Climbing Out Of The Rut

I hate bumper stickers.

Not only are bumper stickers tacky, in my humble opinion of course, but their only intention is to poke you in the eye with a statement.  There is nothing engaging about a bumper sticker, there is nothing inviting.  I have not ever seen a bumper sticker that reads "Follow me if you need a friend and a free cup of coffee!  I'm a great listener!"

Christians have participated in the eye poking too.  Pastor Brian called it "Bumper Sticker Theology", the quick quip statement that is designed to put an end to a conversation.  We love these especially when it comes to the problem of sin:

• "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven!"
• "Just a sinner saved by grace!"
• "Christians ain't perfect, but Jesus is!"
• "T.G.I.F. Thank God I'm Forgiven!"

I am eternally grateful that my sins are forgiven, that God has chosen to not hold my wrongs against me, that Jesus once and for all ransomed my life from a living and eternal hell to life with Him for eternity; but what I am reading in the bible is causing me to wonder if I am still stuck in a rut of seeing myself for who I once was, and not who I now am.

Isaiah 6 gives us a glimpse of powerful interaction between God and Isaiah.  Isaiah was taken in a vision to the throne of God.  The language is powerful and captivating, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple.  Above Him stood the seraphim.  Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!"  And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him who called, and the house was filled with smoke."  Isaiah's natural response was, "And I said: 'Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'"

I must say this as a profound understatement, I can identify with Isaiah.  Were I to come face to face with the unveiled glory of God, "Woe is me!" would not even begin to communicate the intensity of the situation.  The bible is full of stories of encounters with God where this is the exact response in every instance; when God reveals Himself, I too am revealed.  But listen to what happens next, "Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.  And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

Wait........THAT'S IT????  I know there is some deep significance in the burning coal that I am still wanting to understand, but that's it???

"Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

One thing that has become extremely evident to me is that God is quick and eager to forgive sin and not hold it against us, it is us who hang on to the memory of who we once were, and by staying in this rut we have a tendency to continue repeating the same mistakes over and over.  Look at these verses:

• The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities...as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us...For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. - Psalm 103
• And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven." - Mark 2:5
• I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. - I John 2:12

It is time to climb out of the rut.  It is time to embrace the new life that has been made available to us.  It is time to begin to learn to see ourselves as new.  Paul put it this way in II Corinthians 5, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

So what is waiting for us out of the rut?  Back to Isaiah 6, "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  Then I said, "Here am I!  Send me."  And He said, "Go..."

What is waiting for us out of the rut is new life, life from above, the life of the ages, eternal life.

I may not be perfect, just forgiven, but that is not the point, and it certainly is no excuse to not be living the life from above.  I am done with that rut.

I am a new creation in Christ.