Christ pays the ransom. Christ pays the bride price for his church.

But insofar that it is a moral payment and not a financial transaction, God is not required to accept that payment.

I was in a store once where a little boy came in. It was an ice cream store and walked up

to the counter and ordered an ice cream cone. And when the person behind the counter fixed the ice cream

cone and handed it to the little boy, the waitress said that will be $2. And the little

boy reached in his pocket and pulled out $1 and just handed it to the waitress. And she said,

I'm sorry, but you need two of these. And the little boy was crestfallen.

And he said, but my mommy only gave me this one dollar.

And so there was a problem there, and I stepped forth as any parent would right then and there,

and walked over to the counter, pulled out a dollar from my pocket, and handed it to the lady, and I said,

here, that'll cover the rest of what is owed. Now, here's my question. Did that store owner or

the waitress have a legal obligation to accept my payment in behalf of this child. Can one person pay a financial or pecuniary

debt for another? Well, the principle in our society is this.

As long as the money is paid, the person who is owed the money is obligated to accept that payment

that is rendered.

And so the store owner really had no choice but to accept my payment of the debt that was incurred by this child.

But suppose we had a second scenario where instead of the child coming in and ordering the cone, as I've suggested, the child comes in, runs behind the counter, steals two scoops of ice cream, and starts running out the store,

and the owner grabs them and calls the police, and the police comes in and arrests the child for stealing the ice cream cone,

$2 worth of ice cream. And now I step forward and say, just a minute, take it easy here. You don't

have to arrest this little boy. I will pay his debt. Now, does the policeman or the store owner

have a moral obligation to accept my payment? No, because now, in addition to the pecuniary debt or the financial indebtedness,

there is also a transgression of the law, so that now a moral debt has been incurred,

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