The Right PIN

In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.
–Hebrews 10:3

Imagine you are having severe financial problems. You are near bankruptcy. Then you get a letter in the mail from Jeff Bezos, the richest man in America. In his letter, Bezos says, “I have heard about your financial difficulty, so I set up a bank account with your name on it. It has all of the money you could ever want. Enclosed in this letter is an ATM card, and here is the PIN. Anytime you need some money, just go to the bank and use this card and PIN to get the cash transferred into your account.” You believe the letter is for real. And you need the money enough that you want to do something about it, so you take that ATM card to the bank, put in the PIN, and cash comes flowing out. Now what would you do if somebody saw you in a new house and driving a Lamborghini, and they asked, “What happened to you?” How would you account for your newfound wealth? Would you take credit for that yourself? Would you say you had a lot of faith and that is what made you rich? Would you say, “I really worked for my wealth. I had to type in a PIN on the ATM machine”? No, you would not give credit to yourself. You would say it was through the generosity of Jeff Bezos that your bank account was filled up.

That is an illustration of what God has done for us. The Bible says we are all spiritually bankrupt. The only people who can enter Heaven are those who are perfect, but we have zero perfection. That is the bad news. The good news is God has more than enough righteousness for all of us. In fact, God has set up a spiritual bank account for every human being who has ever lived or ever will live. When Jesus died on the cross and took the punishment we deserve, God took the righteousness of Christ and poured it into our individual spiritual bank accounts. However, we have to do two things for that wealth to become ours.

First, we have to believe that wealth is there, that God really has told us in His letter, the Bible, that Christ offers us that righteousness. Second, we have to receive it. Just as you go to the bank and type in your code to get money, there is a PIN we have to type to receive God’s wealth. It is spelled J-E-S-U-S. We have to believe on the name of Jesus. We have to say, “God, I know I am spiritually bankrupt, I believe Jesus died for my sins, and I want His righteousness to be put to my account.” The moment we say that to God, we receive the gift of eternal life. We must believe, and we must receive, but it is all of God.

The old covenant was a reminder of a present problem. Why did God have the Israelites go through continual sacrifices that were never effective? The sacrificial system was a reminder of their need for a permanent sacrifice. Hebrews 10:3 says, “In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.” Every day that they offered a sacrifice reminded them that the system was not working. If it worked, they would only have to offer a sacrifice one time. The fact that they had to offer sacrifices over and over again was a reminder that they needed something better.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Why The Old Way Is The Wrong Way To God” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2018.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.