Just One Point

“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”—James 2:10

Thinking back to when I was a kid, the most memorable moment I can remember from my school days is the Challenger Disaster. If you don’t remember, or are too young to know, the Challenger was a space shuttle that blew up on January 28, 1986. I remember it so well because we were watching it in class when it happened. It was a special flight because one of the astronauts was Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New England. She was chosen because President Ronald Reagan wanted to have a civilian, an ordinary person—an educator, to be able to educate students while in orbit.

She, along with six others, was killed 73 seconds after the Challenger achieved liftoff. The reason for its demise was cited as an O-ring failure. The O-ring was the seal that kept the rocket fuel from leaking out of the rocket booster, but because of the temperature on the day of launch (it was 36°F), the O-ring came away from the booster, enabling the rocket fuel to leak out and ignite.

In our lives, we often think of ourselves as better than we really are. We believe that we are basically good people who are not that bad. Whenever we do sin, we may try and excuse it away or try to rationalize it by comparing ourselves with others who have sinned in ways we deem to be far worse. But the fact of the matter is, if we are guilty of breaking one of God’s laws, we are guilty of breaking all of God’s laws. It’s a bit like the Challenger disaster. One failure led the entire shuttle to blow up. One of our failures is enough to destroy and condemn us.

It is only by trusting and following Jesus that we are able to escape our destruction. Jesus didn’t have one failure. He held tight under the pressure of life and He is the only one who fulfilled God’s law perfectly. It is only by believing and trusting in Him that we are saved (cf. Acts 4:12).

Have you trusted in Jesus? Have you placed your faith in Him and come to know Him as your personal Lord and Savior? There is no other way to be saved. Call out to Him, confess your sins to Him and ask Him to forgive you. He paid the price for your sins on the cross, in order that you might place your faith in Him and have His life as your own. And be assured that if you call on Him, He will forgive, save, and transform you. Amen.