The God Who Saves

Passage: Isaiah 45:18-23; Acts 4:1-12

In Isaiah 44:9-20 the prophet describes a man cutting a piece of wood in two.  The man painstakingly shapes one half of the wood into a beautiful image.  He kneels before the image and prays to it.  He then proceeds to light the remaining half on fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows over it.  Kosher hot dogs, presumably.  This, says Isaiah, illustrates the folly of idolatry.  People repeatedly turn to the fleeting, flawed and failing stuff of earth for salvation.  None of it – no created thing – can save.  In the Hebrew Old Testament, the word pesel (“idol”) is almost invariably paired with the word bal, which is often translated “worthless” or “vain”, but means, literally, “not”.  It’s a word that evokes an absence or failure.  In other words, God identifies all the substitutes to which people turn as “not-God”.  In his next chapter, Isaiah adds this word:

…there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.

Nothing can do what God does.

This is an unpopular stance.  At a sentimental level we don’t like it because we don’t want to admit that the objects of most of our ambitions and affections will ultimately get us nowhere.  At a cultural or political level it’s offensive to claim that only one deity bearing only one name is the one route to eternal salvation.  It’s exclusive and elitist.

Unless it’s true. 

Centuries after Isaiah recorded God’s controversial words, the disciples of Jesus find themselves embroiled in more controversy.  On their way out of church, Peter and John are accosted by a panhandler.  The man is disabled; when he asks the apostles for money, they say, “We have none.  But we can give you something else: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  The man does so.  News of the healing spreads; the religious authorities grab Peter and John and demand to know “by whose name or by what power” the healing occurred.  Peter says,

It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

Then he adds,

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10, 12)

No other name than Jesus – the only Jesus of Nazareth, risen and ascended.  Jesus – “Yeshua” – whose name means, the Lord saves. 

At the heart of Christianity is this conviction: there is no other name by which we can be saved.  Exclusive?  Of course.  But if Jesus is indeed the embodiment of the one true God, then it’s a waste of time looking for your salvation anywhere else.  Money; sex; food; politics?  Isaiah says, “Use your head.  Each one of these things is as temporal as you are.  How can you be saved by something that, like you, will one day be reduced to its constituent elements?”  Turn to the only one – the only name – that can truly save.  The only one who conquered death and promises to share his resurrection.  Jesus, whose very name is salvation.  

Peace and Security in My Lifetime

Passage: Isaiah 38:1-7; 39:1-8

One of the most tragic parts of Isaiah is the account of King Hezekiah’s illness and recovery.  Hezekiah is described as the last God-fearing king of Judah.  His reign falls a few short years before the remnant of God’s people is conquered by Babylon and carted off as slaves.  Earlier in his ministry Hezekiah stood on the walls of Jerusalem watching the Assyrians build siege works around the entire city.  Hezekiah trusted God rather than acquiesce to the demands of his pagan adversary; and God sent a heavenly army to deliver his servant. 

As an old man, Hezekiah is again approached by the emissaries of a pagan superpower.  Rather than send them packing, Hezekiah invites them in and parades the fruits of his accomplishments before them.  He’s competing in the big leagues – and feeling pretty good about himself.

Later, God sends his own emissary – Isaiah – to Hezekiah’s palace.  Like a good lawyer, Isaiah asks a question to which he already knows the answer: “Who were those men?  And what did you show them?”  Hezekiah responds, casually, “They were from a distant land.  I think they said, ‘Babylon’.  And I showed them everything.” 

Isaiah says, “That’s exactly what they’re going to take the next time they come knocking.  We aren’t like them.  You didn’t get all this because of your size or strength.  You got it because God gave it to you.  But you know what?  You want to play in their league so badly?  You will.  And you’ll lose.  Your own sons will be mutilated and enslaved by your friend, the king of Babylon.”

And here’s the kicker.  Hezekiah says,

The word of the Lord is good, because at least there will be peace and security in my lifetime. 

How often do we make the same calculation?  Yes, I’m ignoring this aspect of my kids’ behavior; yes, I’m mismanaging this part of my finances; yes, I’m neglecting my marriage; yes, I’m militating against this necessary change in my city or in my church…

But at least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.

To hell with the next generation.  Who cares if my peace comes at the cost of my descendants’ peace?  As long as I don’t have to give up what I want, I’m happy. 

