Daily Devotional for January 11, 2023
One Rotten Egg
“Yum! Are you making chocolate cake?” Elijah asked when he arrived home from school.
Mom nodded as she beat the mixture in a big yellow bowl. “Yes, I am. How was school today?”
“Good,” said Elijah. “Except for Jordan. He came to church yesterday, and Mr. Allen shared some Bible verses with us that say everybody has sinned and nobody deserves to go to heaven. Jordan told me today he doesn’t believe that. He says he hardly ever does anything wrong.”
“Your teacher is right,” said Mom, picking up another egg and breaking it on the edge of the bowl. “That’s what the Bible says.”
“Ugh!” cried Elijah, holding his nose and coughing. “What’s that smell?”
“Oh no!” exclaimed Mom. “That last egg is rotten! I’ll have to dump this and start over.” She paused. “Or maybe you could offer it to your friend Jordan,” she said with a smirk.
“Ew! Why would Jordan want that?”
“Well, you could tell him the flour and sugar and butter were just fine, and so were all the eggs—except just that one.”
Elijah frowned. “But now the whole thing smells!”
“That one rotten egg messed up my whole cake,” said Mom. “That’s kind of like what happens when people try to get to heaven by being good. But since Jordan told you he hardly ever does anything wrong, he must do wrong things once in a while, right?” Elijah nodded. “Well, the Bible says if we obey every one of God’s laws except one, we’re still guilty.” She held up the bowl with the cake mixture. “One bad egg spoiled this, and one sin spoils our chance to enter heaven.”
“Yeah,” said Elijah. “And even Jordan knows he’s not perfect.”
“No matter how good we think we are, we’ve all done at least one rotten thing,” said Mom. “We’re guilty before God and can’t earn our way to heaven by anything we do ourselves.”
“That’s why Jesus had to die for us, right?” said Elijah.
Mom nodded. “Jesus took the punishment for our sin. When we trust Him to save us, He gives us His goodness so that we can share eternal life with Him.” She wrinkled her nose. “Now, I’ve got to get rid of this mess!”
-Tanya Ferdinandusz
How about you?
Do you think you’re a good person and deserve to go to heaven? The Bible says even the best person still falls short of God’s standard—perfect holiness. No one is able to keep God’s whole law—we all do things that are selfish and wrong. And so everyone is guilty of sin. That’s why all people need Jesus. He is perfect and holy because He is God, and He became human to die for our sins. Admit that you are a sinner and receive His gift of eternal life today. (To learn more, click the “Good News!” button in the right column of this page.)
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