Qualifications of a Hypocrite

What does God hate? Perhaps not the most pleasant of questions to open with. However, its uncomfortable connotation should not deter us from considering the answer. Think about this. God is an omnipotent entity. The issue is not just that God has more power than anyone or anything else. God is the source of all power that exists. His transcendent power defines the reality of all other powers, which are intrinsically lesser. God can shape and mold us like clay, if He so chooses. Therefore, we should approach our consideration of God with caution. We should not think too lightly or carelessly about our Creator. It behooves us to question not only the more pleasant aspects of God, such as His love, mercy, and grace but also His characteristics that may be less appealing to our human sensibilities, such as His hatred.

Several possible correct answers could be given to the opening question. A rather generic one would be: sin. The problem with this answer is that it is not specific enough. We humans are quite capable of glibly letting the word sin roll off our tongues and flit through our consciousness like a passing breeze on a windy day; ephemeral and transient. No, the question of what God hates demands a more thorough and nuanced answer. And, when we consider the scope of Scripture that speaks to this topic, I think one answer rises above the rest. That is, God hates hypocrisy and He hates hypocrites. Consider these examples.

In Revelation 2:1-7 Christ writes a letter, through the Apostle John, to the church in Ephesus. In this short missive, the Lord commends the believers for their staunch defense of truth. He lauds their hard work and steadfastness. He praises them for their intolerance of evil. This church was even known for testing people who claimed to be Apostles, to determine if they were false or not. In other words, the church in Ephesus was a strong body of Christians who were actively standing for truth. Yet, in this same letter, Christ threatens punishment against the church because they had lost their first love; namely, Him. Although the Ephesian church was standing strong for the truth of the gospel, they were doing so in a manner devoid of love. The gospel is the revelation of Jesus and He Himself is the embodiment of love, therefore by abandoning love the Ephesians were abandoning Christ as well, even though on the surface they were clean as a whistle. To put it another way, this church was being hypocritical with its application of the truth. And as a result, they very nearly lost their place.

Moving backward in time about 60 years, we come to the gospel accounts of Jesus’s life and ministry on earth. One of His principal opponents was the Pharisees; Jewish legalists who were more concerned with outward appearance and adherence to their oral laws than they were to genuine worship of God and obedience to His Law. What was Jesus’s response to this group of religious ritualists? He called them whitewashed tombs that were clean on the outside, but rotten and decrepit on the inside. The Lord said they worshiped Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. He likened the Pharisees to broken cisterns that could not hold any water; in other words, completely useless. Christ called these people a brood of vipers; they were full of poison. To say that Jesus was not impressed with Pharisaical hypocrisy would be an understatement.

Continuing to wind the clock back, this time about 800 years, we see the confrontation between the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. In 1^st Kings 18:21 Elijah, frustrated with the Israelite tendency to want to worship all gods equally, thus playing the hypocrite with the Lord who demanded fealty to Himself alone, cries out: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” The blending of religions known as syncretism was so repulsive to God that He would prefer the Hebrews to not follow Him at all if they were going to dither back and forth between Him and false gods.

As if all that evidence was not enough, in Proverbs 6 God describes seven things that are particularly detestable to Him. Indeed, He uses the word hate to describe His opinion about these things. Two out of the seven have to do with lying, which is inherently a form of hypocrisy, because a lie is an attempt to communicate something other than what is true. This is the same pattern that a hypocrite engages in. And, it is this type of hypocrisy that the Apostle Paul had in mind as he came to the end of the second chapter of Romans. When I read what Paul had to say about hypocritical behavior I was chilled to the bone as I considered whether I myself was being described.

We will begin at verse 17: But if you bear the name “Jew.” Before we go any further, some context is necessary. It is best to think of the letter to the Romans in two parts. Chapters 1 to 11 contain Paul’s defense of the gospel, particularly justification by faith alone. Chapters 12 to 16, in response to that gospel presentation, provide us with Paul’s instructions for how to live in light of the gospel. So, here in chapter 2 we are right in the middle of the Apostle’s introductory arguments, which actually began in chapter 1 verse 18. He is in the process of systematically dismantling and stripping away any pretense of self-righteousness that his audience might have. He needs them to understand that, in the context of salvation, they bring absolutely nothing to the table. Humans have naught to offer God to earn His favor.

Furthermore, Paul knows well that Judaism is exerting a tremendous influence on followers of Jesus during the 1^st century in which he is writing. In fact, to both Jews and Romans, Christianity was nothing more than a sect of the Jewish religion for the first century or so of its existence. Paul himself had experienced this phenomenon in Antioch years previously. In Galatians 2 he wrote about how he had to confront Peter over hypocrisy. Apparently, some Jews came from Jerusalem and influenced even Peter to draw away from the uncircumcised Gentiles that he had formerly associated with. This confrontation took place long before Paul wrote Romans. So, this was a situation he was familiar with.

Thus, Paul is aware of the need to ensure that his Jewish audience, in particular, is confronted with their inadequacy. He wants to disabuse them of any preconceptions of superiority they might be hanging onto and lording over their Gentile brothers in the faith. This is the only way the equality of all men through the blood of Christ can become pre-eminent. So, when Paul writes: But if you bear the name “Jew” he is literally writing to Jewish Christians, in the church at Rome. He does not have in mind Gentiles like most of those who will read this. Yet, in spite of the audience difference, the point Paul is going to make is of paramount importance to us today. The reason is that, in some ways, we in the modern Christian church are the “Jews” of our day. In fact, I might even go so far as to whether we are sometimes the “Pharisees” of our day.

Consider the similarities between 1^st century Jews and 21^st century Christians in Paul’s descriptive phrases. He lists four characteristics plus a causal effect in verse 17b and 18: and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law.

Jews placed great confidence in the Law of Moses. This set of guidelines constituted the legally binding ratification of the special relationship with God that the Jews enjoyed. It was their birth certificate, of sorts, being born into the family lineage of Abraham as they were. God had given inviolable promises to the great patriarch centuries before. But now his offspring had those promises in written form, lending an air of certainty to the covenant.

It was because of this close bond with the Lord that the Jews felt confident enough to boast in Him. Their relationship with God was a special arrangement that was unique among all the people groups of the world. Furthermore, because they had access to God’s Law, they knew His will because it was explicitly spelled out for them in it. This Law delineated exactly what was pristine versus what was ignoble in life. It equipped the Jews to make wise decisions about how they should live. Naturally, all of these benefits were only possible if one was instructed by the Law itself.

This is not dissimilar from Christians today. We do not rely on the Law of Moses, but we do rely on the cross of Christ. Now that God has revealed Himself fully in the person of Jesus, we boast in Him as our Savior. By studying and obeying Christ’s commands, and being instructed in the gospel, we know what His will is for us and we are capable of giving approval to the things in life that are of great worth.

The parallels continue. In verse 19 and 20 Paul writes: and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.

