Priceless disaster

You break it You buy it. Some stores that sell fragile things often have a sign like that. Imagine going into store and seeing a beautiful vase that is worth millions more than you will ever earn and there isn’t anything like it to be found anywhere else. But just seeing it isn’t enough, we have been told Don’t Touch!, but no one will know if we pick it up and take a good look… we will be careful. There is so much more to see than if we just look at it on it’s display stand. Maybe, suggests the guard nearby, maybe you can look it over a bit better…. So go ahead touch it, pick it up, feel the surface and marvel at it’s exquisiteness. Our friend who is with us picks it up and enjoys the opportunity examine it. The depth of it’s colour is amazing and the textures a delight to the fingers. We absolutely must see this work of art too, here they say… passing it to us.

Oops… a little clumsy are we? Ah well.. there it goes down to the floor. That nice inlaid stone floor is a bit harder that we thought and that vase isn’t bouncing… well… not in one piece anyway…. It’s bouncing alright. We could say it has a new texture now… a bit rougher than the original.. Oh… and what’s this now? The shopkeeper’s steps we hear? Quick better hide… we will just escape to the garden outside and hide behind the fig tree.

But… of course… we have been found out! Those leaves on the fig tree don’t hide us very well after all. And then the shopkeeper asks us what we have done… as if they don’t know. Quickly we point the finger at our friend blame it on them. And our friend blames it on the guard… and long story short, we get tossed out of the shop.

What Lord’s Day 5 of the Heidelberg Catechism says about it in;

Part 2: of Man's Deliverance

Question 12. Since then, by the righteous judgment of God, we deserved temporal and eternal punishment, is there no way by which we may escape that punishment, and be again received into favor?

Answer. God will have his justice satisfied; and therefore we must make this full satisfaction, either by ourselves, or by another.

Question 13. Can we ourselves then make this satisfaction?

Answer. By no means; but on the contrary we daily increase our debt.

Question 14. Can there be found anywhere, one, who is a mere creature, able to satisfy for us?

Answer. None; for, first, God will not punish any other creature for the sin which man hath committed; and further, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin, so as to deliver others from it.

Question 15. What sort of a mediator and deliverer then must we seek for?

Answer. For one who is very man, and perfectly righteous; and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is also very God.

The only problem is we now owe millions and have no way to pay for it. And we do owe it since we broke it and are liable. Suppose we were the shopkeeper and someone broke what cost us our life’s savings to buy and put up for sale, we would be ruined. Maybe we will work it off and pay the shopkeeper that way? Only the more we work the more we break things and the more we owe too.

One popular axiom is “Do unto others as you want done to you“. Our motivation really should not be expecting reward for doing good, but the point to consider is that there is a price for actions taken. You break it you bought it. We owe more than what are life is worth. If we were owed something would it be fair if we didn’t get reimbursed?

Matthew 7:12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Exodus 21:23-25 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.

Leviticus 24:19-20 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.

Deuteronomy 19:21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Another thing to consider is the demand of the Law that requires payment in like kind, as we see in the texts above wound for wound, etc. Breaking the rules means there is a penalty, and in the case of sin the penalty ultimately is death, our life is required of us. That what is lost is to be replaced with the same thing.

Suppose the shopkeeper personally paid for insurance on the vase? Suddenly what was the ruin of life’s savings is now covered and replaced at no cost to us. This is a bit of a simplistic example but it does show how the principle works. The insurer has negotiated a settlement and restored the loss that occurred by paying for it themselves. Another person has stepped into our place and taken the loss, a person that is both like us and unlike us also wealthy enough to be able to pay it.