When I was a kid growing up, at some point a cat “adopted” us. What I mean by this is that this cat consented to let us admire it, pet it, and give it the free reign of our property. The cat had no tags but was actually a very pretty cat, and as most cats do, it took very good care of itself. I was somewhat indifferent to it until I realized that my mom didn’t like it, and at that point I became much more interested, and even, you could say, a “fan” of that cat.
One reason my mom didn’t like the cat is that it wanted free reign not only of our property, but of our house. When my mom would be carrying groceries into the house, the cat would try to run in. Well, my mom would have nothing to do with that, and so she decided to start spraying the cat with a water hose when it came around. The cat did not like that at all. And for a while it seemed that things had more or less settled down – the cat ran away when it saw my mom, but when it was just the rest of our family outside, the cat would happily walk between our legs and consent for us to give it a gentle scratch at just that place behind the ears which would make it loudly purr.
But then one day I saw the cat do something which gave me profound new respect for it. Our garage door was not one of those fancy electric automatic kinds; to open our garage door you actually had to lift up on the handle and raise it up. It was well-balanced with springs so that it didn’t take much force to lift it up, and it also didn’t take much force to pull it down.
Well, at some point unknown to us, the cat also figured this out. On that day, as I watched from the house, I saw my mom exit the house in order to go on an errand, and then I saw the cat jump up unto the roof of our garage. This was easy for the cat to do, because our backyard sloped upward and it wasn’t that big a jump from the back of the garage. I saw my mom open the garage door, and I saw the cat move up to the front of the garage roof, right above the garage door. Then I saw my mom get open the car door and get into the car. And then – then I saw the cat jump onto the top of the open garage door and land with just enough force that it carried the garage door down, down, down, leaving my mom stuck in the garage. As I said, I was really impressed.
But as much as I love to tell that story, that’s not the real reason I am telling you about this cat today.There is another story to tell. This cat was also pretty stupid, as far as cats go. I know some cats get stuck in trees, because they aren’t comfortable backing down, but this cat, again and again, would get stuck in a bush. Not only that, but it wasn’t even on the bush at all; its feet were on the ground; it would just get tangled up within the branches of the bush and panic. The first time this happened, we had no idea what the cat’s problem was. It just kept meowing louder and louder and moving forward and backward a little bit without really going anywhere or doing anything, just staying in this particular bush near our barbecue.
Somehow, my father figured out the problem, that this stupid cat was stuck on the ground in this bush. And when my father went into the bush, the cat stopped meowing and pacing back and forth, but simply stood there quietly. And my dad picked up the cat, carried the cat out of the bush, and set the cat down. And the cat immediately began saying “Thank you” in the way cats do, by walking in and out of my dad’s legs, rubbing them, and purring.
From that point on, that cat and my dad had a sort of special bond, in that he and only he could pick the cat up anytime. And that stupid cat did not really learn from its mistakes; there were multiple occasions when that cat became stuck in that same bush in exactly the same way, and each time my dad would rescue it.
Why do I tell this story? Because I think it is a really good picture for a Biblical truth about us and about Christ. Christ is our deliverer, and we are those who have been delivered, or rescued, by Christ. And the more we understand and appreciate this, the more we, like that cat, will be thankful and the more we will be drawn to pursue a close relationship with our deliverer.
What happens when we become a Christian is not that different from that cat. First we have to look around and see the reality. That cat knew it was stuck. And we have to know that too. Nobody becomes a Christian without at first admitting that they are a sinner, and that they are stuck. They can’t get out of the consequences of that sin. They can’t fix it. They can’t pay it back. They can’t just say sorry. None of these things get them out; they’re still stuck.
There is a vivid picture of this situation in Isaiah 59. Let’s look at this together. I’m going to start right at verse 1.
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. – Isaiah 59:1-2
We are told again and again that God loves us, and He does. But God’s love does not negate in any way God’s holiness. God is holy, and the unholy, that which is sinful, cannot stand in His presence. And so, if there were no deliver for us, no rescuer, our predicament would be that we would be forever separated from the only One powerful enough to do something about it. If there were no deliver, these verses would describe each and every one of us perfectly, for we all are sinners. Isaiah 59 goes on to say:
For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. – Isaiah 59:3-4
Are our sins really that bad? Yes. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, makes that perfectly clear. Anger is equated with murder. Looking at a person lustfully is equated with adultery. Revenge, retribution, being at enmity with another person, none of these things are acceptable, according to Jesus. Even doing good things, like giving to the needy, praying, and fasting are not pleasing to God if they are done in part to make you look good. And let’s not even get started talking about what God thinks if you are judging others. The Sermon on the Mount, and many other teachings of Jesus, just make it clear how “stuck in the bush” we really are. Listen to this vivid imagery from Isaiah 59:
So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead. We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but find none; fordeliverance, but it is far away. – Isaiah 59:9-11
Do you ever think about the seriousness of your condition, were it not for Christ? I think it is good to do this. As Jesus said, in the context of the woman who wet Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, and who poured expensive perfume on His feet,
He who has been forgiven little loves little. – Luke 7:47b
Do you think you have been forgiven little? I cannot speak for you, but I know that I have been forgiven much. When I think about all the things I did before I called on Christ to save, to deliver me, and perhaps more direly, when I think about the things I have done since I first called on Christ, I know that I have been forgiven much.
