Many years ago my pastor preached on Isaiah chapter one, and
since that time it has become a favorite of mine. The Word of God is full of
commands, some regarding purity laws, some mention various festivals they were
to keep, some about sacrifices to be made, some in reference to how they
treated others, etc. As much as all of us like to rebel, our hearts really do
desire the structure of orders. My flesh would take the Law over Grace any day,
and one must only look to various religions to see it pans out the same way:
earning one’s redemption. But there are certain rules we like and others we
avoid. In the first chapter of Isaiah this is depicted quite well. They had the
sacrifices down pat, they had the routine of coming to the temple for their
religious days, and they were good at going through the motions of crying out
to God. But God calls their bluff- it isn’t originating in their hearts! Enter
verses sixteen through seventeen:
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of
your deeds from before My eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek
justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s
cause.”
In light of the cross and the freedom we’ve received through
that, the first part of that should be easy. We’ve been washed, we’ve been made
clean, Christ has removed our sin, and we are free to live in righteousness!
But what I’ve noticed through the years is that this is where the Church gets
hung up. Though there is desire to live in such a way, the follow through isn’t
there. People who have had such godly potential spend their entire lives in a
cyclical spiral of trying to just do better and being unable to find freedom. And
because their focus is so absorbed in verse sixteen, they are never able to
reach the second half of the command.
I am not a holy person by any means- let’s grab lunch, and I
can unpack the massiveness of my depravity for you- but I would say that I seek
to live in the latter part of those verses. I want to fight for justice for all
people, I want to love the orphan and oppressed and poor, and I want to
intercede for them however God allows me to do so! There’s a lot that attacks
my thoughts, my heart, and even physically as I try to live this out. I’m
constantly tempted to go back to the first part of those verses. I’m wicked. I
know how dirty I am. I can’t do anything good on my own. I live like I’m not
free so much of the time. And before I know it, I’m hung up again and rendered
useless to live out verse seventeen.
As I look at my own heart and the state of the Church, I
feel a surge of anger rise within me. You see, we are living in a world that
desperately needs the gospel, that needs justice, that needs someone to enter
into the suffering. You and I will never do this if we can’t get past our own
sinfulness. We can’t help save someone from drowning if we never stop drowning
ourselves! God calls us to live in freedom not for our own selves, but for the
sake of those He loves that don’t yet know Him. Oh friend, be filled with the
Good News- it isn’t about you cleaning yourself up or making yourself better.
He’s done that already- take the steps to open your eyes to this. I battle this on a daily basis, but my hope is that I (we) am never too bogged down to look to the cross, see the victory bought us there, and get back up to enter the fray.
No comments:
Post a Comment