Habakkuk 2

Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

Saturday, September 11, 2021

The Iniquity of Us All

Isaiah 53:4-6 ESV

 

“Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.”

 

Pierced for our transgressions

 

Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, came down to the earth and was born as a human baby to a human mother with God as his Father. When he walked the face of this earth, he was fully God and fully man. For, he not only is the only begotten Son of God, but he is God, the creator of the universe. We were made by him.

 

God the Father sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to the world to save sinners. But he didn’t come just to deliver us from the punishment of sin, but he came to deliver us from our slavery (bondage, addiction) to sin and to free us and to empower us to live to God and to his righteousness. For, he died to set us free from the power and control of sin over our lives.

 

When Jesus walked this earth, during his years of earthly ministry, he healed the sick and afflicted, raised the dead, comforted the sorrowful, delivered people from demons, fed the hungry, and he performed many other miracles. He also preached the necessity of us dying with him to sin and to self, and us following him in obedience, if we want to have eternal life with him.

 

Many people followed him superficially, for a time, because of the miracles he performed, but when his messages were “too hard,” the majority deserted him. Also, the religious leaders hated him, for they didn’t like the things he did and said, they were threatened by him, and they were jealous of him. So, they plotted and carried out his death on a cross.

 

But what the Jewish rulers in the temple meant for evil, God meant for good, for the salvation of human lives. For Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us on that cross so that our sins died with him. And when we believe in him with God-given faith, we die with him to sin so that we might live to him and to his righteousness, free from slavery to sin, all by God’s grace.

 

[Jn 1:1-34; Jn 3:16; Php 2:4-11; Rom 6:1-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58]

 

Everyone to his own way

 

We read in the New Testament that we have all sinned, that not one of us is righteous in his own sight by his own merit, and because of that we all fall short of being accepted by God. We fall short of God’s divine approval. And this is why Jesus came to the earth to die for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) so now we can live to honor God with our lives, in his power.

 

We also read in the New Testament that when we believe in Jesus to be Lord and Savior of our lives that we are crucified with Christ in death to sin so that sin should no longer have mastery over our lives, so we should no longer be enslaved to sin, but so we would now be slaves to God and to his righteousness, because of what Jesus did for us on that cross.

 

We must suffer and die with Christ in order to live for him and for his righteousness. Suffering is part of the Christian life. If we don’t first die with Christ to sin then we can’t be reborn of the Spirit of God to newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. The old self must first die so that we can put on our new self in Christ Jesus.

 

Thus, we also read in the New Testament that this “everyone going his own way” is to no longer be a part of our lives. It is no longer to be what we do. We once (not presently) walked in darkness living in immorality, telling lies, cheating, stealing, and gossiping, etc. But now we are to walk as children of light, no longer according to the flesh, but now according to the Spirit.

 

[Rom 3:23; 1 Co 6:19-20; Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24; Gal 5:1-21; Rom 8]

 

A Worldly Christian View

 

Even though the Scriptures teach dying with Christ to sin and living to Christ and to his righteousness and following Jesus in obedience as part of saving faith, and as essential to our salvation from sin and eternal life with God, not many are teaching the foundational truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ anymore, but they are teaching a flesh-driven gospel, instead.

 

Many today are blending Christianity in with worldly philosophy, other religions, and new age teaching. So, they are making up their own form of Christianity, which is not Christian at all, for it does not honor God as the holy God that he is, for they do not teach the necessity of surrender of one’s life to Jesus, turning away from sin, and following Jesus in obedience.

 

Largely this is because they want to be accepted by the world and they don’t want to offend the people of the world, but also it is because so many want to claim Jesus as their Savior and heaven as their eternal destiny, but they want to continue living in habitual, deliberate, and premeditated sin against God, only now without guilt.

 

So, they are trying to bring God down to human level. They are trying to bring the kingdom of heaven down to be part of the world. For, they are blending together the sacred and the worldly, and they are blending walks of unrighteousness in with righteousness. Thus, they are lowering God’s standards of righteousness and holiness to make them fit with the world.

 

So, they are trying to make walking in sin acceptable to God, claiming that God has forgiven our sins and so he can no longer see when we sin, but that when he looks down at us all he sees is Jesus. And so they feel they have the freedom to continue living in sin, and if they begin to feel guilty, they are being told to just claim who they are in Christ.

 

Summing it Up

 

Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died to deliver us from our slavery to sin and from the control of sin over our lives so that we would now be slaves of his righteousness. And he died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us.

 

If we do not die with him to sin, and we do not live to him and to his righteousness, and if we do not walk in obedience to his commands, we don’t know him, we aren’t in fellowship with him, and we don’t have eternal life with God. Thus, we can’t blend in with the world and still have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. So, please take this to heart.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2]

 

For Our Nation  

 

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

 

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

 

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

 

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

 

Men deceiving: we’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

 

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