Sin and the real effect of it in our daily lives has an effect that disconnects us from God...who loves us....yet, sin has another power...it disconnects us from being able to make ourselves right with God...for all time......
We often hear how we are to please God, all of us doing our best to be "good people", measuring and sifting through sin we have incurred each day through our daily lifestyles. We use our rationale, cause and effect deductions, absolutes vs. relativism, and discussing the problem of sin in our lives that often ends in pluralism ( what I think is sin may not be what you think is sin).
Then we ask for pardon, whether we choose to say "The Our Father", pray to God and list the sin we consider sin, or just recognize sin is an ongoing thing in our lives, yet repenting of sin is sometimes seemingly"beyond our control", but we definitely don't want to be on God's "bad side".
So...what is it about sin that God actually had to send His only dear and beloved Son to die a horrible death for a crime(s) He never committed?...known to us as...sin?
As I continue on my journey in life as a Christian I have learned something...to understand the root of God's character. We often tend to view God from a strictly humanitarian viewpoint, using words like compassion, mercy, and grace to override the penalty of sin in our lives. We like to include trade-offs, such as "Yes God, I entertain sin in my life...but I did do this one "nice thing"...so are we even?
When we allow the Lord Jesus Christ to enter our hearts and lives, we are wanting Him to become both our Savior and our Lord, which for all intents and purposes is a "game-changer"...a "deal-breaker" type request. I don't doubt the sincerity or genuineness of our request...but do we really know what we are asking...or even why we are asking?
For myself, asking the Lord Jesus to completely take over our lives and give us an entirely new life...that is to say "His Life" in us...becomes an almost immediate struggle...a process...a whole different lifestyle we are not accustomed to.
For me...it is a total act of surrender. There are no terms to be discussed, no deals to be made, no "if I yield to You...what is in it for me" type thing. It is simply "Total Surrender"...and I give myself to You... and what You want to do with my life is "Your Call"...period.
Did you ever wonder...why is that? Doesn't God want to give us any credit for what we may have accomplished? Why isn't more of a mutual thing...I give to You...but hey, give me a little credit here?...right?
I think this is where we need to take a "deep breath" and simply consider God. God is holy...God is righteous....we are not. Even when we are on our best behavior...supporting good causes, assisting others, or just being nice to members of our own family...does not qualify us as a "holy and righteous people". It really isn't about us measuring up to God's standards for life itself, because we are unable. It's more about recognizing we simply cannot...because we are of a fallen human race, which began with Adam and Eve. The Adam and Eve story eating the forbidden fruit isn't really about taking the "bite", it's all about why they chose to do it, an outright defiance of what God had asked them not to do. We are like that today, and helps to understand why it demanded God's Only Son to come and make everything right.
As Martin Luther so eloquently wrote: " As God, He could not die (make right of the open defiance against Him), therefore the only option was for God to become a man...in order that He might die. On the cross, He accepted the sin of man...against the very nature (holiness and righteousness) of Himself. Christ was a perfectly innocent man that accepted the very injustice of man...against man."
In other words, God couldn't just say..."Ok, you messed up, but I forgive you and let's move on." God's nature is totally and completely pure, man could never have His nature living in him because God is incapable of doing such a defiant act against Himself. That is why even in the days of the Old Testament innocent lambs were sacrificed...man's nature and God's nature opposed one another.
Even in our laws today, when a person murders another, there are consequences to an extreme violent act such as that. Many bible scholars point out when King David had Uriah killed so David could have Uriah's wife Bathsheba as his own wife, David was never the same after that. He was forgiven as written in Psalm 51, yet this man whose heart was after God's very heart, could not escape the family pains he faced after this event, and eventually died in much remorse.
God's character is not the same as human nature, and the cost to restore our friendship with God could only come one way....someone had to come who has the same character as God, and volunteer to die as a man with human nature such as ours, yet God's character was within Him, and there was none of man's human nature ruling Him...for He was and is and will evermore be...without sin. The crazy part...Jesus wanted to do this...because He loves us that much.
The ancient prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse on how man's fallen human nature and God's character can never be mixed together. Isaiah had been one of the "good guys", yet was deeply troubled by the attitude of the nation of Israel and their lack of respect to the God they so publicly said was ...the God they loved and admired.
In this passage of Scripture, Isaiah has a vision...and recognizes the sinfulness of human nature..even within himself.
One other note: coal is used as a item to cleanse the lips of Isaiah. Coal is a fossil fuel, dating back to prehistoric vegetation. The energy we get today from coal is a result of ancient plants that absorbed the sun. As these plants began to decay, the energy of the sun absorbed in these plants could not be released, as a result the solar energy became trapped in what we know as coal today. Now, when coal is lit by an outside source, the ancient solar energy still trapped in these petrified plants are finally released, and provides us with both warmth and light....to a dark and cold world. Coal is the sun's energy trapped in decayed vegetation. The only way this energy can be released is by an outside force....hmmm? Jesus dying on the Cross...kind of makes more sense to me now....
A Gleaning from Isaiah 6: 2-7
" Hovering about him were mighty 6-winged angels of fire. 2 of their wings covered their faces, 2 other wings covered their feet, and with the remaining 2 wings they used to fly around the throne.
Continually back and forth these angels were calling one to another: " Holy, Holy, Holy...is the Lord Almighty...All-Powerful! He is the God-of-the-Angel Armies...and His Glory...fills the entire earth!"
While these heavenly proclamations were being made, the very thresholds of the doorposts near me shook...the room shaking to it's very foundations, and the entire sanctuary I was in...was filled with smoke! At that moment I felt compelled to speak...and did. "I am doomed! I am done! I am nothing more than a foul-mouthed sinner of a foul-mouthed race of humans. Even on a good day, when I carefully choose words to address you...they are nothing more than blasphemous. My words are tainted and corrupt, and only give desecration to Your very Name.
And then...it happened!
I found myself face to face...actually looking directly at God!...Heaven's King!...the very God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
As I stood before Him, one of these 6-winged flaming angels flew...directly toward me, He flew over the very altar I was at! This angel had a live hot coal in his hand, holding this coal with a tong that he had taken from the altar. He then took this coal in his hand and placed it against my very lips. Then, the angel spoke to me and said, "See, your iniquity, your guilt, your sin are now taken away. Your sin is completely atoned...and now you have been restored to Him...and to His character."
The reason in my opinion Jesus had to come and die a horrible death, paying the price of His own life...is because sin is simply not a part of God's character...it never has been nor ever will be. We can never restore our friendship to Him by our own abilities...no matter how genuine or sincere we may be. There was only one way....through the power of God's very own and only Son...and He couldn't wait to... come for us.
As Isaiah wrote: ...."we are nothing more than a foul-mouthed people...from a foul-mouthed race of humans..."
We often hear how we are to please God, all of us doing our best to be "good people", measuring and sifting through sin we have incurred each day through our daily lifestyles. We use our rationale, cause and effect deductions, absolutes vs. relativism, and discussing the problem of sin in our lives that often ends in pluralism ( what I think is sin may not be what you think is sin).
Then we ask for pardon, whether we choose to say "The Our Father", pray to God and list the sin we consider sin, or just recognize sin is an ongoing thing in our lives, yet repenting of sin is sometimes seemingly"beyond our control", but we definitely don't want to be on God's "bad side".
So...what is it about sin that God actually had to send His only dear and beloved Son to die a horrible death for a crime(s) He never committed?...known to us as...sin?
As I continue on my journey in life as a Christian I have learned something...to understand the root of God's character. We often tend to view God from a strictly humanitarian viewpoint, using words like compassion, mercy, and grace to override the penalty of sin in our lives. We like to include trade-offs, such as "Yes God, I entertain sin in my life...but I did do this one "nice thing"...so are we even?
When we allow the Lord Jesus Christ to enter our hearts and lives, we are wanting Him to become both our Savior and our Lord, which for all intents and purposes is a "game-changer"...a "deal-breaker" type request. I don't doubt the sincerity or genuineness of our request...but do we really know what we are asking...or even why we are asking?
For myself, asking the Lord Jesus to completely take over our lives and give us an entirely new life...that is to say "His Life" in us...becomes an almost immediate struggle...a process...a whole different lifestyle we are not accustomed to.
For me...it is a total act of surrender. There are no terms to be discussed, no deals to be made, no "if I yield to You...what is in it for me" type thing. It is simply "Total Surrender"...and I give myself to You... and what You want to do with my life is "Your Call"...period.
Did you ever wonder...why is that? Doesn't God want to give us any credit for what we may have accomplished? Why isn't more of a mutual thing...I give to You...but hey, give me a little credit here?...right?
