O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love and with Him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. (Verses 7-8)
Why do we need to be saved from our sins? Most of us aren't going about in our daily lives doing heinous things to others. In fact, most of us look pretty good on the outside. It's the minority who kill, steal, or seek to destroy. So what's the big deal about needing salvation?
Let's take a little trip back to Eden. Just for the fun of it. Perfection. Peace. Trees filled with fruit. Lions lying down with lambs. Everything man and woman could possibly want, with the added benefit of walking in the cool of the day with the Creator of the Universe. "This garden is yours," God told Adam. "You can eat from any tree, just not that one." And God pointed to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. "If you eat from that tree, you will surely die." One rule. In paradise where the temperature was ideal, no need for clothing, no shame, no self-degradation, no toil. My son, Will, used to say that if he's been Adam he's sure he wouldn't have ruined if for the rest of us. But onto the scene came a serpent, lovely, multi-colored and sly. "Why would God keep something so good as the tree in the center of the garden from you?" God isn't good. The lie both Adam and Eve bought. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary. "You won't surely die." God's rules are arbitrary. The lies we are still buying today. "Eat and you'll be like a god." Pride. Crunch!
We were created by God to have relationship with Him. He had a thought in mind when He envisioned mankind on Earth. It was the heart of the man and woman that was convinced to believe a lie. Once the heart was turned, the actions followed. They only ate a piece of fruit. Not a big thing, really. It was why they yanked it from the tree and munched its sinful goodness. And that is the sin God determined to redeem us from in the moment of their rebellion against Him. Later, when the shame of knowing right from wrong made it necessary for them to hide from God in the bushes of paradise, God asked the man and woman a rhetorical question: "Where are you?"
"Hiding because we are naked."
"Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree I told you not to eat from?"
"She made me do it." The man. About Eve. Sin on sin. Once the heart is tainted it taints and taints and taints.
For God, it's never been about the rules. But think about it. Cars aren't meant to fly. So if we decide to take our convertible barreling over a cliff like Thelma and Louise, we'll end up like the two friends. Dead at the bottom of the canyon. We were created for fellowship with God, so when we take our lives and veer in the direction of the serpent, we make a chasm between God and us. Dead at the bottom of the canyon, so to speak, we can't be revived unless we are saved from the folly of trying to fly over cliffs. Bought out of the slavery our hearts are chained to. Our pride. Our covetousness. Our greed. Our misguided self-reliance. Now we could judge God a tyrant, making rules He knows we'll break, if not for one thing. Jesus.
John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, Elizabeth's boy, standing on the banks of the Jordan, wearing animal skins and looking wholly unkempt, preached loud and long: "Cleanse your hearts and minds! Repent!" This to the religious leaders coming to see the spectacle in the desert as well as to the common folks.
John is arrested shortly after he baptizes Jesus, Whose very dipping into the muddy Jordan cleansed the earth as it foreshadowed His own death and resurrection, and Jesus begins to preach. "Cleanse your hearts and minds! The kingdom of heaven is at hand! (Matthew 4)." The same sermon. All about the heart. Not about all the good things we do...or the bad. But why?
We need to be saved because our hearts are made for God and are given over to other idols. Anything we love more than we love Him is idolatry and will lead us to shame and a death He never wanted for us. The tree in the garden, the golden calf in the wilderness, the perfect body, the most powerful position, our children, our car, our home...fill in the blank. Our hearts wander and are tainted. We need to be saved from that in order to be free (John 8). Free to love our God. The One Who created us to have intimate relationship with Him. God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will be saved (John 3:16). Saved from listening to the serpent's words. Saved from our own pride and willfulness. Saved to life everlasting, eschewing death. God saw the problem in the garden and promised to fix it in the moment. To the serpent, God said: "I will put enmity between you and the woman...He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel."
"And He was wounded for our rebellions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53)." Before we rage at God for setting up a system whereby we are damned to hell because of our sinfulness, we need to stand in awe of Him because He Himself took on our broken minds and hearts to bring us back to Eden. To the ideal of God walking with us in the cool of the day, hand in hand, toward the garden Eden is only a shadow of, where there is no death, no darkness and where the River of Life pounds for an eternity in a paradise free of serpents and sinfulness. Redemption. Plentiful and pervasive. We need salvation into His love. It's free for the asking. How great is our God Who sees our damaged hearts and minds and provides the thing we need to be made whole. Saved!!
