Most of us hesitate to respond to junk mail for fear we might get trapped into some kind of obligation. Modern man often says, "I don't want to get involved," whether it's helping with the neighbors' problems, lending to a friend, or even (for many) making a bargain with God. Don't become obligated seems to be sage counsel.
If I let God mind His own business while I tend to mine, have I incurred any obligation to Him? Suppose I decide that the stories about heaven or hell don't faze me, and I choose to go it alone and ignore God. I never pray, never ask Him for anything, and never darken the door of any of His churches. Do I owe Him anything? Assuming their computers are healthy, Macy's department store can't send me a bill if I've bought nothing from them.
The subtle ideas of predestination and its ancillary concepts would probably lead many to assume that they don't owe God anything, if they haven't been signed up for the trip to heaven. Such people have had nothing to do with Him, and He supposedly has had nothing to do with them, except to ignore them. The troubles and disappointments they have had reinforce their assumption that He has written them off. They may have tried praying at some time, but got no answers. They've been on their own all this time, so why do they owe God anything? If an employer pays you no salary, do you owe him any time? The answer is obvious.
Here is where the truth of justification says something to all of us, to "every man": he owes absolutely everything to God, whether or not he thinks he wants to get involved. He has already been paid a big salary and has already purchased a huge package of goods from God; he is most definitely obligated—to the hilt. And the information that this is so is called "good news." How can this be?
If the Internal Revenue Service informed us that we owe the government a sum equivalent to all our assets, including every last penny we possess, would we call that good news? But that is precisely the state of our ledger account with God. So says the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith; and it is good news! And it's not that our pie in the sky or life after death is what we owe Him; for we owe Him for everything we possess now, all that makes our life enjoyable in this world.
How can this be good news?
Very simply stated, the gospel discloses the fact that every man would already be in his grave (and a hopeless one at that) if Christ had not first gone there in his place. Our present life itself (forget heaven for a moment) is an undeserved dividend: It is the "salary" we have already received, and even every morsel of food we have ever enjoyed is included in the goods we have "bought." When Scripture insists that "all have sinned," it means that "all" would already have suffered sin's penalty, eternal death, for "the wages of sin is death" (see Romans 3:23; 6:23), the second death.
The fact that we live is evidence that we have already been reprieved. Someone else has received our deserved "wages" and has given us life instead. For every man, the ledger account of sin has already been balanced, whether or not he realizes it. God has already legally imputed to his credit the doing and dying of Another who is righteous. This perfect life and sinless character is the substance of Christ's righteousness. The Bible emphatically declares that the purely legal (or forensic) justification was made not only for those who believe, but for all men: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23, 24. The New English Bible sharpens the focus: "All alike have sinned, ... and all are justified by God's free grace alone." He offers His grace freely to all without distinction. If the grace is free, it cannot rest on any merit or work performed by us. "All the world . . .[has] become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19), and by His death Christ effects for all the world a free legal justification: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." 2 Corinthians 5:19. "The grace of God hath appeared for the salvation of all men," as Titus 2:11 reads in the margin of some Bibles. "As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Romans 5:18.
The good news is that the work has already been accomplished! God has no chip on His shoulder against anyone, no matter how sinful he is. One died for all. Christ did something for every man, woman, and child in the world. He has "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Timothy 1:10. For all men He has "brought life"; but for those who believe, He has also "brought . . .immortality."
What "Every Man" Owes to Christ
It's a mind-boggling truth when you grasp its real dimensions: Every human being draws his next breath solely because "one died" in his place. Aside from the sacrifice of Christ we would all be in our graves, and whether or not we profess to serve the Lord makes no difference. "To the death of Christ we owe even this earthly life. The bread we eat is the purchase of His broken body. The water we drink is bought by His spilled blood. Never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and the blood of Christ. The cross of Calvary is stamped on every loaf. It is reflected in every water spring. All this Christ has taught in appointing the emblems of His great sacrifice. The light shining from that Communion service in the upper chamber makes sacred the provisions for our daily life."— Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 660.