These 1^st century Jews did indeed believe that they had the truth of spiritual awakening while the rest of the world languished in blindness and darkness. Because they were the covenant people of God, they knew that they had been entrusted with truth that could be used to correct foolish human behavior. The word translated as “corrector” above is paideuten in Greek. It does not just mean teacher. Certainly, the concept of instruction is present in it, but it also carries a nuance of admonishment or rebuke. The point Paul is trying to make is that these Jews considered themselves to be the ones responsible for correcting the course of wayward human society. Or, even better yet, they could fix the problem before the ship got off course by teaching the statutes of God to people when they were young.

Why could the Jews do this? The answer seems obvious – because they had the Law of God. However, the manner in which Paul expresses this in verse 20 is fascinating. He places the definite article in front of both gnoseos (knowledge) and aletheias (truth). The Greek article was a powerful tool for an ancient writer. He could use it to supply the equivalent of our English “the.” Or, it might be used in place of a personal pronoun such as “he” or “him.” At other times, the article might be completely ommitted, depending on the emphasis the writer wanted to provide.

The point here, as it relates to Romans 2:20, is that Paul did not have to use the article for gnoseos and aletheias. The fact that he did seems to indicate that he wanted to draw particular attention to those two words. He wanted to set them off and qualify them as not just being any knowledge or truth. Rather, what is contained in the Law of God, and by extension in the gospel of Jesus Christ, since it is built upon the Law, is “the” knowledge and “the” truth. Jesus Himself said that He was literally the truth, as opposed to merely knowing the truth (John 14:6).

Therefore, it is logical to assume that Paul is not describing a fantasy that existed only in the minds of his Jewish audience. They did not just imagine that they had a unique repository of knowledge and truth; they genuinely did possess such. This is what makes the next four verses so damning to anyone who is the target of Paul’s rhetoric. These were people who had the truth, had the knowledge, had the special relationship with God, and should have known better than to squander it with hypocritical conduct. Unfortunately, as we are about to see, they did not.

Verse 21 and 22a begins the litany of evidence that is leveled against the hypocrites: You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? Paul uses a delightful grammatical technique here to make his point. He uses the same word twice for steal and for adultery, but he alters the case ending each time to produce a different emphasis. First, he writes klepto (steal) in the infinitive, pointing to a non-specific, generalized usage of the word. Then he writes it again in the indicative, connoting a specific act. He does the same thing with moicheuein (adultery). And, unlike in English, the Greek words are back to back, adding to the contrast. Paul literally wrote “kleptein klepteis” and “moicheuein moicheueis.”

The effect of this is to present a scenario in which theft is preached against in an overall sense, not referring to a specific act. Then, the preacher immediately turns around and steals. Adultery is condemned; not a particular instance of adultery but rather the concept in general. This proclamation is followed right behind by an act of adultery on the part of the teacher. The proximity of the teaching to the sinful act heightens and accentuates the heinous nature of the hypocrisy on display.

But, Paul is not done. With the last sentence of verse 22 he begins to build to a crescendo of piercing condemnation for those who engage in such behavior. Observe: You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? Notice that this time the Apostle does not say that the Jew is preaching or teaching. He is not proclaiming with his lips something that his actions then proceed to invalidate. No, this Jew genuinely does abhor idols. The word abhor could also be translated detest or loathe. There is a deep-seated revulsion that is felt toward these idols.

And, what are the idols themselves? The word is “eidolon” in Greek, and it is more accurately translated, in its biblical context, as image.  Image is a better translation because it gets more precisely at the problem behind idols. They were objects, crafted to look like something else, such as a man or an animal, and intended for worship. This was a flagrant violation of the 2^nd commandment, in which God said “You shall not make for yourself…any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them.” (Exodus 20:4-5a)

God is a spirit being with no physical form. Moses draws this point out in his commentary on Exodus 20, found in Deuteronomy 4. He says that the people saw no physical form on Mt. Sinai; they only heard a voice. Therefore, they should not make any kind of graven image of anything, because God is the only One who should be worshiped, and He has no physical form that can be duplicated.

Furthermore, everything that exists other than God is a product of His creative power. And, God is the only one in the universe that deserves human worship. Therefore, to create any kind of image of anything that exists in reality and then worship it, is to dishonor God by worshiping something that is less valuable than He is.

Moving back to Romans, the people Paul is describing seem to understand the prohibition against images. They do not merely preach against idolatry, but they actually do despise it themselves. This sounds great, right? Not so fast. Paul continues by accusing them of robbing temples. What does he mean by this? In the ancient world, temples were storehouses of treasure. The monetary gifts that worshipers brought, in an attempt to appease the gods, were collected and held by the temple priests. This was, in effect, dirty money. It had been consecrated to a pagan deity of wood, stone, or metal. It was in every way an affront to the honor of God, for the reasons discussed above. So, for a Jew who detested such idolatry to enter one of these temples and take the idolatrous wealth for himself was utterly despicable. The Jew who worshiped God and hated images wound up commiting idolatry in his own right by helping himself to the world’s goods and benefiting from them. Even without intending to be a hypocrite, the hypocrisy on display rises up like a foul stench before the Lord.

Now, having built his case, Paul is ready to deliver his closing arguments. And they are gut wrenching. Verse 23 reads: You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? Immediately we need to recognize an important point. Although in the Greek text there is indeed a question mark at the end of this sentence, Paul is not asking any question here other than a rhetorical one. He is making a statement of fact. He is pointing an accusatory finger at the Jews he is describing.

And what an accusation it is! These people, who boasted in their relationship with God and gloried in His Law, were themselves the very source of dishonor to God because they continually violated the Law. In fact, it is worse than that. Paul says that they personally insult God with their transgressions. They slander His name through their hypocrisy. They bring shame upon Him with their conduct.

We absolutely must stop at this point and ask a critical question. Does this describe us? We have already seen the many parallels that exist between 1^st century Jews and ourselves as modern Christians. They relied upon the Law while we rely upon the cross. They boasted in God while we boast in Christ. They knew God’s will through the Law while we know His will through our Bibles. They and we both strive to approve the important and excellent things of life. We are both instructed from the same source; God.

The Jews were placed in their land for the purpose of shining the light of God’s glory on the nations around them. They were to do this by guiding the spiritually blind into all truth. They were to provide the light of the glory of God to those who were in darkness. They were to correct and rebuke those who foolishly walked away from God. They were to bring up their children in the truth and knowledge of God. Is this really any different from us? We are called to go into all the world, guiding them through the gospel toward the light of Christ. We are to guard and support the truth by teaching it to the spiritually young and protecting it from subversion by the enemies of God. The mission of the church today is essentially the same as the mission of the nation of Israel was previously.

We dare not stop there with the similarities. We have to ask: are we guilty of the same hypocrisy these 1^st century Jews were guilty of? Do we teach our children one thing, and then do another? To use Paul’s examples, do we preach against theft but then steal time from our employer? Do we condemn adultery but then allow our eyes to linger lustfully on the opposite sex? Do we decry the secular atheistic humanist worldview that is pervading our planet but then take from and enjoy the proceeds of what this broken culture is offering? Do we exercise Bible based discernment about what we should and should not engage in both personally and as families?

We had better figure out the answers to these questions. Because the stakes are alarmingly high. Paul utters the unsettling analysis of such conduct in verse 24. Earlier I wrote that Paul’s words chilled me to the bone when I read them. It was this verse that did it. The Apostle writes: For “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. There are certain words, throughout the history of human language, that stand as such beacons of overwhelming impact that they make transitions from language to language relatively intact. They are words of such power that to do anything other than transliterate them verbatim, or as close as possible, into another tongue seems inappropriate. I believe the word blaspheme is such a word.

Even if you cannot read a lick of Greek you will probably recognize it – blasphemeo. It even sounds similar to our English pronunciation: blahs-fame-eh-oh. In both languages it means to slander. It is to deliberately speak falsehoods about someone else for the purpose of misrepresenting their character. But, it means even more than that. Blaspheme specifically means to slander God. It is to ascribe evil to the only source of pure goodness that exists; the Lord Himself. There is no greater obscenity that can be committed than to take God’s holy, righteous, and transcendent character and run it through the filthy stinking mud of our own depravity.

Paul says this is exactly what we cause to happen when we act like these Jews in the Roman church were acting. By acting like sinners we give cause to the world to question the integrity of God. Through our language, our financial practices, our work ethic, the way we speak to our family members, the attitude we have toward our government, our treatment of strangers, our focus and dedication to the church, how harsh our tongues are with people, our entertainment choices, and in many other ways we are to serve as windows through which the world can look and see the character of God on display. What are they seeing when they look through your window? Are they seeing God or are they seeing you? For that matter, can the world even see through your window or do you have the blinds drawn and the curtains pulled so they cannot see inside? Have you walled yourself off from the world so much that they might not even know you are a Christian?

If this sounds like living under a microscope, it is. As followers of Christ we do not merely represent ourselves. We represent Him. An employee’s conduct reflects on his or her employer. To a much greater degree, a Christian’s conduct reflects on his or her Savior. If you are a Christian, then your life is not your own any more. You have been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus (1^st Corinthians 6:19-20).

Now then, what should we say to these things? If you are feeling a little beat up right now, I think that is exactly the place Paul wants you to be at. However, I am convinced he does not want you to stay there. As unintuitive as it might seem at first, I believe we should take this as a passage of encouragement rather than condemnation. Remember that this was a single letter that Paul wrote to a single church. He probably anticipated the whole thing being read, from start to finish, at one meeting. Paul’s expectation would have been for the people to receive his entire flow of thought from beginning to end rather than just a snippet out of the middle of chapter two. So, to do justice to Paul’s intent, we need to consider the text of Romans 2:17-24 in light of the context of the entire letter of Romans.

As mentioned before, Paul’s purpose in chapters 1 to 11 is to present and defend the gospel. He begins this in the first few chapters by tearing down human pride and boasting, so that his audience is prepared to accept the free gift of God’s grace in the person of Jesus. And then, beginning in chapter 12, Paul strongly argues that in light of all the mercies of God that have been revealed so far, we ought to live in a certain way. The very first verse of chapter 12 perfectly captures the switch in emphasis that Paul makes: Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

It is precisely because we as humans are corrupt and hypocritical and have nothing to offer God that we ought to respond to His loving mercy, demonstrated in salvation, by living holy lives that are acceptable to God. So while this specific passage, 2:17-24, is definitely condemnatory, taken in light of the whole letter, it is merely the rebuke to tear us down and cause us to see ourselves as we really are, before we are built up and encouraged to press on.

Additionally, take another look at verse 24. Paul writes “just as it is written.” Any time you see language like that, it means that the writer is quoting the Old Testament. In this case, Paul is referring to Isaiah 52:5. That verse reads: “Now therefore, what do I have here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?” Again the LORD declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.” The prophet Isaiah is speaking about the captivity and exile of the Jews. Because they had disobeyed their God and had followed after false gods, He judged them. And, through that judgment, as the peoples of the world saw the low estate to which the Jews had been brought, it caused them to speak poorly of God Himself. The nations knew that Yahweh was the God of Israel. They knew that He was their protector. Therefore, because they were now in exile it must have meant that God was not capable of protecting them. He must have been weak and ineffectual. This would have been the mindset of the pagan nations the Jews were dispersed into.

But, having said all that, again, notice the context of the chapter. This is not a chapter of doom and gloom for the Jews. It is actually a triumphant chapter of promised future restoration. In verse 1 God says: Awake, awake, clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion. He continues: the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer come into you. In verse 6 we see: “My people shall know My name.” And, in verse 9 we reach a climactic crescendo: the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.

This is a prophecy of joy, restoration, triumph, and redemption not devastation, degradation, and death. It is this passage that Paul chose to quote when he wanted to make his point in Romans 2:24. We can be sure that Paul knew exactly what he was doing when he chose Isaiah 52:5 to draw from. And, I think this stands as further evidence that he intended encouragement not despair, triumph rather than defeat, and laughter instead of wailing.

The question for us is: how will we respond? Will we recognize our hypocrisy? Will we be chilled to the bone at the horrifying thought that our actions might possibly bring reproach upon the name of our God? Will we take that conviction and turn it into resolve to press forward toward transformation into the likeness of Christ that is set before us as our goal?

There is only one correct response to these issues. That is to cling to Christ. It is through our union with Christ that we are empowered to rise above our sinful hypocritical tendencies. It is through Christ that we can be changed so that when the world looks at us they see Him. Run to Christ today, through the Scriptures, through prayer, through ministry. Take Paul’s terrible assessment of human nature and use it as a catalyst to propel you forward into righteous living.

An Everyday Gospel

In the late fifties A.D., the Apostle Paul wrote a letter.  This was by no means the first letter he had written.  But, this one was unusual, in that he was writing to people he had never met.  Most of Paul’s letters that survived and were eventually canonized into the Bible were written to churches he had had a hand in founding.  They were to Christians whom he considered to be his “children in the faith”, having had a significant role in their conversion and discipleship.  However, this time Paul was writing to the church at Rome.  He had never visited the city, nor had he met most of the people in this church, although he hoped to remedy both of those deficiencies with a visit.

Although the church in Rome would eventually go on to be a major center, arguably the major center, of Christendom on earth, the actual recipients of this letter remain mostly unknown to history.  They were literally at the center of the empire, in the city of Rome, and were undoubtedly cultured and metropolitan.  But, no records remain of how this church was initially formed.  We see a hint of it in Acts 2:10.  Among the Jewish visitors to Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost are listed “visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes.”  The word proselyte, in this context, refers to Gentiles who had converted to Judaism.  Luke, the author of Acts, does not mention whether any of these people were among the 3,000 who believed in Christ after Peter’s inaugural sermon in verses 14 to 36.  But, it could very well be that some of those who believed were from Rome, and took the message of the gospel back to their city.