I think this is where we need to take a "deep breath" and simply consider God. God is holy...God is righteous....we are not. Even when we are on our best behavior...supporting good causes, assisting others, or just being nice to members of our own family...does not qualify us as a "holy and righteous people". It really isn't about us measuring up to God's standards for life itself, because we are unable. It's more about recognizing we simply cannot...because we are of a fallen human race, which began with Adam and Eve. The Adam and Eve story eating the forbidden fruit isn't really about taking the "bite", it's all about why they chose to do it, an outright defiance of what God had asked them not to do. We are like that today, and helps to understand why it demanded God's Only Son to come and make everything right.
As Martin Luther so eloquently wrote: " As God, He could not die (make right of the open defiance against Him), therefore the only option was for God to become a man...in order that He might die. On the cross, He accepted the sin of man...against the very nature (holiness and righteousness) of Himself. Christ was a perfectly innocent man that accepted the very injustice of man...against man."
In other words, God couldn't just say..."Ok, you messed up, but I forgive you and let's move on." God's nature is totally and completely pure, man could never have His nature living in him because God is incapable of doing such a defiant act against Himself. That is why even in the days of the Old Testament innocent lambs were sacrificed...man's nature and God's nature opposed one another.
Even in our laws today, when a person murders another, there are consequences to an extreme violent act such as that. Many bible scholars point out when King David had Uriah killed so David could have Uriah's wife Bathsheba as his own wife, David was never the same after that. He was forgiven as written in Psalm 51, yet this man whose heart was after God's very heart, could not escape the family pains he faced after this event, and eventually died in much remorse.
God's character is not the same as human nature, and the cost to restore our friendship with God could only come one way....someone had to come who has the same character as God, and volunteer to die as a man with human nature such as ours, yet God's character was within Him, and there was none of man's human nature ruling Him...for He was and is and will evermore be...without sin. The crazy part...Jesus wanted to do this...because He loves us that much.
The ancient prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse on how man's fallen human nature and God's character can never be mixed together. Isaiah had been one of the "good guys", yet was deeply troubled by the attitude of the nation of Israel and their lack of respect to the God they so publicly said was ...the God they loved and admired.
In this passage of Scripture, Isaiah has a vision...and recognizes the sinfulness of human nature..even within himself.
One other note: coal is used as a item to cleanse the lips of Isaiah. Coal is a fossil fuel, dating back to prehistoric vegetation. The energy we get today from coal is a result of ancient plants that absorbed the sun. As these plants began to decay, the energy of the sun absorbed in these plants could not be released, as a result the solar energy became trapped in what we know as coal today. Now, when coal is lit by an outside source, the ancient solar energy still trapped in these petrified plants are finally released, and provides us with both warmth and light....to a dark and cold world. Coal is the sun's energy trapped in decayed vegetation. The only way this energy can be released is by an outside force....hmmm? Jesus dying on the Cross...kind of makes more sense to me now....
A Gleaning from Isaiah 6: 2-7
" Hovering about him were mighty 6-winged angels of fire. 2 of their wings covered their faces, 2 other wings covered their feet, and with the remaining 2 wings they used to fly around the throne.
Continually back and forth these angels were calling one to another: " Holy, Holy, Holy...is the Lord Almighty...All-Powerful! He is the God-of-the-Angel Armies...and His Glory...fills the entire earth!"
While these heavenly proclamations were being made, the very thresholds of the doorposts near me shook...the room shaking to it's very foundations, and the entire sanctuary I was in...was filled with smoke! At that moment I felt compelled to speak...and did. "I am doomed! I am done! I am nothing more than a foul-mouthed sinner of a foul-mouthed race of humans. Even on a good day, when I carefully choose words to address you...they are nothing more than blasphemous. My words are tainted and corrupt, and only give desecration to Your very Name.
And then...it happened!
I found myself face to face...actually looking directly at God!...Heaven's King!...the very God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
As I stood before Him, one of these 6-winged flaming angels flew...directly toward me, He flew over the very altar I was at! This angel had a live hot coal in his hand, holding this coal with a tong that he had taken from the altar. He then took this coal in his hand and placed it against my very lips. Then, the angel spoke to me and said, "See, your iniquity, your guilt, your sin are now taken away. Your sin is completely atoned...and now you have been restored to Him...and to His character."
The reason in my opinion Jesus had to come and die a horrible death, paying the price of His own life...is because sin is simply not a part of God's character...it never has been nor ever will be. We can never restore our friendship to Him by our own abilities...no matter how genuine or sincere we may be. There was only one way....through the power of God's very own and only Son...and He couldn't wait to... come for us.
As Isaiah wrote: ...."we are nothing more than a foul-mouthed people...from a foul-mouthed race of humans..."
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