Jesus Paid It All

The title of this devotion is taken from the title of an old church hymn. The first verse of that hymn reads;
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow!
What wondrous words! These words should fill us all with majestic peace. “Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” He has carried my sins and put them away forever.
This is an all important truth for the believing Christian in pursuit of perfect peace. I must know, by divine authority, that all of my sins have been put away forever. In order to silence the voice of the accuser. So that I might comprehend the meaning of the words, “There is therefore now no condemnation”. Just as the priest of the Old Covenant would lay their hands upon a spotless lamb in order to transfer the sins of the people upon the sacrificial lamb, so has our God laid His hands upon Jesus and placed upon Him the sins of the world. Your sins and my sins. Paid in full through His sacrifice. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
This sounds all so wonderful but how can I know it to be true? My heart wants to know that this is so. Everything in me longs to know that I am forgiven, that all is well, that everything that stood against me has been removed. How do I know that Jesus paid for all of my sins? By the very same authority that tells me I’m a sinner in the first place! How do we even know that there is even such a thing as sin or evil? The Word of God! And everything that is within me tells me that this is so. My heart cries out like Paul to be delivered from this “body of death”. But that same authority that reveals to me my sinful condition also provides me with an eternal remedy! His Word tells me that yes I am indeed a sinner but that He has paid in full the price of that sin!
Jesus was the sacrifice through which God would satisfy the debt of sin. And if God has satisfied Himself through the death of Jesus on the cross then who am I to be unsatisfied?. We annul the work of the cross with our doubt and unbelief! The blood of Jesus either did all that God said it did or it did nothing. There is no middle ground here. And if His precious blood did all that God said it did then all of my sins have been removed!
I know by God’s Word that I am a sinner and my heart is wicked. I know that my sins are more in number than the hairs on my head. I know that they are as black as hell itself.  But I also know by that same Word that that even though my “sins were as scarlet they shall be white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be white like wool”. Jesus paid it ALL!