In addition to this, we know that about 20 years later, all Jews were temporarily expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius.  Acts 18:2 provides us with this detail.  In reference to Paul, we read: and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.  Historically, this expulsion took place in 54 A.D.  Aquila and Priscilla benefited from their exile by coming to know Paul.  Indeed, they served as ministry partners with him in Corinth.  In fact, it may have been this Christian couple who provided Paul with the point of contact to establish relations with the Roman church.  In Romans 16:3 he writes: Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.  Two verses later it is revealed that the church actually met in their house.  From this we can conclude that the Jewish expulsion from Rome under Claudius did not last long.  As stated before, Paul wrote Romans in the late fifties, perhaps 56 or 57.  And clearly, by that point, the Jews had been allowed back into the city.

Again though, I want to stress that this was a church of ordinary folks.  They had probably not benefited directly from the “superstar” attention of the Apostles.  They were not favored “children” of Paul on his missionary journeys.  Being at the center of the Roman Empire, this church was not obscure.  Indeed, Paul writes in Romans 1:8 that the faith of these believers was being proclaimed throughout the known world.  Yet, this was not a high-powered group of Christian “all-stars.”  They were, to put it bluntly, probably not too dissimilar from most of those who are reading this.  If you are a Christian, odds are that you do not attend a mega church.  You probably live in a modestly sized town or city.  Most likely, no one beyond your circle of friends or family has ever heard, or will ever hear, of you.  You and I were born, have lived, will continue to live, and will die in relative obscurity.

I think this makes Paul’s letter to the church at Rome particularly applicable.  In one sense, of course, the entire Bible is completely relevant to every human being who has ever read it.  Yet, it is fair to acknowledge that sometimes, due to our specific life experiences and situations, we find more common ground with some biblical characters than others. 

It is with this in mind that I would like to draw your attention to the 14^th verse of the first chapter of Romans.  Paul writes: I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.  In the world of Paul’s day, to call someone a Greek could mean biological descent from the Grecian ethnic group.  However, using the context in this verse as a guide, Paul was probably thinking of the type of person someone was.  Greek in this usage meant that the person being referred to was cultured and sophisticated.  The Greeks were worldly people, wise in the ways and means of their time.  By contrast, barbarians were exactly the opposite.  They were slovenly, uncouth savages who offered nothing to civilized society other than to trouble it.  Paul’s point is that he feels a debt to both extremes of human culture.  To emphasize what he is saying, he offers another example.  Regardless of whether someone is an imbecile or a genius, Paul considers himself obligated to them.

And what is the nature of this obligation that the great Apostle feels?  Verse 15 tells us: So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.  Paul believes himself to be under contract, as it were, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to every person he meets.  It makes no difference to Paul whether someone is cultured or uncivilized, brimming with common sense or a fool.  This seems obvious enough.  Paul was, after all, perhaps the greatest missionary who has ever lived.  His specific mission, given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ, was to tell the Gentile nations of the world about the message of redemption that God was offering through faith in Christ.

However, consider the object of Paul’s writing.  He is saying these things to a church, presumably filled with Christians.  These people had already placed their faith and trust in Christ and been welcomed into the fellowship of the church, or they would not have been the focus of Paul’s attention.  With these two verses the Apostle is saying, in effect, that he wants to preach the gospel to people who have not only already heard it, but who have decided to make it the centerpoint of their lives.  My question is why.  Why was Paul so eager to communicate the gospel to Christians?  It is to unbelievers that Christians are to preach the good news of Jesus.  This was Christ’s final instruction to us, given just before His ascension into Heaven, in Matthew 28:18-20.  We are to be about the business of making disciples, by telling them about Jesus.  Then why did Paul want to preach the gospel to people who had already heard of Him?

I think the answer to this question is found in the next two verses.  In fact, I think Paul anticipated our inquiry, and the purpose of verse 16 and 17 is to explain his rationale.  He writes: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

These verses do not tell us what the message of the gospel is.  Paul assumes his audience, being Christians, already know the details of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.  Besides, he is going to spend the next 11 and a half chapters exhaustively breaking down and analyzing the gospel.  His point here is not to provide a detailed description of what it is.  Rather, he wants us to understand what it does.  We have to comprehend the effect of the gospel so that we can ascertain why it continues to be relevant to us, just as it was to the church at Rome.

Paul gives us two explanations of the gospel, the first corresponding to verse 16 and the second to verse 17.  First, he writes that the good news about Christ is the power of God that results in the salvation of anyone who believes it.  In other words, the incomprehensible and limitless power that spun the universe into existence with a mere thought and word, is concentrated and applied to the business of changing a human heart.  In the act of salvation, God converts people from rebellious enemies who hate Him to favored children who love Him.  This is the aspect of the gospel that is in the past for anyone who has already believed in Jesus.  Obviously, this is a crucial factor to consider when we examine biblical salvation.  However, that is not my primary focus today.  Because, although a Christian’s salvation began in the past, it continues on to the present and into the future.  This is what makes the gospel relevant for those who are already Christians.  And, this is Paul’s point in verse 17.

Namely, the gospel is the revelation of the righteousness of God, for anyone who follows Christ.  The gospel is available to all ethnic groups, whether Jewish or Gentile (in this context Paul is using “Greek” as a synonym for Gentile).  The gospel is the medium through which the righteous character of God is manifested to those who have already begun to walk with Him.  This is not a passive experience for the believer.  Notice how Paul ties the unveiling of God to the practice of faith.  He writes that God is revealed “from faith to faith.”  This is an odd manner of speech, but the concept is really quite simple.  When we exercise faith in our Lord, His righteous character is revealed to us through His compassion in caring for us.  His loving kindness is displayed as He showers us with blessings that are always spiritual and sometimes material.  His faithfulness is proven as He keeps His promise to sanctify us into the likeness of Christ.

These displays of our God come to us day by day, sometimes moment by moment, as we loyally and consistently exercise faith in Him.  And thereby, in walking by faith in each situation we encounter, our understanding of and appreciation for God increases.  This is precisely the pattern that is visible in the life of Abraham, the first patriarch of the Jewish nation.  From Genesis 12 to 25 we read highlights of the life of this man.  Repeatedly, God thrusts him into situations that require a response.  From regional moves to intra-family disputes.  From dangerous military excursions to the faith to patiently wait for the fulfillment of a promise that seems impossible.  From interactions with his neighbors to threats from powerful kings.  At times Abraham was wildly successful in his endeavors.  At others his failure was monumental.  Yet, at every step of the way, God was bulding His servant’s faith through testing and the revelation of His own divine character.  Ultimately, the pinnacle of this process was achieved on Mount Moriah.  The supernatural faith of this man of God had been honed and amplified to such a degree that he was willing to sacrifice his own son.  He had faith that God would make a way and provide for the fulfillment of His promises.

This type of process is exactly what all Christians experience as they walk with God throughout their life.  The theological term for it is sanctification.  This progression of a sanctifying relationship with God is exactly what Abraham went through, as he walked by faith from one day, one situation, to the next.  In fact, we might say that Romans 1:17 is Paul’s theological summation of Abraham’s entire life.

Now then, with that basis of understanding, there is one more critical element that has to be understood.  If we miss this piece, then the whole theological construct will come crashing down like a house of cards.  That is, the gospel is the means by which we are united with Christ, in both faith and practice.  You may ask where I get that from, since verse 17 does not clearly state it that way.  In that verse Paul speaks of the gospel and faith.  What we must consider is who is the object of our faith.  When we embrace the gospel message, who are we actually embracing?

Paul does not feel the need to clarify this in verse 17, because he has already laid the foundation of the gospel before ever getting there.  He expects us to read his letter from the beginning.  If we do, we will understand precisely who Paul is talking about.  The Apostle spends the first six verses of his letter outlining exactly who the object of our faith is.  In verse 1 he writes that he is a bond-servant of Christ Jesus.  In verse 2 he points out that the gospel was promised long ago through the Scriptures.  In verse 3 Paul clarifies that Jesus is the Son of God and was descended biologically from David.  In verse 4 we find that this man Jesus was emphatically declared to be God through His resurrection from the dead.  In verse 5 we learn that obedient faith in Christ’s name is the message Paul has been assigned to preach and the mission he has been tasked to accomplish.

It is faith in Christ Jesus that is the object of the gospel.  It is that which is strengthened from faith to faith in an ever-increasing upward spiral of holy and righteous living.  Yet, if we stop at this point our understanding is still insufficient.  The reason is that the Bible does not describe an impartial, disconnected faith in an external person who is far removed from us.  Rather, the Scriptures tell of an intimate, deep, affectionate, symbiotic relationship of faith between Christ and those who follow after Him.

The Bible communicates this thought through the use of a simple preposition; in.  Numerous times the New Testament writers tell us that we are “in Christ.”  For example, in 2^nd Corinthians 5:17 Paul writes: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  We find similar expressions in John 15:4, 5, 7; 2^nd Corinthians 12:2; Galations 3:28; Ephesians 1:4, 2:10; Philippians 3:9; 1^st Thessalonians 4:16.

In other places Christ is said to be in us.  Galatians 2:20 is an instance of this: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.  Look at Romans 8:10; 2^nd Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 3:17; and Colossians 1:27 for additional context. 

The Scriptures also sometimes put our position in Christ and His position in us together.  The Apostle John, in particular, sometimes combines these thoughts, as seen in 1^st John 4:13: By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

So, it seems pretty clear that the message of biblical salvation and the Christian life is that it is a symbiotic relationship wherein we are in Christ and Christ is in us.  But, what does that actually mean?  Briefly, here are eight ways that we can see this concept borne out in our Christian life.

We are initially united with Christ in regeneration.  In Ephesians 2:4-5 Paul writes: But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).  We are born spiritually dead and cut off from God.  Yet, because of His unfathomable love, God has made us spiritually alive.  And, this life is only possible in and through Christ.

We also appropriate and continue to live out of this union through faith.  Galatians 2:20, mentioned above, captures this aspect beautifully.  Literally the very means of the life that has been granted to us is the faith that we express in Christ.  Apart from this faith in Him there can be no authentic spiritual life.

In addition to these, there are three other foundational applications of our union with Christ.  First, we are justified in union with Christ.  Justification simply means to be declared right before a judge.  It is a legal term connoting an acquittal of guilt.  In a biblical context, Christians are justified via the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.  We have no righteousness of our own, but God credits the righteousness of His Son to our account.  This is captured beautifully by Paul in 2^nd Corinthians 5:21: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Second, we are sanctified through union with Christ.  We have already looked at how sanctification is a part of the process of the righteousness of God being revealed to us and grown in us, from faith to faith.  But, in terms of how this relates to our union with Christ, 1^st Corinthians 1:30 offers an additional angle: But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.  It is only through our union with Christ that sanctification is even possible.

Third, we persevere in the life of faith in union with Christ.  This means that, having once come to genuine saving faith in Christ, we will never fall away from Him, because He will hold us firmly in union with Himself.  In John 10 Jesus gave one of His most powerful metaphorical illustrations; that of the good shepherd.  He described Himself not only as the shepherd who cares for His sheep, but the very door way through which His flock enter to find safety.  And, in verses 27 and 28 He makes it clear that once a sheep is attached to the good shepherd’s flock, it will never be lost: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

Continuing from all these, we find that we are even said to die in Christ.  In Romans 14:8 Paul writes: for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.  Both the beginning and end of our temporal existence in these initial bodies of flesh is entirely at the whim and disposal of the Lord, through Christ.

Beyond that, having once died in the flesh, we are promised that we shall be raised with Christ.  In 1^st Corinthians 15:22 Paul states it succinctly, as he compares Adam and Christ: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.  Because Adam was the representative head of the human race, all who descended from him are “in him”, in a sense.  He set the tone for all human beings who would follow after him.  That tone was sin and death.  In a similar way, Christ becomes the head of all those who place their faith and trust in Him.  And, whereas Adam represents death, Christ is the very embodiment of life.  He is the life.  Therefore, anyone who is in Him is also made alive in Him.

Finally, after all considerations of this earthly life have faded into the past, we are assured that we shall be eternally glorified with Christ.  Turning to the words of Paul again, in Colossians 3:4 we find: When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.  One of the great expectations of all Christians is that when the Lord Jesus returns in power and glory, we will be elevated to rule and reign with Him in His Kingdom.  By giving up in this life that which is ultimately worthless, namely the things of the world, we gain in eternity that which is ultimately priceless, namely the things of heaven.

This is a fairly comprehensive list of ways and means by which the Bible says that we are in Christ.  But, what do we say to those who have never felt united with Christ, even though they are Christians?  Perhaps that question rises to the forefront of your mind right now.  All these theological truths are wonderful, but how do they translate into every day living?  I think the analogy of marriage is helpful here.  In Ephesians 5:22-32 Paul gives extensive instructions to husbands and wives about how they are to love each other.  At the risk of doing a disservice to Paul’s masterwork handbook of marriage in this passage, I will summarize it in this way.  Husbands are to cherish their wives.  Wives are to respect their husbands.  Both are to do this in a self-sacrificial manner that is reminiscent of Christ Himself.  In this process, the two humans become, in a sense, one flesh.  And in verse 30 Paul makes it clear that this human relationship is a metaphor for the relationship Christians have with Christ: This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

In a human marriage, if both spouses follow the pattern given above, then a unity is achieved over time that makes the couple inseparable.  This comes through living together, laughing together, crying together, working together, struggling together, and so on.  It is the same with Christ.  We will not feel one with Him if we barely give Him any thought.  We will not know Him if we do not spend time in the Scriptures, learning who He is.  We will not open ourselves to Him if we do not commune with Him in prayer.  Our faith in Christ will be weak if we do not allow ourselves to be placed into positions of fear, that are outside of our comfort zones, in service to Him.  Our intimacy with Christ will be anemic if we do not consciously make Him a part of our lives.  This is a relationship that is not a once per week date on Sundays.  It is not a casual pastime like a hobby.  It is an all consuming relational part of your life that, having once entered into it, would do irreparable damage to you if you were separated from it.

