The Power of One Life
Isaiah 11:5
©Copyright December 23, 2011 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche
This Advent season on Sunday mornings we have been examining the Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah found in Isaiah 11 which we read earlier. This passage gives a picture of the coming Messiah that is helpful to our understanding of the significance of Christmas. In the first three sermons we learned
Tonight we look at verse 5.
5 Righteousness
will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
This verse reminds us that we miss the real message of Christmas if we fixate on the manger. His birth was significant and miraculous. He was uniquely conceived (the Virgin Birth), His birth was announced by angels and acknowledged by the scholars from the east. However, simply being born was not enough to make an eternal difference in our lives. His righteous and faithful life was essential for His death to have any effect on our relationship with God. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
He Was Characterized by Righteousness
Isaiah says “righteousness would be his belt”. The belt was the item of clothing from which other things were added. It was the innermost piece of clothing. The idea here is that the coming Messiah would be righteous and faithful to His core.
Unfortunately, the term “righteousness” is not a real familiar word to us. It denotes upright and holy living that meets with God’s standard. The word is derived from a word that means “straightness”. In construction when we say a wall is “plumb” we mean it is straight, there is no variation in the wall. A person who lives a righteous life is one who lives in perfect accord with God’s standards. In other words, Jesus was sinless.
Unless you are in deep denial or just delusional you will recognize that by this definition none of us is righteous. We rebel against God’s commands regularly. Even in our best moments our good deeds are often tainted by impure motives.
This is a serious problem because God is holy and does not compromise with sin and evil. Since we are deeply stained by sin and evil, we stand outside any possible relationship with God.
Let’s try to imagine this. Suppose you are the Director of Homeland security. You spend all your days sniffing out and trying to thwart plots from Al Qaeda operatives. One day a known member of Al Qaeda comes to you and asks for a job in Homeland Security. Would you consider hiring the guy? You not only wouldn’t give them the job, you might look for a way to have the man arrested.
The idea of someone from Al Qaeda looking for a job with Homeland security is less absurd than for sinful human beings to expect to be accepted by a Holy God. Try to grasp this: we are terrorists towards God’s Kingdom! We may look good on the outside but deep inside we are trying to overthrown God’s rule and Kingdom.
The only way we could ever be righteous would be for two things to happen: first, our sin debt must be paid in full. Second, something must happen inside of us to change us so that we would begin to walk righteously. Jesus came to do both those things.
The fact that Jesus was righteous means He is the only one qualified to pay our sin debt. No other religious leader can do this because they have their own personal sin that is unpaid. Jesus, because He is the Son of God, is the only one who has sufficient value to pay for the sin of anyone who would embrace His as Savior. As the Son of God, He can trade His life for the lives of countless others due to His position and value.
Let me try to illustrate this. Suppose you had a couple of bank bags filled with nickels. There are thousands of nickels in the bags. If someone offered you an authentic $10,000.00 bill (which is as rare as it is valuable) for those nickels would you take it? If you had any sense you would. Some might say it is foolish to trade the many for the one. But it is not foolish when the value of the one has superior value.
That is the principle here. Jesus as the Son of God is has superior value as the Son of God. Consequently He can trade His perfect life for the sin-stained lives of those who will put their trust in Him. Justice is served. Mercy is extended. The Apostle Paul summarizes,
God made him who had no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)
In other words God had the perfect Son of God pay for our sin through His death so that we might be considered righteous before our Holy God.
Second, When we truly embrace, believe in, and follow Christ the Bible says we become a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) If you look at any child and their parent you will see some similarities in their appearance, the things they do, the things they say, the values they hold, and the way they approach life. Families with a history of a certain disease tend to pass that disease on genetically. Such is the case with our sinful nature.
When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden they became sinners. They have passed this sinful bent on to each succeeding generation. There is a sense in which we are born with a sin nature.
Much
of what is happening in medical research today involves manipulating cells and
genes. In gene therapy they try to replace a gene that causes a disease with a
healthy version of that gene or they will introduce a new gene in a body to
fight a disease.
In a sense, the Bible tells us that this is what Jesus does in the life of the believer. When we put our trust in Him, God gives us the Holy Spirit to alter the sinful nature inside of us. We do not reach full spiritual health (perfection) until we get to Heaven, but we can now fight the destructive power of sin in our lives. In other words Christ makes it possible for us to be made right with God legally and practically.
His Righteousness is Applied to Those Who Believe
The sinful person is declared innocent or righteous because Jesus has paid our debt. Think of it like a bank balance. You owe more than you can pay. Even your best efforts result in further and further debt. Then one day a person of extreme wealth comes to your aid. They offer to pay off your debt and they put money in trust to pay any future debt. This is what Jesus does. He pays the debt and applies His righteousness to our account.
C. S. Lewis observed that what most distinguishes the gospel from legalism (or the idea that we must be “good enough” to earn salvation) is that legalism says God will love us if we are good, while the gospel tells us God will make us good because he loves us.
Every other religion in the world says, “Work harder and maybe you can earn your way to Heaven.” It is impossible to counteract the sin problem by simply trying to live a better life! That is like trying to fight cancer spreading in your body by drinking more milk! The message of Christ at Christmas is: “Put your hope, confidence and faith in me and I will pay your current and future debt.” He is the only one who has the ability to do so.
Practically Speaking
Let’s get practical. What difference does all this make to us? In what ways does this baby born in Bethlehem so long ago change everything?
First, the message of Christmas is a message of forgiveness and love. Every one of us carries with us a load of guilt and regret. Some have that guilt buried better than others but it is there. There are things in our lives we don’t want anyone to know. It may be wicked deeds or perverse thoughts. It may be something we did publicly or something known only to us (and God). It may be something we did a long time ago or it may be something we did recently. You may even be hiding a sin addiction right now. Some of you may feel like there is no way out. You have given up hope.