Have you ever been completely and totally lost? Do you know the feeling that comes with that, the total disorientation, the bit of panic, the sense of helplessness, the inability to do something about it? In our modern age of GPS-enabled electronic devices, maybe people don’t get this feeling anymore. But that is what I feel as I really enter into these verses in Isaiah. Stumbling along like a blind man who doesn’t know where he is, feeling like the dead – Isaiah is painting for us the picture of what it means to be lost, stuck, in your sins, in the consequences of your sins. It is a dark, hopeless, desperate place. Continuing with the passage:
For our offenses are many in Your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the Lord, turning our backs on our God, fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived. – Isaiah 59:12-13
I love the stark imagery here. I am reminded of James 1, that says that desire gives birth to sin. I picture all the sins I have committed literally coming to life as these misshapen horrid nightmarish shapes, like wraiths, and they speak. They tell in detail exactly what my sin was, what evil desire I had that conceived it and gave it birth, and they just don’t stop talking. Hundreds and thousands of them, all speaking at the same time, telling of sin after sin after sin. Our sins testify against us. And in that cacophony of sound,
So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. – Isaiah 59:14
In other words, none of these things can help us. Justice would condemn us. Righteousness would have nothing to do with us. Truth is not our ally either, nor honesty, because the honest truth is that we are guilty. Those thousands of ever-testifying sin wraiths are right.
We are stuck! Meow! But…
The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice [a more literal translation is intercessor]. He saw that there was no one,He was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so His own arm worked salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him. – Isaiah 59:15-16
Isaiah never exactly says how this can be; prior to the days of God’s own Son on earth, I am sure many were confused about what this really meant. But we know. Jesus, God’s Son, God Himself, God in the flesh, took upon Himself the penalty that we deserve. He paid the full price for our sin by dying on the cross. He had the authority to do so because He was God’s “own arm,” and He had the credentials to do so because He was without sin; “His own righteousness sustained Him.” Isaiah went on,
“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord. – Isaiah 59:20
And to Jerusalem, Zion, Jesus did come, and in that city they mocked Him, spat on Him, cursed Him, and beat Him in a way so horrible that even thinking of it makes us flinch. And just outside the city they crucified Him, mockingly but rightly calling Him the “King of the Jews,” the King of those in Jacob who repent of their sins.
I am reminded of a passage from Romans 10:
“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved [delivered, rescued]. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved [delivered, rescued]. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [delivered,rescued].” – Romans 10:8-13
You know, I really like the words “delivered” and “rescued” a lot more than “saved.” To be saved has another meaning, usually the meaning people (such as nonChristians) think of first – to be put aside for later, maybe put on a high shelf. If there is chocolate in our house, it is put on a high shelf to be “saved.”
And unfortunately, there are many in our society today who think of salvation like a kind of fire insurance, and it is more akin to being put on a shelf than it is to the reality and to what Christ intends for us to do and be.
Christ is not saving us for later. He is saving us for now as much as for eternity. We have been saved to do good works. I think of Paul’s opening comments to Timothy in the book 2 Timothy:
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us [rescued us, delivered us] and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. – 2 Tim. 1:6-9
And that brings me back to that cat. That cat had a special bond with my father, because he was its rescuer, its deliverer. And we likewise are to have a special bond with our Deliverer. His outstretched arm has worked salvation for us. And He desires that we have, even in this life, intimate fellowship with Him, in our thoughts and prayers, but also in our works, as we seek to live the life He seeks us to live, as revealed in His Word.
In Luke 22 we read of the first communion service, in which Jesus redefined Passover, showing how it was fulfilled in Him. Starting at verse 19,
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you. – Luke 22:19-20
While the music plays, remember what your state would be if there were no deliverer, and then remember your Deliverer, Jesus, who has rescued you with His own life, and in your own time, when you are ready, take and partake of the bread and the cup.
No comments:
Post a Comment