identified Himself with our sin. Romans 5:8 tells us, “Christ died for us,” identifying Himself with our death. He is willing to identify Himself with us as family [Hebrews 2:11], and is “not ashamed to call us brethren.” Right now, and constantly, He is our “Advocate with the Father” [1st John 2:1-2].
Being “wounded for our transgressions” indicates that He was pierced, which occurred when they nailed Him to the tree, and He suffered there as the Perfect Suffering Servant. All our transgressions, rebellion, and guilt crushed Him in His holy spirit as the world's sins bore down upon Him with full weight. He endured that so we might be healed from the consequences of our sins and forgiven. He made it possible for us to be cleared of all guilt because of His perfection and the sacrifice He made on our behalf.
When He "bare our sins in His own body on the tree," He was sacrificed for us as our substitute. The result is that we are separated from our sins and demonstrate our love and loyalty to Him in practical and ongoing ways. The motivation is so great that when we appreciate what He did for us, how can we continue to sin after such a tremendous sacrifice? Now, the goal of life is to "live unto righteousness." Christian fellowship is rooted in God's word and relies on its truth. Additionally, believers' mutual commitment to unity is essential for this fellowship, which can only be sustained by daily yielding to the Holy Spirit in our conduct.