Because of this, when we think about righteousness and Heaven, we have real doubts that we can “make it” to Heaven. We believe that if God really does know us (which He does), then He would never love us unless He grades on big curve (which He does not).
This is why the message of Christmas is Good News. It states that God, knowing our sinful state, came to rescue us by taking the form of man so He could live a holy (or sinless) life and trade that life as a payment for our sin. He has come into the world to do what we could not do for ourselves. He has made it possible for you and I to be forgiven.
In the great allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, the central character in the story, Pilgrim, is traveling to the celestial city. He is carrying a huge and heavy backpack that makes it difficult to move forward. That backpack is a picture of our sin. It is filled with all the regrets and secrets of our lives.
When Pilgrim arrives at the cross of Christ and bows before the Savior the backpack falls off and rolls into a bottomless pit. The debt is paid. The guilt is gone. The past becomes a non-issue.
What would it mean to you tonight to truly believe that you didn’t need to hide anymore? What would it mean if you could leave the baggage behind and move on free? What if you could know that God had extended to you forgiveness and a new beginning? This is the good news of Christmas!
Pastor Tullien Tchividjian (cha-vi-jin) writes,
Suppose you go out to lunch with a friend, and while you’re in the restroom, your friend pays the bill. When you return, your friend says, “We’re good.” It means your debt has been paid, your obligation taken care of. There’s nothing you need to do. When Paul uses the word “justified,” he’s saying, “You’re good; Jesus has paid your debt, your obligation has been paid in full, you owe nothing—you’re justified.”…..And that’s exactly what the world needs to see in the church—that we’re free people, liberated from every form of bondage.[1]
Second, the message of Christmas makes it possible to live confidently in freedom, joy, and life. Sometimes in the proclamation of the gospel we seem to say, “Come to Jesus and your past will be forgiven”. Then we tell everyone that now that Jesus has forgiven them, it is up to them to “stay saved.”
That is not the gospel message! When we trust this baby who was born in Bethlehem it not only changes our past but it also changes our present and our future. This baby changes everything! Those who believe WILL stand before God as if we had always obeyed. We will be saved because of what Christ has done.
Growing as a Christian is not a matter of “trying harder”, it is about focusing more on the work of Christ on our behalf. We grow as we learn to forget about us, and begin to focus on Him. When we become obsessed with our behavior we fall back into that idea that salvation is something we must earn. If that is true . . . in ANY SENSE then we are in deep trouble. We will spend the rest of our lives anxiously looking over our shoulders. We will be filled with fear that we are going to do something to mess everything up. We will never know peace or joy.
The reason we can rejoice at Christmas is because the Savior has come. He is sufficient to meet our deepest needs. He is able to make us right with God . . . forever. Our performance cannot make Him love us more than He does right now.
People get uncomfortable when we talk this way. They say, “If I really believe this, then it doesn’t matter what I do. I can sin all I want and still be right with God.” A person who says this does not understand. If you come to Christ for salvation you discover that everything you want is found in Jesus! You will want to follow Him and obey Him not because you think that you can earn a place in Heaven. You will follow Him and obey Him because you will see that joy, peace, happiness, contentment, and the fulfillment you long for are all found in Him and in Him alone. We were created to be in a relationship with Him.
Steve Brown gives a great illustration from his life.
One time his daughter Robin found herself in a very difficult English literature course that she desperately wanted to get out of. She sat there on her first day and thought, “If I don’t transfer out of this class, I’m going to fail. The other people in this class are much smarter than me. I can’t do this.” She came home with tears in her eyes and begged her dad to help her get out of the class so she could take a regular English course. He said, “Of course.” So the next day he took her down to the school, and they went to the head of the English department, who was a Jewish woman and a great teacher. Steve remembers the event in these words:
She (the head of the English department) looked up and saw me standing there by my daughter and could tell that Robin was about to cry. There were some students standing around and, because the teacher didn’t want Robin to be embarrassed, she dismissed the students saying, “I want to talk to these people alone.” As soon as the students left and the door was closed, Robin began to cry. I said, “I’m here to get my daughter out of that English class. It’s too difficult for her. The problem with my daughter is that she’s too conscientious. So, can you put her into a regular English class?” The teacher said, “Mr. Brown, I understand.” Then she looked at Robin and said, “Can I talk to Robin for a minute?” I said, “Sure.” She said, “Robin, I know how you feel. What if I promised you an A no matter what you did in the class? If I gave you an A before you even started, would you be willing to take the class?” My daughter is not dumb! She started sniffling and said, “Well, I think I could do that.” The teacher said, “I’m going to give you an A in the class. You already have an A, so you can go to class.
Later the teacher explained to Steve what she had done. She explained how she took away the threat of a bad grade so that Robin could learn English literature. Robin ended up making straight A’s on her own in that class.[2]
When we come to Christ in true faith and trust, the Lord says to us, “If you will agree to walk with me, I will guarantee you an “A” on the day of Judgment.” Jesus came to set us free from the paralyzing fear that enslaves us. We serve Him not out of fear or obligation, but out of the pure delight of knowing Him!
Conclusions
So as you celebrate this Christmas may I suggest a few things?
One life, one special child born in a stable, has changed everything. Because of Jesus, we who once were lost can now find the way home. The hopeless can know hope. The guilty can know the cleansing power of forgiveness. The dying can anticipate life beyond the grave.
This is why the prophets looked forward with eager anticipation. This is why the angels sang. This is why the Magi brought gifts. And this is why Christmas should bring a smile to our face, energy to our steps and maybe even a tear of wonder, joy, and everlasting gratitude to our eyes.
©Copyright December 23, 2011 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche www.unionchurch.com