Presence Weekly - 5/30/23

The Devo: "The Debt Crisis Explained"

Romans 5:1-11

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Over the weekend, Congressional leaders and administration officials worked out the framework for an agreement on raising the federal debt limit. If approved by both chambers later this week, the agreement would avoid a June 5th default which could have produced numerous negative economic consequences.

One consequence of failure to raise the debt limit could be suspending SSI and Veterans payments to my adoptive dad, a Vietnam Vet who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1979. He has spent the past 44 years on full disability and now resides in an assisted-living facility due to the increasing effects of dementia and Parkinson’s. Default on U.S. debt would also impact the millions of individuals who receive food stamps, as my family did while I was growing up in Eastern Iowa. Members of the U.S. military, which includes my cousin, could go without pay.

Of course, there are thousands of other real-world situations and millions of other real people who would suffer as a result of this real-life political debate.

At issue, is raising our own self-imposed credit limit, currently set at 31.4 TRILLION dollars. The overwhelming majority of this debt is held by institutional and private U.S. investors while a smaller share (under 20%) is held by foreign governments. An agreement would allow us to keep adding to the debt and keep our economy moving forward.

This round of negotiations has been going on for months and involved Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, The Treasury Department, as well as input from the Federal Reserve, and other Cabinet and sub-cabinet agencies. To be sure, along with the political theater occurring in the foreground, there are important matters of economic policy being discussed by individuals who actually know what they are talking about. Regardless of your politics, these unseen and unheralded individuals have come to Washington to serve and lead this country toward flourishing.

Lost in this discussion is the matter of the actual debt - $31,400,000,000 dollars and growing. Your share, in case you wondered, is over $240,000 per household. While there is talk of deficit reduction and spending caps, that will only slow the rate at which this astronomical debt accrues. This is not the proper forum for discussing the rationale of a debt-driven economy, but it is the place to discuss a debt that only moves in one direction. It is also the right place to discuss why that is the case. Put simply - we want what we want when we want it! Then we want more! We will deal with the consequences later.

The national debt is a real issue. Our debt issue is an even more critical matter. This is where the gospel comes in.

The debt crisis is the perfect foil to discuss the reality that each of us has a debt that we are responsible for and that we cannot pay. Like our national debt, ours exists because we want what we want when we want it, and we are willing to transgress the law of the Creator of the heavens and earth to satiate, albeit temporarily, our desires. Again, just like the national debt, our debt of sin also moves only in one direction. We are not only incapable of repaying this debt, we are also unwilling to do so.

But that is where the similarity between the two debts ends.

Unlike our national debt limit, there are no political negotiations that will result in avoiding our personal accountability for the consequences of our transgressions. No amount of grandstanding, blaming someone else’s ambitions or indulgences will matter. We will all make an accounting and be asked for a reconciliation of our un-payable debts.

The only hope we have is that someone will pay our debt. Here again, is another difference between the national debt and ours. There is no future payment - the debt for our sins has already been paid. The gospel is built on the reality that the Father sent the Son to pay for our debts - already.

Scripture says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Consider the magnitude of the payment the Son was making. The sins of the whole world for all time were paid in one installment securing reconciliation for all of God’s children. There is no past, present, or future debt that has not already been fully paid.

Christians who are serving and leading in government play an important role in negotiating an increase to the debt ceiling. They also do so as individuals who know that all debts must eventually be paid and that the debt that matters most is our sin debt to God. A debt which He sent his own Son to pay on our behalf through his death. A debt whose cancelation was declared not in a press release, but in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In these discussions and deliberations, they have an opportunity to offer insights into the true nature of debt and reconciliation.

Keep them in your prayers.

Last Things

Our newest podcast "The Four Questions of Faithful Presence" will be out laster this week followed shortly by our inaugural edition of the Presence Journal.

This edition of the journal will feature articles by Dr. Charlie Self, of the Acton institute, on how Thomas Aquinas can help us navigate everyday economic ethics. Dr. Greg Perry and Dr. Abe Cho write on how table fellowship is an integral part of equipping church members for living in a posture of Faithful Presence. Our founder, Michael Langer, offers a piece on the perils of dismissing the limits of our humanity, and a book review by a former communist-turned-Christian who later renounced the faith.