All photos courtesy of Unsplash
A few days ago I was talking to someone with whom I had worked, and they finished the conversation with the phrase, ‘Until next time!’ This indicated that we would be back the next week to do our task all over again. Our task will have to be repeated week on week.
Many tasks are like that. I am hopeless at gardening and our lawn is full of weeds. This means that when it is mown it looks lush and green but give it three or four days and the weeds can readily be seen again and the task of mowing must be performed again. It is the same with painting our homes, they all look lovely until next door paints theirs and shows up that our house was not quite as brilliantly white as we thought it was.
Sometimes we can look at our lives and contemplate the good things that we have done. Maybe we can even be proud of them, some might even be boastful of certain things, our good deeds, our charitable giving, or kindness we have shown to others. If we compare our lives, however, to the only perfect life that there has ever been then we suddenly realise that we are not as good as we might like to think we are. That perfect life was lived by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was absolutely perfect. His life showed to all around His impeccable character and that He indeed was the Son of God. His actions were perfect, His words were perfect, and His thoughts were perfect too,
When we hold ourselves up against Him, our imperfections are just all too apparent. He is sinless, we are sinners!
In Old Testament times, when a Jew sinned, he had to bring a sacrifice for his sin to the Temple. Imagine having to do that for each of our sins. These sacrifices were, ‘Until next time!’ This was a task that would need to be repeated, time and time again.
As humans we are creatures who do not learn. We often make the same mistakes time and time again. Gamblers return to gambling, alcoholics to their bottle, and with smaller things we often say, ‘Oops I did it again!’
This even happens with great nations. When thinking back on wars and the many lives that are lost, we rightly remember them and say, ‘Never again!’. However, there is war after war and as a race we rarely learn the lessons.
On the other hand, it is good to know, especially when thinking about our sin and our failings, that there is one thing that we rely upon that was done once and will never need to be repeated. This is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrifice was for our sin, and it was one sacrifice for all. In Hebrews chapter 10 we are told about the Lord Jesus, ‘That this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God.’ The Lord Jesus bore the sin of the world in His own body on that cross. All sin, so no repeated sacrifice will ever be needed. So that means that you can have your sin forgiven, but have you?
I did many years ago now, I thanked theLord Jesus for dying for me and trusted in what He had done in His sacrifice on the cross and my sin was forgiven, once and for all.
How about you? Have you performed this simple task? If you are totally genuine before God the result will not just last your lifetime but for all eternity!
Written by Stuart Scammell for Messages with Meaning (25/08/21) & Your542Day
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