Sunk costs

May 12, 2021

Devotions, Blog

I learned a new term. A business term. "Sunk cost."

Sunk costs

In business, a sunk cost is money that has already been spent. It cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are the opposite of relevant costs. Relevant costs are what a business will spend in the future, costs that have yet to be incurred.

That led me to think about the sins I've committed as sunk costs. I have done them. I cannot undo what I have done. I can (and must) claim those costs as my own and repent of having misspent those resources. I can (and must) trust God's grace in Jesus for forgiveness for those sunk costs. And I must embrace the consequences for those sins.

But Jesus' cross and tomb allow me to stop my wringing hands over my sunk costs. I can move on from my poor decisions. I need not live under their condemnation. I can focus on the relevant costs that I encounter today and tomorrow, the new ways the gospel leads me to desire to spend my life capital. I can choose to live under grace and the power of the gospel and find there the ability to live up to who I am in Christ.

Relevant costs

"If anyone is in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells me, "he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come!" I am in Christ. "The old," the sunk costs, "has passed away." Any condemnation I feel for those forgiven sins is a lie, a burden from which Jesus' infinite riches has freed me. Isn't that the promise of Romans 8:1? "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

For that reason, I can say with Paul, "I do not consider myself to have taken hold of (the infinite "gain" Christ has given me), yet, but there is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

The sunk costs of my sin have been lost in the ocean depths of God's grace (Micah 7:19). Because of Jesus, God forgives my guilt, refuses to hold on his anger, and delights in showing me mercy (Micah 7:18). I am free to focus on the relevant costs of living under his grace.

Because of Jesus you also are freed from sunk costs to enjoy relevant costs.