Freedom is Good News Part 132

How much are you worth?  No, I am not interested in your monetary value, but I am interested in the intrinsic value of your life!  We could start off with a very familiar scripture and realize that we are “worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:31); but that is not telling us very much.

So, how much is your life worth?  “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”  We have been looking at Isaiah 53 in our previous articles and this quote is a continuation of that piece of scripture; it is found in verse 5.

I had mentioned that Isaiah 53 is arguably the greatest prophecy of the crucifixion of our Savior in the entirety of the bible.  It fits so closely that many Rabbinical Jews do not know what to do with it – for they reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah and yet…..it fits!!

So, I ask again, how much is your life worth?  This “suffering Servant” of the LORD God, this Savior of all mankind, was nailed to a wooden cross for us; “He was pierced for our transgressions”.  This Son of God was beaten, spit upon and mocked; “He was crushed for our iniquities”.  This Redeemer died for you and for me; “Upon him was the punishment that brought us peace”.  “And with his stripes we are healed”, healed from the disease of unrighteousness, healed from the sins that lead to death! 

Do you begin to see just how much your life is worth?  God desires our redemption!  God desires that we accept His free gift of grace!  God, our Father, sent His only begotten Son as a ransom for our lives!  The bible tells us that God is “unwilling that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)  The love of God is not just good news, it is the greatest news that the ears of mankind could hear.

Isaiah continues in verse 6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the LORD had laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  God showed His love for us even when we were yet sinners; even when we turned away from Him; even when we desired nothing but our own ways to walk in!

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”  Have you ever wanted your own way?  Have you ever argued your own opinion to the point where you almost lost a friend?  By our human standards, Jesus had every reason to “open His mouth” and state His case – but He didn’t.  He submitted to the will of His father and, “He humbled Himself becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:8)  Hallelujah, what a Savior! 

And so I ask you, what is your life worth in God’s eyes?

Yes, There is Good News! Part 3

We have been talking (alright so I’ve been writing and you’ve been reading) about the topic of “righteousness”.  It is a term that means “acting in an upright manner” and being “faithful to another’s expectations so as to form a good relationship”.

On the one hand, God is perfect in righteousness and is always faithful to fulfill whatever promises He has given to us (in other words, He is faithful to fulfill our expectations).  The problem here is, as I see it, can we be righteous so as to fulfill what God expects of us?

Perhaps we should look at a couple of scriptures?  In Matthew 5:20 Jesus says, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the scribes, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  But hey, we all know that the Pharisees and scribes were self-righteous and Jesus was always berating them for their hypocrisy (“woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites…. See Matthew 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27 and 29).  So then, let us examine ourselves and repent of our own hypocrisy.  Perhaps in that respect we are better than the Pharisees.

But in the same chapter of Matthew in 5:48, Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.  UH OH!!  Really?  Are we to be perfect as God is perfect?  I think I can speak for all of us in saying that this is way too tall an order.  What’s a believer to do? 

Well, herein lies our first true view of what we’ve been striving to see, this is our introduction to the “good news”!  Because there is no way for us to attain to this perfection as God is perfect.  There is no way for us to try and put any of our righteousness up against God’s righteousness.  We lose every time and we lose in a huge way.  In Isaiah 64:6 it says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”  Indeed, we have no way, in and of ourselves to stand in the presence of God.  We need a redeemer. 

What does it mean to redeem?  We may take our pop cans, for which we paid a nickel, back to the grocery store to have them redeemed.  The store will buy them back.  They redeem them.  So, redeemed means to buy back.  Our lives, wrapped up in sin are like the empty pop cans.  They are not worth anything until they are redeemed!  And where do we find redemption? 

Ephesians 1:7, “In Him (Jesus Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”  Can I get an Amen!!