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PEOPLE SAY that Christianity is not reasonable. They claim we follow a delusion, saying that what can’t be scientifically proved is not a necessary or reasonable belief.
Repeatedly, God calls on us to reason. In Isaiah, he says,
ISAIAH 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
In Romans 12, we read,
ROM 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your reasonable act of worship.
Some translations say it is “spiritual” worship, but the word is logiké, which is where we get logical from. It is worship which makes sense, it is not merely the routines and postures of worship. It is real, it touches our hearts and our wills. That is the kind of worship God wants, the kind which is truly spiritual.
There is a reasonableness in the gospel. Not scientific proof, but ordinary common sense.
You can’t prove God. You can't put him in a test tube. All you can do is look for the evidence.
You and I are called to enter the scene like CSI staffers, armed with our Government issue torches. We are to pick up the scraps of fbre off the carpets and look for the bloodstains, and see that God has been here, that the slain Lamb of our salvation has passed by.
But why does God call us to reason together? Why does he say that our scarlet sins will be white as snow, like fresh–washed wool?
There are three definite problems detailed in the passage we read: there is rebellion and there is religiosity, and there are results: that is, rebellion and religiosity have consequences in the lives of indivduals and in the life of the nation.
Rebellion
ISAIAH 1:2 |
Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth!
For the LORD has spoken:
“I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows his master,
the donkey his owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
Ah, sinful nation,
a people loaded with guilt,
a brood of evildoers,
children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the LORD;
they have spurned the Holy One of Israel
and turned their backs on him.
You have all watched when some small child does exactly what his parents just told him not to do, or refuses to do what he was told. Don’t blame the kid too much — he is just doing what we humans do very well, which is going our own way. Doesn’t Isaiah also say,
All we, like sheep, have gone astray
We have turned, every one of us, to our own way,
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all?
There is an ingrained tendency to do what pleases us, regardless, even, of what is in our own ultimate best interests.
Isaiah doesn’t go into details of what the people are doing, because his first concern is with the attitudes, not the actions.
I have been reading a lot of stuff in the newspapers lately. Architects have blamed Christianity for architects producing bad designs, someone claimed that Christianity was to blame for breakdowns of marriages. There were two people laughing because Christians had agreed across denominations that the environment is a moral and Biblical issue. There were attacks on George Pell and Peter Jensen for saying that people should think about the needs of the world at Christmas and not just about the tinsel side of Christmas.
The more I see, the more I agree with the American Civil Rights Lawyer, Michael Horowitz, a Jewish legal counsel and human rights activist, who says,
“...my evangelical friends, you have become the Jews of the 21st century. This is of course not true of Christians blessed to live in America and other free countries. It is, however, very much true of your brothers and sisters in the developing world—in the Sudan, in China, in India, in Sri Lanka, in Indonesia, in Saudi Arabia, in country after country where dictatorships reign.”
I would go further. The scene is already being set for Christians in countries like our own to become scapegoats for thugs who are taking over the hearts and minds of our nation.
When there is rebellion in high places, it encourages the rebellion in the low places. We believers must beware, because we are not immune. We are in a constant battle to resist the rebellion against God in our own hearts.
And that is why we must take note of what Isaiah says. We are rebels at heart, and it is easy to depart from our first love; it is easy to become like the world around us.
As someone once asked, “If you were put on trial as a Christian, would there be enough evidence for a convicion?
When I remarked a little while ago that there are too many believers, but not enough disciples, in churches today, I had that kind of thing in mind. Over about the last six years, there has been an explosion of religion in my e-mail inbox. There is so much feel–good spirituality, but so little change of heart and mind and, above all, action.
Jesus said,
REV 2: 4b ff
You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
It’s still good advice! Let’s not rebelliously refuse to hear!
Religiosity
ISAIAH 1:10
Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
“The multitude of your sacrifices —
what are they to me?” says the LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations--
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,
A pastor I know who has an involvement in deliverance ministries says that one of the most common spiritual problems in our world is the problem of religious spirits.
Satan loves to transform himself into an angel of light.
Maybe you think of religion as something good for the world, but you would be sadly mistaken. Faith in Jesus is good, but religion is bad in most respects.
