An Epic Failure

A couple of Sundays the pastor was talking about something and he mentioned Evel Knievel. As soon as he did my mind went right to his attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon. Evel attempted this jump on September 8, 1974. I was 7 years old and I remember watching this with my dad. There was excitement in the air. Here is the guy I watched numerous times jump cars, trucks, buses, vans, fountains and just about anything else you could put between two rams. But those paled in comparison to jumping the Snake River Canyon! I vaguely remember the build up, the commentators talking about the process and how long it took to pull this stunt together. They talked about all the time that went into preparing the rocket. They talked about not knowing how hard the takeoff would be nor how hard the rocket would land. There were so many dangers! As a seven year old I was on the edge of my seat! I am sure I asked my dad what he thought, would Evel be ok, would he survive to jump another day?! For those of you old enough to remember this you know how it turned out. What a disappointment. An epic failure. Take a look if you have no idea what I am talking about.

As I thought about this I wondered if this is what our efforts to do enough good to get to God look like. We put on our helmet of church attendance, our seatbelt of dropping a few bucks in the Salvation Army buckets at Christmas and we strap ourselves into the rocket of being a really good person. When the countdown of our life gets to zero and we blast off into eternity we will realize that this is an epic failure. Some will realize too late that the rocket they are in will not make it to the other side. We cannot do enough good to get to heaven. Our eternal destination does not depend on what we do but rather on what Christ did.

John 19: 30 - When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

It is finished, nothing more needs to be done to satisfy God's wrath, nothing else needs to be done to pay the penalty of sin. Nothing else can be added to this. You cannot add church attendance to this, you cannot give enough money or stuff to replace this.

Ephesians 2: 8, 9 - 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Don't come to the end of your life thinking that your rocket ship of good works or being a good person will get you across the canyon between God and man. Understand that it is the finished work on the cross that bridges that canyon. Don't have an epic failure at the end of your life.