ISAIAH 22:12-13 – In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THE PARADOX THAT IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. Today’s scripture gives us an insight on the Christian life. It truly is a perceived paradox. This isn’t the only place our walks with the Lord seem to be defined as a contradiction. Here are two other places.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus gives us the “recipe for happiness” in this life. Ready? And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:2-4). Tell the word, perhaps even other Christians, “The way to happiness is to be poor, bankrupt spiritually, and to mourn, be broken over our sin.” Huh? Contradiction, right? One more and that from the Apostle Paul’s personal experience – For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin (Romans 7:15-25). Every Christian comes alongside the Apostle Paul’s experience and shouts, “Amen, brother, me too!”
The Puritan Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) commented on this experience common to all true Christians – “The state of a Christian in this life is a mixed state. The outward state and the inward disposition of the soul are mixed. As we have always cause of mourning and rejoicing both from that in us and from without us, therefore a Christian ought to rejoice always and in some measure to mourn always. For example, a Christian has cause of mourning within himself when he looks upon his sinful nature and the sins which he does daily commit, at the same time, there is cause of joy when he considers that God has pardoned his sins in Christ. It is what Paul did in Romans 7 when he looked upon himself and his own vileness, he cried out, ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.’ We have always from within ourselves both cause of joy and mourning.”
We really do know only in part both the Christian life and ourselves. So don’t get discouraged in those times we don’t understand ourselves. Why? God has ordained the Christian life may appear contradictory, but trust Him, it isn’t really!
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You in the many times of my confusion, You remain a constant.”
QUOTE: “We only know in part, and we know ourselves so little and that defines Christian experience.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim