Nothing Left to Pay

Track four opens Movement II, the movement about what He has done - and it opens with the cross and a debt that is gone. There is nothing, nothing left to pay. The debt was nailed to Calvary. It is a big foursquare congregational anthem, the kind a whole room sings at full voice, because the news is that good.

The song is built on a refusal, and it is the right kind of refusal. Three times the singer comes to pay. I came to pay with all my good. I came to pay with all my sorrow. I came to pay with chapter and verse, with all my doctrine right. And every time, the payment is turned away - not because it is too small, but because the bill was paid in full before I ever guessed. That third verse aims straight at a man like the one I used to be, the one who would offer correct doctrine itself as currency. Even that is refused. The debt is settled.

The bridge carries a small gift of history. They stamped one word on a paid-up bill in the years the Gospels came - the word a merchant wrote across a settled account, meaning paid in full. That word is what Christ cried from the cross. It is finished. And the song does not leave Him on the cross - the Priest who finished it forever sat down at the Father's side. He sat down because the work was done. There is nothing left for you to add to a finished thing. Nothing, nothing left to pay.