God expects more of us.  The life God offers us comes at a cost.  Typically the cost is some of our comfort; some of our security; some of our happiness now - sometimes more; sometimes less.  God demands that we make these sacrifices in order to secure a better future – for descendants that we know and love, and for future generations that we will know only in glory. 

In Philippians, the Apostle Paul describes a king who is everything that Hezekiah failed to be:  the Messiah, Jesus, who gave up all of his peace and security to bring peace and security to the world.  Paul says,

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant…

In exchange for our own peace here and now, God offers us ultimate comfort; ultimate security; ultimate fulfillment.  Don’t settle for peace and security in your lifetime.  Militate for shalom – God’s restoration of all things for all time.    

Unfinished Thoughts on God's Justice and Our Indignation

Passage: Matthew 25:31-46

When people react with anger and indignation toward those passages of the Old Testament dealing with God’s judgment on certain people, I wonder on whose behalf they are indignant.  The rhetoric typically goes like this: “How could God will the violent deaths of all those innocent people?”  One flaw underlying this rhetoric is the assumption that the people who suffer God’s wrath are innocent. 

But there’s a subtler flaw.  It’s this: the assumption that God cares less about people than we do.  In Jesus Christ, God turns our criticism back upon us by challenging us to put our money where our mouth is.  Jesus tells all those of us who are tempted to militate on behalf of all those anonymous “innocent” people instead to militate on behalf of the living, breathing people right in front of us.  Are you mad that people died in God-sanctioned battles years ago?  Then channel that anger into saving children from dying of worms and malnutrition right now.  Are you indignant that God lashed out against people he identified as his enemies?  Channel that indignation into loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you.

Those of us who are incensed at God’s apparent insensitivity are reacting to our own insecurity that we are living in God’s good graces.  If God judged them, couldn’t he also judge me?  And how dare he?  If you’re just worried about yourself, then in fact you have reason to worry. 

If on the other hand you trust God’s grace, then you also trust God’s judgment.  Rather than blame God for being capricious and cruel, you celebrate God’s compassion.  And you embrace compassion as your response to a world full of people at dying right here, right now.  If you truly believe people are innocent, you should devote your life to saving them.  If you accept that none of us are innocent but rather objects of divine mercy, then all the more reason to save others in the very same way God saved you.  Indignation toward God is useless – whether you believe in him or not.  Compassionate action is the only productive response to a world whose brokenness seems indiscriminate.  But here’s the irony: Jesus teaches that when you respond to that brokenness with compassion, you will end up – even in spite of yourself – communing with the living God.    

Wasted Favor

Passage: Isaiah 26:7-15

The greatest obstacle to accessing the Old Testament is all the violence.  Christians and critics alike stumble over stories in which God sanctions the wholesale slaughter or displacement of Israel’s political enemies.  Many decide either to ignore those sections as aberrations, or to write off any biblical faith that considers these passages God’s word.

Among other commentators, the prophet Isaiah presents an explanation that is, albeit unpalatable to non-believers, at least consistent with the complete story the Bible tells.

Isaiah argues that God’s purpose is always to reveal his full goodness and glory to all humanity.  And that God’s goal for any person is to become a person of righteousness – a person who embraces God’s intended framework for human life.  This includes accepting God as Creator and Master as well as enjoying God as loving parent and companion.  Implicit to this is acknowledging that God’s way is better than ours, and submitting to God’s power and authority.

This is where we get hung up – and always have.  There have been and will be to the end of human history individuals and societies that cannot submit.  That would rather die than be ruled.  If in fact this were a godless world – one in which the only rulers were flawed and fallible fellow humans – then refusing to submit would be natural and reasonable.  If however the world was ruled by a loving and all-powerful God, then submission would be the only fitting response and the way to live with genuine peace and prosperity.  When God enters human space, people have two choices: God’s way, which ultimately leads to life; or their own way, which inevitably leads to death.  Isaiah and the other authors of the Old Testament argue that there is nothing unmerciful in God willing death upon those who have already chosen it. 

Isaiah, the historic nation of Israel, and the new nation of the church assume a world governed by an all-powerful and loving God.  Isaiah argues that if you embrace God as ruler and Father, you are in a unique position.  Those events that others would consider merely good fortune you see as gifts given by a gracious God.  Those events that others would consider unfortunate you accept as means by which God is guiding you and shaping your character.  Experiences of every kind make you more righteous – that is, bring you closer into step with God.  On the other hand, Isaiah argues, even good fortune is wasted on the wicked – that is, people who have rejected God and God’s ways.  Good things, let alone bad, are ineffective in convincing the wicked that God is real. 

