Big Idea: The Son of God saves us once and for all.
Did you make your bed this morning? How about brush your teeth? Do you ever notice how dishes seem to keep piling up? You may think all of the laundry is done, but you are already wearing the next set of dirty clothes. The truth is that many of the tasks of our daily lives are never really finished and never can be. In a sense, there is never any rest. Is our relationship with God an eternal treadmill like that, where we can stay on if we continue to put in the effort but will fall off the back the moment we let up?
A lot of people think so. They assume that our relationship with God is about continually proving ourselves to Him and eventually doing more good things than bad. But this is not the picture the Bible describes. The Bible says that we can know that we have eternal life (1 John 5:13). That confidence is not possible if it depends on our efforts tomorrow or the next day. It is only possible because the Son of God ascended to Heaven with the perfect sacrifice – Himself – and purged our sins once and for all. There is no never-ending pile of laundry here! What Jesus cleans once is clean forever.
If we try to get to God by our own goodness, we will never have any rest. Worse still, we will never have any success in the first place because the treatment will never be able to get past the surface to the real problem. In fact, by adding in self-righteousness, all of our good works give us more that needs to be cleansed rather than less (Hebrews 9:14). Only one thing will do the job: the blood of Jesus received in faith.
He died once and for all, so that when we die, we can live with Him. Our sins may keep coming, but His mercy is new every morning. He has provided us with all that we could ever need by His one perfect sacrifice. There is no need for me to keep things running by brute strength or determination because my Savior has saved me to the uttermost.
Discussion Idea: How would your life be different if every day’s sins required more sacrifice? What confidence can we have in knowing that Jesus had made a way for all of our sins to be covered before we were even born?
Prayer Focus: Pray for forgiveness for our own self-righteousness and ask Jesus to help us to trust that His work is good enough for all time.
