February 20 - Hebrews 9

 

Key Verse: Hebrews 9:26
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? The truth is that many of the tasks of our daily lives are never done and never can be done. You may think all of the laundry is done, but you are already wearing the next set of dirty clothes. Housework is never finished. 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 pir 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. He does not need to be sacrificed over and over again, because there are always more sins.

If we try and get to God by our own goodness, we will never have any rest or any success, because the treatment will never be able to get past the surface to where the real problem lies. 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.

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 hs to trust that His work is good enough for all time.