The takeaway?  Trust the wisdom of Isaiah.  Believe that there is a God who is so great – and so loving – that we do best when we submit to him.  And live by a faith that trusts God’s hand in every experience – delightful and difficult. 

A note from a very old-fashioned confession of faith, the Heidelberg Catechism (Lord's Day 10):

27  Q.  What do you understand by the providence of God?

A.  Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty – all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand.

28  Q.  How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us?

A.  We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love. All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.

Unguarded

Passage: Isaiah 25

Phillip Meyer’s novel The Son introduces Eli McCullough who, at age 13, is kidnapped by a band of Comanche and absorbed into their tribe.  The night Eli is taken, his home is surrounded by hostile marauders; while Eli and his brother attempt to mount a defense, his mother simply opens the door and lets the attackers in.  It’s as though she has resigned herself to the inevitable.  No man-made barrier will ever keep out death.  

This is the lesson that Isaiah repeats again and again.  Through the prophet, God warns his people against swallowing the wisdom of the day: the more property you hoard; the more weapons you amass; the higher walls you build, the safer you will be.  God tells his people that defending their lives by hoarding and killing will ultimately cost them everything.  The people whom God condemns most harshly are the rich and powerful – those who have bought the illusion that they can stave off death.

On the other hand, God is compassionate and conciliatory toward the poor – those who have no natural defenses and no recourse but one: to appeal to God himself.  Paradoxically, this is the pathway to life – a more peaceful and prosperous life now,  and for all eternity. 

God issues this radical imperative to his people: Live life unguarded.  At the same time God issues a radical promise:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
God tells his people that he is the only fortress and defender they will ever need. 

Count yourself among God’s people today.  Think about the defenses you’ve put up.  The ways you’ve kept others at arm’s length.  The walls of property and privilege and pride that surround your heart.  Do they keep you safe?  Or do they simply keep you isolated?  God swallowed up death forever at the cross.  If you belong to him, nothing can take away what really matters.  

At a time in which the threat of death seemed imminent, Jesus told his disciples,

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven… (Matthew 10:29-32)

Try life unguarded.  Let God be your protection and your courage.  Experience the present and the future Isaiah predicts for everyone whom God has taken under his wing:

It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Idols of Silver and Gold

Passage:Isaiah 2:6-22

Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road chronicles the travels of a lone man and his young son across a decimated American landscape.  Some unnamed apocalypse has permanently blocked out the sun and laid to waste the natural world.  Humanity is on its last legs, subsisting on whatever preserved food can be scrounged from the ruined stores and cellars of a dead civilization.  In one passage McCarthy describes the man’s passage along a highway full of burned cars.  The shoulder is littered with debris – old laptops whose batteries have long since run out of juice; MP3 players and video game consoles; CDs and DVDs – the once-cherished trappings of a lost era, now useless junk devoid of any capacity to preserve and sustain life.

The prophet Isaiah depicts another apocalypse: the “Day of the LORD”.  The day on which God shows up in person and sets the world straight.  In his second chapter, Isaiah describes a humanity that has exchanged God for idols of silver and gold – cherished objects intended to give people significance and make life worth living.  When the real God shows up, these false gods are exposed for what they are: mere trinkets, devoid of any capacity to preserve and sustain life.  For the hapless idolators, there’s no recourse.  They’ve invested everything in a currency that is temporary and ultimately useless.  They flee before the coming refiner’s fire, tossing their junk out the car window as they go. 

What’s the currency of your life?  Where are you investing your time, your money, your emotion and your devotion?  Can those things sustain and preserve your life, or will they ultimately end up in a landfill or a fire or discarded at the side of the road?  God gives us the opportunity now to trade our idols of silver and gold, paper and plastic and pixels.  He will sustain your life now; and preserve your life forever.  God will never discard you or let you down.  Hold onto him.  