Why do we need to be saved from our sins? Most of us aren't going about in our daily lives doing heinous things to others. In fact, most of us look pretty good on the outside. It's the minority who kill, steal, or seek to destroy. So what's the big deal about needing salvation?
Let's take a little trip back to Eden. Just for the fun of it. Perfection. Peace. Trees filled with fruit. Lions lying down with lambs. Everything man and woman could possibly want, with the added benefit of walking in the cool of the day with the Creator of the Universe. "This garden is yours," God told Adam. "You can eat from any tree, just not that one." And God pointed to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. "If you eat from that tree, you will surely die." One rule. In paradise where the temperature was ideal, no need for clothing, no shame, no self-degradation, no toil. My son, Will, used to say that if he's been Adam he's sure he wouldn't have ruined if for the rest of us. But onto the scene came a serpent, lovely, multi-colored and sly. "Why would God keep something so good as the tree in the center of the garden from you?" God isn't good. The lie both Adam and Eve bought. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary. "You won't surely die." God's rules are arbitrary. The lies we are still buying today. "Eat and you'll be like a god." Pride. Crunch!
We were created by God to have relationship with Him. He had a thought in mind when He envisioned mankind on Earth. It was the heart of the man and woman that was convinced to believe a lie. Once the heart was turned, the actions followed. They only ate a piece of fruit. Not a big thing, really. It was why they yanked it from the tree and munched its sinful goodness. And that is the sin God determined to redeem us from in the moment of their rebellion against Him. Later, when the shame of knowing right from wrong made it necessary for them to hide from God in the bushes of paradise, God asked the man and woman a rhetorical question: "Where are you?"
"Hiding because we are naked."
"Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree I told you not to eat from?"
"She made me do it." The man. About Eve. Sin on sin. Once the heart is tainted it taints and taints and taints.
For God, it's never been about the rules. But think about it. Cars aren't meant to fly. So if we decide to take our convertible barreling over a cliff like Thelma and Louise, we'll end up like the two friends. Dead at the bottom of the canyon. We were created for fellowship with God, so when we take our lives and veer in the direction of the serpent, we make a chasm between God and us. Dead at the bottom of the canyon, so to speak, we can't be revived unless we are saved from the folly of trying to fly over cliffs. Bought out of the slavery our hearts are chained to. Our pride. Our covetousness. Our greed. Our misguided self-reliance. Now we could judge God a tyrant, making rules He knows we'll break, if not for one thing. Jesus.
John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, Elizabeth's boy, standing on the banks of the Jordan, wearing animal skins and looking wholly unkempt, preached loud and long: "Cleanse your hearts and minds! Repent!" This to the religious leaders coming to see the spectacle in the desert as well as to the common folks.
John is arrested shortly after he baptizes Jesus, Whose very dipping into the muddy Jordan cleansed the earth as it foreshadowed His own death and resurrection, and Jesus begins to preach. "Cleanse your hearts and minds! The kingdom of heaven is at hand! (Matthew 4)." The same sermon. All about the heart. Not about all the good things we do...or the bad. But why?
We need to be saved because our hearts are made for God and are given over to other idols. Anything we love more than we love Him is idolatry and will lead us to shame and a death He never wanted for us. The tree in the garden, the golden calf in the wilderness, the perfect body, the most powerful position, our children, our car, our home...fill in the blank. Our hearts wander and are tainted. We need to be saved from that in order to be free (John 8). Free to love our God. The One Who created us to have intimate relationship with Him. God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will be saved (John 3:16). Saved from listening to the serpent's words. Saved from our own pride and willfulness. Saved to life everlasting, eschewing death. God saw the problem in the garden and promised to fix it in the moment. To the serpent, God said: "I will put enmity between you and the woman...He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel."
"And He was wounded for our rebellions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53)." Before we rage at God for setting up a system whereby we are damned to hell because of our sinfulness, we need to stand in awe of Him because He Himself took on our broken minds and hearts to bring us back to Eden. To the ideal of God walking with us in the cool of the day, hand in hand, toward the garden Eden is only a shadow of, where there is no death, no darkness and where the River of Life pounds for an eternity in a paradise free of serpents and sinfulness. Redemption. Plentiful and pervasive. We need salvation into His love. It's free for the asking. How great is our God Who sees our damaged hearts and minds and provides the thing we need to be made whole. Saved!!
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