Christianity is unique in several ways. The gospel makes it clear that sacrifices are ended, that the price has been paid. This week, in places like Turkey, where backyard sacrifices are common, hundreds of Muslims have been admitted to hospital with injuries from attempting to sacrifice goats and bulls for the Eid ul Fitr. It’s sad that they don’t see that their sacrifices are an offence to God who has already provided the perfect sacrifice.
The gospel also declares that loving our neighbour is almost as important as loving God, and then it shows us that God is our neighbour, because Jesus is God come in human form among us.
But what of religions which have no such concept? When the focus is not on loving God and loving our fellow humans in God, then the emphasis turns to law, to performance, to keeping God on side.
That is why such terrible things are done in the name of religion. It is a false religion, which doesn’t grasp what God is like.
We are honest people. We know how easily we ourselves lose touch with the core principles. We know how readily we forget that, in Jesus, God became human. We know how easily we who are true Christian believers leave our first love and hope to bribe God into accepting us for the sake of our deeds.
Eventually, we can become like persecuting Saul, who thought he pleased God by killing Christians.
God has no taste for the multitude of sacrifices, in the religious traffic through houses of worship where so many words are offered and so few deeds done.
When Jesus spoke to the Ephesian Church, it was believers he was addressing. They had abandoned faith, hope and love, but their religion remained.
REV 2: 4b
You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
It’s advice which turns us from religion to relationship, from playing the game to reality in Christ.
Results
ISAIAH 1:5
Why should you be beaten anymore?
Why do you persist in rebellion?
Your whole head is injured,
your whole heart afflicted.
From the sole of your foot to the top of your head
there is no soundness--
only wounds and welts
and open sores,
not cleansed or bandaged
or soothed with oil.
Your country is desolate,
your cities burned with fire;
your fields are being stripped by foreigners
right before you,
laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
The Daughter of Zion is left
like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a field of melons,
like a city under siege.
Rebellion and religiosity have their results. There are consequences which we often overlook.
Isaiah looks at the sufferings of Israel. He sees it as like a hut in a paddock of melons, surrounded on all sides by a sea of enemies. He sees the nation as beaten black and blue, yet refusing to change.
Economic woes, injustices and oppression — it all comes about when we forget the key values.
You know, Bush, Howard and Blair tell us they are bringing democracy to where oppression has ruled. That was a large part of the argument for ousting that monster, Saddam. .
What are they doing? They make a religion of democracy. Democracy is only a tool, as useful for evil as for good. Mobs can all agree to oppress, they can all find a single scapegoat, and that is democratic action. Democracy without justice, without a right heart, can be murderous.
Think it over. Opression eventually hurts more and more people as power is concentrated into fewer and fewer hands.
Why would we keep being beaten black and blue?
We allow it to happen, because we are afraid. Politicians love a fearful populace, because they can control people who fear.
We allow it to happen because we are greedy, and people run after rulers who dole out money and goods. “Bread and circuses!” It's still what people run after.
Only when our priorities are right, only when we return to our first love, do we find something to overcome our fears and to relieve our greed.
The Invitation
So we return to where we began:
ISA 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
God offers us all a way out.
It’s an invitation. God says, “My way makes sense. Stop! Consider what I offer! Scarlet sins made white as snow! Crimson iniquities shining like cleaned wool!”
To the people who heard Isaiah, it made sense. How much more sense does it make to us who know of Jesus?
You know that he paid the price for our salvation. You know his blood washes whiter than snow. You know he died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. You know the whole story.
The ancient Israelites only had animal sacrifices. It was so much easier to get the feeling that you would satisfy God by killing a few sheep and saying a few prayers.
We have Jesus. We have someone who went all the way for us. This was human, this was real.
This was God coming among us and going as far as is possible.
Romans 5:8
God commends his love to us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Here is God down on his knees, refusing to control, refusing to use his power, showing his love and saying, “I can do nothing more than this: won’t you look, and see how far I have gone for you? Won’t you see I did it, I gave my Son, so that your scarlet sins can be washed whiter than snow, so that you can come to me and be welcomed as a returning prodigal, so that you can have life where you deserved only death?”
God calls us; he invites us to reason together with him; he urges us to accept his offer.
What will you do today?
Now is the acceptable time
Now is the day of Salvation.
Now is the time to surrender to the one who gave all for you
AMEN
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