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Then He said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:9-10).

Efficacy. Probably not a word you expected to encounter in your Connect Devotional, right? In fact, it’s probably not a word you encounter anywhere. That is, not until the news of Covid 19 vaccinations hit.

I’m not here to talk about the efficacy of vaccines, though. I am here to explore the one act in all of history that was 100% efficacious and use our current crisis to help with that exploration.

Behind any talk about efficacy is the bad thing one is trying to eradicate. In the case of the pandemic, that thing is the Covid-19 virus. 

Let’s use the Covid 19 virus, then, to represent sin. Both are things that have invaded humans and caused disease—disease that leads to death if left untreated. They both also spread from person to person.

Up until recently we were told the best way to stave off the Covid 19 virus was the 3 W’s: Wear a mask. Wait 6’ apart. Wash your hands. The 3 W’s were not billed as the way to eradicate the disease, only as a way to slow its spread. So let’s use the 3 W’s to represent the Laws of the Old Covenant.

God gave His people those laws as a way for them to get some relief from the burden of sin all people carry. They were meant to slow the spread of sin and the damage it would cause. 

The author of Hebrews goes to great lengths to explain to the Jewish Christians that those laws weren’t the end of the story. Just as the 3 W’s aren’t the end of the Covid 19 story.

Vaccines are the world’s longed-for hope to end the spread of the Covid 19 virus. What hope does the world have to end sin-sickness? Jesus’ work on the cross was more like a 100% efficacious medicine than a vaccine in that it targeted the sin-virus already infecting humanity. 

But I think we can see a parallel in that each person must decide for himself or herself whether to receive the vaccination (or medicine). Some may be reluctant. Some may bully others to receive it. Some may spread disinformation about what the vaccine will—or won’t—do. Acceptance may take time.

It is the same with people deciding whether to receive Jesus. Acceptance may take time. Yet as people see the positive impact for those who get the vaccine, they will be more enticed to receive the vaccine. As people see the positive impact for those who receive Jesus, they will be more enticed to receive Him.

Thank God for people you know whose lives demonstrate the positive impact Jesus has. Then thank Jesus—and those people, if you can—for the impact they have in turn had on your life.

Just as the world is experiencing the pandemic and longing to be saved from it, the world is experiencing sin-sickness and longing to be saved from it--whether they realize it or not.  Let’s pray for the world.

Easter is coming. Pray that its significance will become more obvious than ever before to us, to our church family, and through us to Chatham County.