I fear that most Christians do not live like this.  I fear that many of us have been lulled into a spiritual stupor by the ease and apathy of our culture that preys upon the tendencies of our own flesh.  Further, I believe this is a crippled, defeated, ineffective model of Christianity.  Failing to live passionately in Christ does not necessarily mean you are not saved; although I think it does raise serious red flags that you need to examine.  What it does emphatically mean is that you will not live the fullest, most joyous, most satisfied Christian life that you could be living.  I do not know the heart and mind of anyone except myself, and even that is imperfect at best.  But, the Scriptures speak to this issue so clearly and decisively that it leaves no room for doubt.  It is only by embracing oneness and unity with Christ Jesus that you are capable of experiencing the best that God has to offer you.

C.S. Lewis, in his book “The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses”, offered an utterly compelling and sobering statement about the human condition apart from Christ.  Although he was writing in the context of initial salvation itself, I think that what he said often continues to apply to people who profess the name of Christ and show up at church dutifully each week.  This should chill us to the core:

“It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased.”

I hope that does not describe you.  I do not want it to describe me.  As we head into the rest of our lives, beginning now, we must consciously, deliberately, purposefully, and determinedly embrace the gospel as both the power of God that has saved us and the union with Christ that sustains us.  If you are reading this and you have never truly placed your faith and trust in Christ, even if you have attended church for years, then today is the day of salvation.  Surrender your life to Him now and begin to grow toward the most sublime joy it is possible to attain in this mortal life.

Darkest Hour

It is a dangerous thing to live in ignorance of history.  The last several generations have lived with World World 2 as a chapter in a history text book.  We tend to take for granted that Hitler’s intentions all along were nefarious, the British saved their army at Dunkirk, the United States was galvanized by Pearl Harbor, the D-Day invasion was a resounding overall operational success, and “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” pushed the Japanese to surrender.

However, to have lived during that time was to know uncertainty, trepidation, and outright terror.  In the European theater of operations, the German war machine, under the command of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, was a terrifying machine of destruction.  It rolled like a tidal wave over Western Europe in a matter of days and weeks, leaving the forlorn country of Great Britain in fear for its very survival as a nation.

Looking back on this time now, again, through the lens of clinical text books, we view men like Winston Churchill as titans of courage who faced down the wrath of Germany and were willing to fight to the bitter end, ultimately ensuring the freedom of the world from the cruel and satanic oppression of Nazism.  Yet, these men were just that, men.  They were flawed and frail creatures of limited sight and imperfect vision.  They knew not what the future would bring, and that lack of certainty at times brought them to their knees in desperation.

“Darkest Hour” is a film that endeavors to capture a period of about a month, in May and June of 1940, just after the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.  Winston Churchill had just become the Prime Minister of Great Britain.  He was immediately faced with the difficult proposition of what to do to ensure the safety of his nation.  With opposition from within his own party, the almost certain annihilation of the entire 300,000 soliders of the British Expeditionary Force that was trapped between the advancing German Panzer divisions and the English Channel, and his own inner demons that threatened to unhinge him, Churchill entered into a dark night of the soul such as most of us have never endured.

While taking some historical liberties, as movies are wont to do, this film does a wonderful job of capturing the inner turmoil of this man who history has come to know as one of the great leaders of the Second World War.  It reminds us that in spite of uncertainty, there are certain inalienable and unchanging principles of conduct that are always applicable and eternally relevant to the human condition.  Courage, tenacity, loyalty, integrity, and honesty are a few of the terms that come to my mind in attempting to describe the character qualities that ultimately prevailed in this great conflict.  We would do well to remember such lessons from history as we face our own darknesses.

Prominently displayed is Churchill’s outstanding ability as an orator.  It warms my heart to see represented so well the incalculable power of ideas, communicated through the medium of language.  Churchill had the capacity to take individual words, string them together into stirring sentences, and craft those sentences into speeches of unparalleled motivational effect.  “Darkest Hour” ends with a small portion of Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons, delivered on June 4, 1940.  Here is an excerpt from the actual speech, part of which made it into this film, to give you an idea of the power of Churchill’s oratory:

“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.  We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

The final words of “Darkest Hour” are powerful and have left an impression in my mind.  It is a quote by Edward R. Murrow, the famous American journalist, who in 1954 was describing Churchill’s actions during the war.  In the film, the quote is given to Viscount Halifax, one of Churchill’s most powerful opponents from within his own political party who wanted to sue for terms of peace with Hitler.  After Churchill delivered the rousing speech mentioned above, and with virtually the entire House of Commons standing in ovation, one of Halifax’s confidantes turns to him and says, “What just happened?”.  Halifax, in the words of Murrow, responds: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”  May we all strive to recognize the tremendous power, both for good and for evil, that has been granted to us via language.  May we all take exceeding care that our words are utilized for the same purpose as the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth almost 400 years ago.  That of the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.

Born To Die

In the Summer of 1939 Sam Stern received his diploma.  This was a rabbinical degree, or Smicha, and Sam, a Jew, had his sights set on entering the ministry as a rabbi.  But then, in September, Adolf Hitler’s German war machine rumbled into Poland, launching the second world war.  All of Europe was engulfed in flames, and six years later, when the war ended, Sam was in a concentration camp.  He had survived the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.  However, all of his family members were dead.  Sam’s faith in God had been shattered by the realities of a world gone mad.

Eventually, in the aftermath of World War 2, Sam made his way to America and began to work as an assistant rabbi at a Synagogue in Rhode Island.  But, he had tremendous conflict in his heart.  He could not understand how God could have allowed the massive devastation of the Holocaust.  Frankly, he no longer believed in Judaism, he had lost faith in mankind, and was not sure what he believed about God.

One day, a few years later, Sam met a Christian missionary who gave him a copy of the New Testament in Yiddish.  This missionary also connected Sam with a Jewish Christian.  They met together for a while and discussed life and religion.  Eventually, this man told Sam about a poem called “The Sufferer.”  Here is part of it…

            For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

            And like a root out of parched ground;

            He has no stately form or majesty

            That we should look upon Him,

            Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

            He was despised and forsake of men,

            A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

            And like one from whom men hide their face

            He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

            Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

            And our sorrows He carried;

            Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

            Smitten of God, and afflicted.

            But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

            He was crushed for our iniquities;

            The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

            And by His scourging we are healed.

            All of us like sheep have gone astray,

            Each of us has turned to his own way;

            But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all

            To fall on Him.

           

Some of you may recognize this poem.  It is a portion of the 53^rd chapter of the book of Isaiah.  Sam, however, did not recognize it as coming from the Hebrew Scriptures.  His Christian friend asked him who he thought the subject of the poem was, who suffered for our sins, and by whose scourging, or stripes, we were healed.  Sam responded that the poem was probably referring to Jesus.  Imagine Sam’s shock when he was informed that the poem was actually just Isaiah 53:2-12, out of his own beloved Scriptures.  His friend had copied it onto a piece of paper, and read it to him.  Sam went to his Hebrew Bible, and sure enough, there it was. 

