Forgive us our debts was not a policy proposal. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

Last week, President Biden announced a plan to cancel student debt about $330 billion worth. The cost to

taxpayers could be as high as half a trillion dollars. My friend Dan Darling joked on Twitter that

youth pastors just got a great sermon illustration, but some are actually defending the policy

by pointing

to what Jesus taught in the Lord's prayer, forgive us our debts. An editorial in time argued

that Christ was referring to the Old Testament Jubilee, in which debts were canceled every

50 years. So mass debt forgiveness, they say, comes from Moses, not Marx. So wait a minute,

we should impose Old Testament law in America? All of them?

It's so strange to hear that the Bible's teachings on things like sexual morality aren't clear,

but on debt policy it is clear. Look, in the Lord's prayer, Jesus was not talking about

economic debt. Both his words and the Jubilee in Israel point to the forgiveness of a greater

debt, our sin, which was paid in full

by his blood, not by moving tax dollars around.

I'm John Stone Street.