I was thinking about transgression this morning. You know, sin, doing wrong, turning left when you should have turned right, missing the mark, making a wrong choice. As I reached for this pen, I was considering Isaiah chapter 59 about sin, confession, and redemption:
V2: But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you...
V3 For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness
V9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us
V11 We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
V15 Truth is lacking...
I can relate. Been there, done that, and got the coat of consequence as a reminder from my visit there. No vacation, let me tell you! Whoa! You’re probably thinking, “you did all that stuff”? Yeah, some of it more than once! Ok, more than twice. OK, more than a hundred times!
And guess what? Once in a while, I still do! It’s called my human condition. Sin-filled, self-centered, dark thinking, adulterous, murderous, greedy, lying, stealing human condition. And guess what else…you’ve got one too!
Before you throw this thought into the atmosphere or roll your eyes (I heard that sigh!), let me explain what I mean:
Isaiah 59:11 says we all growl………..we all moan... we stumble for our offenses are many. Hold on now, I’ve admitted to you I am totally sin-filled in my nature. I’ve shown you how you are too, but there’s more. It gets better from here because the Lord looked!
Isaiah 59:16: He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm worked salvation.
And humankind let out a collective sigh.
God knows what I did! He looked and saw, even when I thought there were no witnesses. He was. He knows. He also knows that without some intervention, every time I make a wrong choice, the lights of my life would dim down one notch.
Who knows which choice would turn my lights off completely? Who knows which choice would thrust me into total darkness rendering me as helpless as a newborn? And there, without the light of sustenance, I would die. It could be my very next decision. Maybe the one I make on March 8, 2027. Who knows? God knows. Isaiah 59:6 He saw that there was no one and was displeased that there was no one to intervene.
How often have you heard of, seen, or even experienced an injustice you were helpless to change? You could do nothing to change it then, but it was wrong! Like watching one of those shows about starving children at the same time when you have more month than money. Or you are maybe passing by a car crash and seeing the victims.
Perhaps you saw one human severely strike another in anger, but you were on the other side of the bridge and 15 miles from a reroute. The feeling you experienced at that moment, the rush of anger, that feeling that caught your breath away………..that was the feeling of being appalled that there was no intervention.
That’s what God felt every time he saw the lights on my life’s playing field flicker. He was appalled …so his own arm worked salvation. He was so appalled at my human condition that he intervened! He reached out! He grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, sin and all, and worked salvation on my behalf. And check this out; all I had to do was ask! In Isaiah 59:20, we are assured that the redeemer will come to those who repent of their sin. My lights flickered. It just got a little brighter in here! In fact, it seems brighter and brighter every day.
Some folks don’t like being reminded of their human condition, but I don’t mind, and I’ll tell you why. Every time my lights flicker, I remember his love for me. I remember his being displeased but not just with me on my behalf!
I remember him sending himself across the endless miles of starvation, across the highway bridge over my troubled waters, into the median of my human wreckage to snatch me from the dark, damp alley of my sin into the secure, lighted pathway of his love. And there, in the warm, safe light, I can say, “Father, forgive me and thank you.” He replaced my jacket of consequence for a pretty amazing light-filled robe of salvation, and all of this because God was displeased.
Pass the Grace,
Jan
Truth well written!