“Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We hope for light, but behold, darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men. We grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among those who are vigorous we are like dead men. All of us growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: Transgressing and denying the LORD, and turning away from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.” Isaiah 59:9-14
It has been said
that we can choose our actions but not the consequences of those actions. We
would like to think that when we sin we come to the Father for forgiveness
and that forgiveness not only
neutralizes the sin and the eternal consequence of sin, but the temporal
consequence as well. But live a day and we realize there are consequences that
bear on the decisions we make that must be paid. If you betray a friendship,
you may receive an “I forgive you”, but you still must earn that friend’s trust
again. Create a vehicular accident and you may get a pardon, but someone was
still impacted to some degree by that accident. Even when we think we have
gotten away with a fault, in reality someone is still paying the price for that
choice, either someone else now, or you later, or worse, you may be paying and
not even know it. If God pardons our sins, why then, is there yet a
consequence? God promises to forgive our sins, and before God there is
justification, but every choice we make sets about a sequence of events that
often have much farther reaching consequences then we may know.
This is what has
happened in Israel; this is what God is addressing through Isaiah. The children
of Israel expected that if they were going to be punished for the choices they
were making they would feel it right away. But because God is merciful and
patient and slow to anger, He held back justice to give them a chance to repent.
The Israelites viewed no retribution as license and instead of moving towards
God and mercy, they became more and more wicked. Their wickedness became so
intense that Hosea 4:2 describes it, “By swearing, and lying, and
killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood
touches blood.” Picture that, the blood of one slain from wickedness touches
the blood of the next. It is a horrible state. They were paying for their sins
and didn’t even realize it.
Today, we hate the
idea that we cannot do what we want. We justify our behavior saying that we
will apologize to God and He will wipe that sin away. We “forget” entirely
about the consequences. Or we don’t apologize. We view ourselves as under
grace, and the choices we make which are inherently selfish and self-seeking we
dismiss because we are “saved” and under grace. Maybe we don’t think our
decisions are so bad because after all we haven’t killed anyone, or physically
knelt to idols, or stolen from someone’s home and if we have we expect a little
token prayer will nullify our “slight” and let us get on our way.
Our platitudes
sound eerily like those the Israelites made. After all they were the chosen and
they were safe. As long as they made their sacrifices they could go right back
to living how they wanted. Without the immediacy of consequence, they saw
themselves as in the clear. We too say our casual prayers and return to our selfish
pursuits and consider ourselves “safe”. I wonder if like the Israelites, we are
storing up for ourselves judgement.
The entirety of
Hebrews 4 speaks about approaching God with faith and that this same faith must
be the foundation for our approach to God. How can we say we have faith when we
treat His charge of how we ought to live so callously? Are we not saying to
God, “I don’t really believe you when you tell me this is sin”? How then is
that faith? In fact Hebrews 10:26-30 takes it one step further. “For if
we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no
longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment
and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who
has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two
or three witnesses. How much more severe a punishment do you think he will
deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean
the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the
Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL
REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a
terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
I shiver when I think of the state of the church. But I call out for mercy when I realize the thoughts and intents of my own heart. When I realize that: what I may call ok to watch on tv, is what God calls unclean; when I allow anger and bitterness over injustice, yet Jesus calls anger akin to murder; when I get angry that I can't have what I think I deserve and I view the absence of these "proofs of God's love for me" (like having children, or an easier time in my marriage) and I recoil at God or the church; all these things left unrepented of come dangerously close to rebellion.
It isn't that I believe every Christian must be exactly perfect, but the stepping into sin should cause our hearts to shudder and surrender. Faith demands that I believe God when He says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. My trip should cause me to land on my face before the cross. Paul reminds believers in Hebrews 8:11-14 that we should be moving toward maturity, not continually being tripped up in the same weaknesses. Paul reminds us in Romans 12:2, "be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
God allowing us to reap to some element of the consequences of our decisions is really such grace. It causes us to come face to face with our sin. We have such a merciful God that He gives us the chance to see what we have done, repent and return to Him. I don't want my sin to slide so that I fall farther and farther away, and so that the sin that used to make me quake before God now is dismissed as nothing.
God help us by His Holy Spirit to call sin sin, and see consequence as His mercy to show us that the time to become pure before Him is now.
(Next Post: He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. One of my favorite verses, it hides within it the single most powerful weapon God has given the Christian.)
