GodSprings - 26, March, 2018

Do I Owe God Anything?

And Jesus said to them, “whose likeness and inscription is this?” they said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 

Matthew 22:20-21 

David Augsburger in his book 70*7 The Freedom of Forgiveness shares an incident from the life of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, who had lost his eyesight. His son was given the difficult task of telling his father there would be no recovery.
“Do you mean that I am blind?” the General asked.
“I fear we must contemplate that,” his son replied.
The father continued, “I shall never see your face again?”
“No probably not in this world.”
“Bramwell,” said General Booth, “I have done what I could for God and for His people with my eyes. Now shall do what I can for God without my eyes.” 

The Pharisees and the Herodians were two groups who were at odds against each other. But we find here that they come together for a common cause – to bring down Jesus. The question they ask Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? This was a tricky question because if Jesus said they ought to pay their taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees could have accused Jesus of yielding to the rule of Rome and Jesus’ claim of being the Messiah and Son of God would prove false. But on the other hand, if Jesus said that they should not pay taxes to Caesar, the Herodians could have accused Jesus of going against the Roman rule.

Verse 18 says Jesus was aware of their malice. Jesus knew what was going on in their hearts. Jesus gives back a perfect reply. Jesus said it was not a question of either or as they state but both. That is whatever they owed to man they ought to return it and whatever they owe to God they need to give it back to God. Jesus here reveals that we have a two-fold debt. One is horizontal i.e. towards man (government) and the other is vertical towards God.

But that brings to the front an important question for the Pharisees and Herodians who asked the question to us who are reading now to ponder. Both Pharisess and Herodians observed the Jewish law or at least they knew what it said. What do we owe to God? Psalm 24:1 says The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. This means everything that we need and use and enjoy about life has its origin in God. Everything is from God and therefore everything is a gift and so we owe back everything to God.

The term likeness and inscription (image) used by Jesus for the coin brings us back to the biblical phrase place at the very beginning of the Bible. So God created man in his own image, in the image of  God he created him. 

St. Augustine says about this image that the image of God is not impressed on gold, but on the human race. Caesar’s coin is gold, God’s coin is humanity…. Therefore give your riches to Caesar but keep for God the unique innocence of your conscience, where God is contemplated. Caesar, in fact, asked that his image be on every coin, but God chose man, whom he created to reflect his glory.  

As God’s children we must live and work in such a manner that we show forth the image of God and also help others shine in the image God.  How do I know that I am giving back to God what I owe? The simple test is if we are living a life worthy of His glory we give back what we owe. Living out a life not as Sunday Christians (part time) but everyday Christians (full time).