Through the lens of Young adult

Most young adults raised in church carry a quiet conviction that they are mostly okay but not quite enough.

You haven’t fallen into anything dramatic. But you also know your own heart well enough by now to see things that don’t match the version of yourself you’d like to be. Anger. Lust. Pride. Comparison. The half-truth you told. The friend you ghosted. The thing you said about someone behind their back.

Leviticus would have you bring an animal. Lay your hand on its head. Watch it die in your place.

Hebrews says you don’t need to. Christ has been the substitute. Once, for all, forever. The blood has been applied. The covering is in place. You don’t have to qualify your way in.

You also don’t have to minimize what you did. The animal still had to die. The cost was real. Christ’s body was real. The nearness you have to the Father is not free — it is paid for. But it is yours, not because of what you did, but because of what He did.

One small thing today: in a moment of self-condemnation, picture the animal in Leviticus dying in your place. Then picture Christ on the cross doing it once for all. That has already happened. Walk into the next hour as someone who is covered.