Indeed, Sam was correct about the referrant of Isaiah’s prophecy.  We know without question that the servant is Jesus.  In Acts 8 Philip, one of the seven deacons of the early church, encountered an Ethiopian eunuch traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.  This man was reading from the scroll of Isaiah, specifically verses 7 and 8 of chapter 53.  He asked Philip who Isaiah was referring to.  Philip’s response was to preach Jesus to this man, resulting in his conversion.

Sam placed his faith and trust in Christ soon after his experience with Isaiah 53.  It may surprise you that a Jewish Rabbi, trained in the precepts of Judaism, would be so unknowledgable with a passage out of his own Bible.  But, there is a very good reason why Sam was not familiar enough with Isaiah 53 to recognize it when it was read to him.  Every year the Rabbis in Jewish Synagogues adhere to a Bible reading schedule for each Sabbath that has been in place since the middle ages.  But, something curious happens in the middle of August each year.  The reading schedule stops one week at Isaiah 52:12 and picks up the next week at Isaiah 54:1.  If you ask a Rabbi why this is, he will probably answer that it is simply because they cannot read every passage of the Bible in their weekly readings.

However, I think there is a deeper reason.  I think that the real reason is because it is impossible to read Isaiah 53 and not come away with an image of Jesus in your mind, assuming you know even a little bit of what happened to Him in 32 AD.  The Old Testament has hundreds of Messianic prophecies and allusions.  Four of them are the servant songs of Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and this one in chapters 52 and 53.  That final prophecy, extending from Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12 is, I think, the greatest of them all.  It is the Everest of Old Testament Messianic prophecy.  It is the climax, or the peak of the grandeur that God has revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures about Christ.  And, in fact, no passage of Scripture has been more instrumental than Isaiah 53 in bringing Jews to faith in Jesus.  Sam Stern is only one of many Jews who, when confronted with the explicit description of Jesus in Isaiah, were forced to confront their own preconceived notions that had been given to them by an orthodox Jewish rabbinical system that vehemently denies that Jesus was and is their Messiah.

In light of all this, I think it is entirely appropriate and fitting that, as we approach Christmas next week, we take some time to linger over the glorious truth revealed in this precious text.  You see, although it is fitting and proper that we focus upon the birth of Christ during the Christmas holiday, it is also entirely appropriate to fix our gaze upon the breadth of His messianic ministry, including His atoning sacrifice upon a Roman cross.  If our understanding of Jesus is limited to His time as a human baby, then we do not even know enough to experience genuine Christian salvation, let alone to begin to appreciate the Lord Jesus’s amazing sacrifice for us.  That being said, the servant song of Isaiah 53 is a long passage.  To plumb its depths would be the work of multiple sermons.  So, I would like to focus on only a small portion of the entire prophecy.  Specifically, I want to dig into the last three verses of Isaiah 52 as well as the first verse of chapter 53.  This section serves as a sort of prologue to the servant song in the rest of chapter 53.  In these verses we see Christ’s stunning exaltation, His horrific disfigurement, and His work of purification.  These three elements are followed by Isaiah’s admission of the inexplicability of the message he is conveying.

The prophet begins in verse 13: Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.  Notice the repeated emphasis here.  Isaiah uses four distinct words in Hebrew to explain just how magnificent would be the servant’s glorification.  He says that the servant will prosper, He will be high, He will be lifted up, and He will be greatly exalted.  Now, as you might imagine these four words have similar meanings in Hebrew.  They are essentially synonyms.  There is some variation and nuance among them, to be sure, yet there is a harmony of meaning as well. 

Prosper has the idea of both success in one’s endeavors as well as an increase of understanding and comprehension.  High is literally to be elevated physically, on a platform or a mountain perhaps.  Lifted up has a slightly different emphasis, in that it is to be lifted up by another or carried.  And, greatly exalted, in contrast to high, is to be elevated in one’s own nature.

The question we should ask is why.  Why does Isaiah pile up all these synonyms one after another?  I think his purpose is to emphasize the greatness of God’s Servant.  Isaiah wants us to be very clear that this Servant will be elevated to the highest position possible, His status will exceed the rank of all others, and His glory will outshine the world itself.

And now things begin to get very strange indeed.  The transcendent exaltation of the Servant in verse 13 is only matched by His stunning humiliation in verse 14: Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.  To get at the meaning behind this verse we need to dig into a little bit of Israel’s historical interaction with God.  Two passages will help us here.  In Deuteronomy 7:7, Moses wrote to his countrymen: “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.”  The Hebrew nation did not start out as a strong and vibrant people.  They were the least of all families of the earth.  God deliberately chose the weakest among the tribes of man to set His favor upon.

It gets even more graphic in Ezekiel 16.  In verses 4 to 6, in addressing the Jews, God says: “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.  No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you.  Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.  When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’  Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’”

Do you see the horrific picture God is painting?  He describes Israel as essentially an ancient abortion.  In those days, there were no medical procedures to surgically murder a child in the womb of its mother.  So, if a baby was unwanted, the mother would come to term and deliver.  Then, the parents would take the newborn out into the woods, a field, or anywhere else that was remote and away from civilization.  They would leave the little one there to die.  That is exactly the picture God is giving of Israel when He chose them.  They were like a newborn.  Their umbilical cord was not cut.  They had not been washed with water to cleanse their skin or rubbed with salt as an antiseptic.  They were not even given any clothes.  They were unwanted, unloved, and abandoned in a field, squirming in the blood of their birth.

Now then, look again at the first line of Isaiah 52:14.  God says, of His Servant, that people would be astonished at Him just as they had been of Israel.  Actually, I think the New English Translation of the Bible is much better here: just as many were horrified by the sight of you.  That carries the force of meaning implied in this verse.  But, in the case of the Servant, what is it they would be horrified by?  They would be appalled at His appearance.  The Servant’s looks would be marred, or disfigured more than any other man.  Just how bad would His appearance be distorted?  We can tell by the force of the people’s reaction.  One commentary says it this way: “The Servant’s sufferings brought such a disfigurement that those who saw said not only, ‘Is this he?’ but ‘Is this human?’”

Now, before we go on, we need to stop and consider just how ridiculous this is.  We need to take off our evangelical, Christianized, Americanized glasses for a minute.  We who have perhaps been raised on stories of Christ along with our mother’s milk.  We who might take the truth of the gospel for granted.  Look at what the prophet is saying here.  It does not make any sense whatsoever.  First, he writes that God’s servant will be exalted.  He will be glorified to such an extreme level that Isaiah needed to say it four separate ways, with four different Hebrew synonyms.  But then, with his next breath, Isaiah turns around and says that this same Servant will be so horribly and brutally mutilated that He will not even look human anymore. 

