In the Loom of Heaven
By Stephen Terry
All of us have become
like one who is unclean,
and
all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like
a leaf,
and
like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6, NIV
Our lesson this week goes to the very heart
of the human condition. Something is dreadfully wrong for no matter what we do
we cannot find deliverance from the troubles that beset us. We tell
ourselves that if we live a good life it will all work out in the end.
But this psychic "Karma" is only a delusion. The prophet
Isaiah stated that "ALL our righteous acts are like filthy rags."
This leaves nothing out. There is no righteous act excluded. All are only
filth.
The thought of having only filth as the result
of my actions is depressing. It makes me want to just give up. After all,
what's the point of it all? Can I not at least look back on my life and take
pleasure in what good I may have done? The Bible says, "Yet when I
surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to
achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the
wind; nothing was gained under the sun." Ecclesiastes 2:11, NIV
What a miserable summation of life. One
might quote the proverb quoted by both Isaiah and Paul "Let us eat and
drink for tomorrow we die." Or as some say even today,
"Carpe Diem." After all if all the good we do accomplishes
nothing, we may as well live in the moment, take no care for the future, and
forget the past in the pleasures of the present. If we cannot accomplish
righteousness then we may as well "go with the flow" since it makes
no difference anyway. It makes perfect sense until we consider the impact of
divinity on all of this.
You see, from the very beginning God knew
that we would be unable to provide ourselves with righteousness. God had
provided righteousness as a covering for man at creation but when man (and
woman) decided to follow their own leading instead of God's, that righteousness
fell away. Knowing that they needed a righteous covering, they turned to their
own works to provide it. "Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves." Genesis 3:7, NIV But this covering was
inadequate to stand in the presence of a holy God. Therefore, when God arrived,
they hid. (see verse 10)
God's solution to the problem was to provide
garments for Adam and Eve. "The LORD God made garments of skin for
Adam and his wife and clothed them." Genesis 3:21, NIV This act
demonstrated that we are dependent upon God for clothing us to be able to stand
before Him. The death of the animals that provided the skins to cover the first
couple portended the death of Jesus. That would provide the only true garment
of righteousness which could cover us adequately.
We might think that such a garment would be
priceless, and we would be right. At least it is beyond any price that we can
pay. Fortunately, Someone paid for it already.
Therefore it is a free gift for us. We can do nothing to earn it. Though the
weight of our sins can buy us something, it is not something we want.
Only the gift that God provides is desirable. "For the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord." Romans 6:23, NIV Yes, it is Jesus Christ who provides the garment we
need through His death on the cross. He paid the wage of death that we might
have the gift of eternal life.
So how do we receive this gift? In the
beginning it was our choice to be our own boss that led us to cast aside our
garments of righteousness. Therefore, we must now do the opposite. We must
surrender ourselves to God's control. His greatest desire is to cleanse us and
restore us to the fullness of our created purpose. "If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us
from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9, NIV If we admit to our
selves and God that we have been going our own way and now want to go His then
He will receive us and clean us up. We should not wait until we have somehow
become clean enough to approach Him. We never will be. We cannot be clean with
"filthy rags," and that is all we can produce. Besides the verse says
He will purify us which implies that we are not pure when we come to Him.
No, only God can
provide us with the covering we need. He stands at our hearts door knocking,
asking to be allowed into our lives. "Here I am! I stand at the
door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and
eat with that person, and they with me." Revelation 3:20, NIV Though
we often do not even know our true state, He patiently waits for us to open our
hearts to Him. We do not realize we are wretched, poor, blind and naked. (verse 17) He offers to us a white robe of His righteousness.
It will cover our nakedness as God covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve. We
will be able to come into God's presence only if we wear this garment of
Christ's righteousness.
Nothing we can do can earn us this garment.
It is a gift of God's love. "For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God." Ephesians 2:8, NIVGod's
love is the only loom that can weave the fabric for such a garment. He provides
that love not because of who or what we are, but because of who He is. "But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with
Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been
saved." Ephesians 2:4-5, NIV
It is this love that Adam and Eve turned away
from in the Garden of Eden. It is this love that has been waiting ever since
for mankind to turn back to Him. I'm tired of the "filthy rags"
of my own righteousness. I want this wonderful garment woven in the loom
of heaven. Don't you?
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