Good Grief

Passage: 2 Corinthians 7:8-16

About ten years ago I found myself in a music store in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  My wife and I had just moved from Toronto.  She, a church music director, was shopping for resources.  I, a relative non-musician, was killing time.  For lack of anything better to read, I picked up a book entitled, How to Teach Yourself the Bass Guitar.  My curiosity was piqued in part because, 12 months earlier, I had taught myself the bass guitar.  I decided to assess how well I’d done.  As I flipped through the first few pages, my curiosity was replaced with shock; then with sadness.  I discovered that I’d learned my instrument, from basic technique up, completely wrong.  I was grieved. 

And I had a choice to make.  I could forget that I’d ever opened that book, and go back to playing (albeit badly) in blissful ignorance.  Or I could start from scratch, and relearn the right way. 

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul addresses a church that has experienced grief.  Their grief was induced by a harsh letter Paul had written some time earlier.  A letter in which Paul confronted a number of what the Corinthians thought of as “normal” behaviors.  Behaviors that, it turned out, were killing their fellowship and eroding their faith.  The Corinthian church could have dismissed Paul’s criticism out of hand.  They could have said, “How dare you judge us?  How dare you suggest we’re doing something wrong?  How dare you say that God doesn’t just accept us as we are?  Change?  Forget it!”  Here in his second letter, Paul commends his church.  Why?  Because they didn’t say forget it.  They grieved.  They accepted the Apostle’s word of correction.  They repented, and started fresh.  Paul calls the Corinthians’ grief “good grief”.  That is, grief that rightly acknowledges something is wrong.  Laments damage done and time wasted.  And then turns around and accepts a new way. 

Don’t be afraid to acknowledge that you’ve gotten some stuff wrong.  If someone loves you enough to confront your errors, love them (and yourself) enough to receive the truth.  And trust that there’s still time to get it right.  We will all be confronted with our errors sooner or later.  Embrace the good grief now, while there’s still time to try a better way. 

Happiness

My last post was about Ecclesiastes, and the unhappiness that creeps in when we expect earth to afford us all the joys of heaven.  Here's Tim Keller on the pitfalls of treating happiness as an end in itself, and the secret to living with joy in a broken world.

Something New

Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11; 2:1-11

In the opening scene of the Twilight Zone episode, “A Nice Place to Visit”, a petty crook named Rocky is shot by police.  He comes to in the presence of a genial, well-dressed man who introduces himself as Rocky’s guide.  Although suspicious, Rocky follows the man through a series of new surroundings: a luxurious penthouse suite; a fancy restaurant; a casino full of games Rocky wins and beautiful women who never leave his side.  It’s all his.  Rocky concludes that he has died and gone to heaven.  He can’t believe his good fortune.  But after a month of getting everything he wants, the novelty wears off.  Rocky is completely bored.  He goes to his guide, and says, “"If I gotta stay here another day, I'm gonna go nuts! I don't belong in Heaven, see? I want to go to the other place."  His guide laughs and says, “"Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea that you were in heaven? This is the other place!!"

The Book of Ecclesiastes is the musings of “the teacher” (thought by many to be King Solomon), a man of unsurpassed wisdom and insight.  Great, we say, give us the secret of life, oh wise one.  What does he start with?  Meaningless; meaningless; everything is meaningless!  During his lifetime, this teacher claims to have had access to everything the world has to offer.  He experiences everything we devote our lives to chasing after.  And he concludes, “Meh.”  The teacher writes, “I’ve tasted all the prosperity and pleasure of this world.  And I just long for something new.  There’s nothing new under the sun.”  

He expresses the pain of living in a world in which all things, no matter how good, come to an end.  And in the end, the best thing the world’s pain and pleasure can do for is is exactly the same thing: whet our appetites for something new. Another place.  The good stuff of this life goes bad when we expect it to make this place heaven.  Burdened with those expectations, every good thing has the potential to become miserable.

The teacher longs for something new.  Something unexpected that breaks the rules and hints at a new reality.  

The descendants of the teacher see this very thing, centuries later.  A man comes to earth who bends the rules of reality.  He heals sick people.  He feeds thousands.  He turns water into wine.  He raises the dead.  When this broken world tries to bury the new and retain the old, this new one rises from the grave.  Jesus Christ is the new thing that ushers in a new reality.  At the center of the new reality is the promise of renewal and eternal life.  Jesus invites everyone to join his new reality.  Life in his new reality is life free of the fear of time running out and bodies wearing out.  The promise of renewal and eternal life brings with it the possibility of living for something beyond the now.  The good things of this life can be enjoyed without the added pressure of having to make life worth living.  There’s something more, and something better – something new – still to come.