In what obscure and bizarre universe does this sound plausible?  Is it any wonder that the first century Jews were completely confused and off base with their expectations of the Messiah?  I think sometimes we like to pile on the Jews, talking about how ignorant they were.  But honestly, would we be any different, short of supernatural revelation, with the ridiculous insanity of a Messianic prophecy like this one?

And, to top it off, Isaiah then writes, with the first line of verse 15: Thus He will sprinkle many nations.  The Israelites were quite familiar with this phrase.  Their Levitical sacrifical system under the Mosaic Law included copious amounts of blood.  The blood of sacrificed animals splashed as their throats were cut, the life blood of the animal overflowed the surface of the altar, poured down, and collected at the base.  The priests dipped branches of hyssop in the blood and sprinkled objects with it to consecrate them.  In many ways, ancient Judaism was a religion of blood.

The most prominent example of this was on the singular Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur in Hebrew, that occurred once each year.  On this special day, the high priest would take the blood of a sacrificial goat, dip his hyssop branch in it, and the enter the holy of holies inside the tent of meeting of the Tabernacle or Temple.  He would take the hyssop and use it to sprinkle the mercy seat, the cover that sat on top of the Ark of the Covenant and upon which the presence of God Himself rested in the midst of the people.  It was this blood, the blood of an innocent, spotless sacrifice that consecrated the mercy seat and provided atonement for the sins of the people.  Were it not for this sprinkling of blood, the holiness of God would engulf the people and destroy them because of their wicked natures and actions.

So, the Jews who read Isaiah knew exactly what he was talking about when he wrote that through these means the Servant would sprinkle the people.  In some incomprehensible way, the Servant’s exaltation and His humiliation together would provide an atonement, or a propitiation, for sins.  Furthermore, it was not only the Jews who could expect to be covered under this blood.  The Servant would sprinkle “many nations” with His blood. 

Again, I realize we who live after the advent of Christ in the 1^st century can see, with the benefit of hindsight, exactly what this means and how it played itself out.  We know that God’s Servant was God Himself, in the flesh, born as a Jewish man named Jesus in the first century.  We know that this man, Jesus, lived a sinless life and was perfect in every way that none of us is capable of.  We know that He went willingly to a horrific death on a Roman cross to pay the penalty for all of us.  We know that God, in His infinite holiness, demands such a payment of death as recompense for our terrible slandering of His character, that we produce just by merely existing in our sinfulness.  We know that placing our faith and trust in Christ, accepting the free gift of salvation, reconciles us to our Creator and guarantees us eternal life spent in His presence, basking in the warmth of His love and being eternally awestruck by the magnificence of His splendor.  Those of us who are Christians know all of this, and perhaps sometimes we take it for granted.  However, do not overlook how difficult it would have been for the Jews to make heads or tails out of this prophecy.  And, do not overlook how perplexing the message of the gospel continues to be, to the mind of sinful man.

In fact, I think Isaiah alluded to the difficulty of his message with what he wrote next: Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him.  Picture a king, sitting upon his throne.  Perhaps it is King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2, sitting in pomp and circumstance.  He is steaming with anger, because none of his so-called wise men, enchanters, and astrologers can tell him what his dream was, nor what it meant.  In walks a young Hebrew boy.  This upstart lad proceeds to unfold with exacting precision and clarity the very images in the king’s mind, that no one else had been privy to.  As Daniel speaks, I can imagine Nebuchadnezzar’s jaw slowly dropping in amazement, along with probably his entire court.  And then, perhaps, when he realizes his mouth is hanging open, he snaps it shut in surprise.  I think that is the image here.

But notice why Isaiah says that the kings will react in this way: for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.  Unlike Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar, people will not come to an understanding through the words of men.  The only way they will perceive the truth of the Servant is via things not even explained to them.  The explanation of humans, no matter how educated and sophisticated they are, will be incapable of providing illumination to the mind such that comprehension dawns.  In other words, Isaiah writes, his message about the Servant is so inexplicable that it cannot be understood.

I think that is exactly why the prophet wrote the first verse of chapter 53.  I think it serves as a hinge between the prologue of the Servant, here at the end of chapter 52, and the more detailed description of Him in the next chapter.  Verse 1 reads: Who has believed our message?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  The implied answer?  No one has believed the message.  To no one has the arm of the LORD been revealed.

God is so serious about helping us to see how confusing the message of the gospel is that He made it a central theme of the entire gospel of John.  In John 12:37, after Jesus had done countless incredible miracles right in the midst of the people, we find that: though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.  Lest we think this was an accident, and the people’s unbelief took God by surprise, look at the very next thing John wrote.  He quoted this same verse, Isaiah 53:1.  John 12:38 makes it clear: This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, who has believed our report?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”  Paul echoes his fellow Apostle John in Romans 10:16 by quoting Isaiah 53:1 yet again.

This response of hardhearted disbelief was not new to the prophet Isaiah.  In fact, it is by design.  Right from the beginning, God had revealed to him what the outcome of his ministry would be.  In Isaiah 6:9-10 God revealed the future to His prophet: “Go, and tell this people: Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.  Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.”

The Lord is so serious about making sure we understand this point that these verses are quoted in every gospel (Mt. 13:14-15, Mk. 4:12, Lk. 8:10, Jn. 12:40) as well as Acts (28:26-27) and Romans (11:8).  All of these verses point to the inability, short of grace, for Israel to believe in Christ.  But, this is not a condition exclusive to Jews.  We Gentiles share this racial inability to believe.

This is exactly why Paul described the gospel as utter folly when he wrote to the Corinthians.  1^st Corinthians 1:18-19 tells us: the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”  Again in verse 27: but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.  Why does He do this?  1^st Corinthians 1:29-30 gives us our answer: so that no man may boast before God.  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.

Now then, I have been hammering on this for several minutes now.  What is my point?  Am I trying to drive you to depression the week before Christmas?  No, not at all.  What I seek, and what I think Isaiah hoped for, was that through understanding the truth, that only God can open the eyes of the blind and make them see, we will enter into Christmas week by worshiping our Savior in gratitude not only for what He has done for us. 

But also, I believe we ought to be humbled as we realize that we do not deserve to be saved and we did not believe in Christ because of our own intelligence.  In fact, left to our own devices, we would reject Christ every single time, just like the Jews did.  I am convinced that, once we come to truly understand this, then we will burst with joy inexpressible for the wondrous revelation of Christ that God opened our minds to when He removed the scales of spiritual blindness from our eyes. 

I think if we embrace this doctrine then we will overflow with thankfulness, as David did in Psalm 138:1-3, a powerful prayer of thanksgiving: I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You before the gods.  I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.  On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul. 

The natural result of such appreciation should be amazement and wonder, as Paul expressed in Romans 11:33-36, one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  For who has known the mind of the LORD, or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever.  Amen.

Will you be thankful and worship the Lord for His priceless gift of salvation this Christmas?  If you have never known the riches of God’s grace and mercy, will you turn now to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and repentance?