As I looked out through my bedroom window on the fields of the farm in back of our house, I thought of this word God spoke into the world through a man who lived more than two thousand years ago.
Isaiah had an experience only a few years prior that had shattered his world. He tells us about it in the first of his writing:
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah 6:1-8 (NASB)
Until we have an encounter with a reality outside of our perception we may not fully appreciate the severity of our wrong doing. When we come into an awareness that God does exist and taste of His presence we, like Isaiah, find ourselves facedown desperately crying out in anguish at our recognition of what the Bible calls sin.
I can remember well my first encounter of this kind. A fear came into my heart greater than any I had ever known. I have been thrown against a wall by a member of the Hell's Angels with a knife to my throat with the certian claim that he was going to kill me and it did not produce the kind of fear I felt in the presence of the all loving God. It was not God I was afraid of, it was my own heart.
The Bible says God is light. Light makes things that are not seen visible. Until I encountered God I could not really see what was in my heart. When He came His light revealed not only Him but my dark and wicked heart.
Some might say that this kind of experience is reserved for the Old Testament before Jesus came. They say that God seemed like a horrible tyrant and so those who came into His presence had a wrong view of Him and so were terrified. A simple look at the life of Jesus shows us that is not true:
Now when he (Jesus) had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. 5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. 6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Luke 5:4-9 (KJV)
Looking at this passage we see that something is happening here that defies logic. Jesus uses Peter's boat and then tells him to catch more fish. Peter and his collegues had fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus instructs Peter how to catch the fish. Peter protests but then follows what Jesus says. This results in a full net of fish.
Why would Peter respond as he did?
You would expect Peter to have said, "Please come back tomorrow and do this again."
Instead he falls on his knees and like Isaiah crys out, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
Why did he respond like this?
It is because he encountered the light of God and it revealed his heart.
We cannot fully appreciate what Jesus did for us until we know what our true condition is concerning this area of sin.
When we say we are "saved", what are we saved from?
We might say we were saved from the devil.
We might say we were saved from God's wrath.
We might say we are saved from Hell.
We might saw we are saved from death.
All of these are a result of salvation. They are not what we are saved from.
We are saved from our sin.
We are saved from the evil that lives in our hearts.
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:20-22 (KJV)
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
John 1:29 (KJV)
It may seem old fashioned or even hateful to say that the human heart's propensity for and participation in sin is the root cause of bondage to the devil, the reason for the wrath of God, the reason the eternal soul will spend eternity in Hell and the reason all die. But the Bible assures us that is is true.
That is why Isaiah fell down in recognition of the consequence of his sin. That is why Peter fell on his knees, begged Jesus to leave and confessed that he was a sinful man. That is why I begged God to change my vile heart and have continued to do so every day and often every moment since He first revealed Himself to me.
Today is New Year's. It is just another day in the year. It really has no power to change anyone no matter how sincere they might be to keep their New Year's resolutions. But culturally we see it as an opportunity to start again fresh.
I think it is a universal desire to somehow put our past behind with all the failures it has held for us and to have a new place to begin all over again.
But I have lived through sixty one New Years and they have not been able to clean the slate. Only one thing can -- God.
If we stopped reading where Isaiah fell down and confessed his sin -- If we closed the book at the point that Peter told Jesus to leave because he was a sinful man -- If you stop reading after I say that I too fell in horror before a vision of myself when God came to reveal Himself to me we would never know what God wants to do.
Seeing my heart led me to seeing His heart.
His heart was to forgive the sin that caused Isaiah, Peter and I to want to flee in terror from His presence.
And He has forgiven it:
Then one of the seraphim flew to me (Isaiah) with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
Isaiah 6:1-7 (NASB)
When I see my sinful condition, confess the reality of what I see God comes and forgives it and removes it from me.
He does not kind of remove it. He completely removes it.
What an amazing thing! That God whose presence reveals the horror of my darkened heart does so only to clean it......
As white as snow.
As I look out on the new fallen snow I find myself immensely thankful that my heart has been given this treasure:
“Though your sins are as scarlet,They will be as white as snow;
This has become the greatest truth to me. It is true that I am not longer under satan's sway. It is true that I do not face a wrathful God. It is true that I will not spend an eternity in Hell. It is true that death will not be able to hold me in its grip. but the most marvelous truth is that the darkness of my heart has, is presently and will be forever banished. The scarlet sin that turned my heart to evil will be turned to the beauty of the new fallen snow I look out upon on this New Year's Day.
Horatio Spafford in the most horrible moment of his life -- passing the very spot where his four daugthers lost their lives when the boat that they were in sank -- knew that he had hope because he knew that same truth. In one of the most loved hymns the words he penned at that moment have given hope to millions. Those words express my wonder as well as I think of my own encounter with Jesus:
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well,
With my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
With my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
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