Isaiah 62:1-64:12 How to read the Bible when you don't like what you're reading: Jesus will crush his enemies

Isaiah 62:1-64:12

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Today I want to take you behind the scenes – a ”making of” – of preparing a sermon. Welcome to my world, at least on Thursday’s and Friday’s. What I do Monday-Wednesday is accounting – be grateful I’m not giving you a behind the scenes on that!

So, when you’ve got a text like Isaiah 62-64 how do you go about preparing to preach it?

The first step in preparing a sermon is to read the text. Not the commentaries. Not the latest article on Facebook to pop up on this topic or this book. But to read the text. Why? Because the text is inspired by God. It is God’s word. And everything else is uninspired. Everything else is corrupted by sin. Only the Bible is written by God for us so that we can know him in all his fullness.

So we start by reading, just like we’ve done.

And then we read it again, more carefully. Look for surprises. Look for questions. Look for big ideas.
That sounds familiar, yes. This is what we do in Bible study! This is in fact how we read any text we want to understand. Especially those written from a different cultural viewpoint, and especially those which disagree with us. The Bible is both of those. It’s written to Ancient Jews. And it often disagrees with us!

Here’s my text.

Here’s some of the surprises and questions.

62:1 Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.

Who’s speaking? Is it Isaiah? Is it Jesus (carrying on from chapter 61)? Is it the Lord, speaking from Heaven?

Whoever it is, He is speaking with great power. And he will not stop until Jerusalem is holy, until Israel is restored, until the people of God are made righteous. It is someone who loves Israel. So, these could very well be Isaiah’s words – but they are also the words of the Servant King, the words of Jesus, the one who fulfilled Isaiah 61 “The Lord has anointed me to preach good news.”
Why? Because there is amazing grace here. Did you notice it? Eg v5 Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. And that’s a surprise, isn’t it? WHY? Why does God love his people? Why does God claim them as his bride.

If you don’t ask that question, you’ll miss it. You’ll miss the glory. You’ll miss the astounding grace. You’ll just go, meh, that’s what God does. Yes it IS what God does – so be astounded, be amazed! That’s why this first part QUESTION is so important. Why will God rejoice over his people? Because they’ve been really good? Because they repented? Because they followed the rules really well? No. Because God has decided to have mercy. Because Jesus announced the day of the Lord’s favour. (61:2) That is now.

So the first surprise is the love of God for his people. The mercy that he has on rebellious people. Today is the day of the Lord’s favour. I fact, turn back to 61:1-2. Remember last week? This is what Jesus quoted in the synagogue (the Jewish church) in his home town: The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD’s favour has come,

So, context control! Yes, our first surprise is right – God really does love his people. He really has come to save us.

But the second surprise is the sudden violence in 63:1-6 where the Lord is covered in blood from crushing his enemies. It is a big puzzle, a big surprise, a big question mark – but it is also, we have found one of the BI GIDEAS in theses chapters and the book as a whole: Jesus the warrior.

Read those verses again and feel the weight of them. Let it hit you between the eyes. This is our God. Woah.

63:1-6 Who is this who comes from Edom (one of the enemies of Israel), from the city of Bozrah (the capital of Edom), with his clothing stained red? Who is this in royal robes, marching in his great strength? “It is I, the Lord, announcing your salvation! It is I, the Lord, who has the power to save!” 2 Why are your clothes so red, as if you have been treading out grapes? 3 “I have been treading the winepress alone; no one was there to help me. In my anger I have trampled my enemies as if they were grapes. In my fury I have trampled my foes. Their blood has stained my clothes. 4 For the time has come for me to avenge my people, to ransom them from their oppressors. 5 I was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So I myself stepped in to save them with my strong arm, and my wrath sustained me. 6 I crushed the nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground, spilling their blood upon the earth.”

Good grief! Is this the God we know and love? Is this God the gentleman? God who is full of love? God who accepts everyone? Who is always fair and just? Is this really gentle Jesus meek and mild?

The difficulty with preaching is this: I have an idea of God in my mind. A way I like to think about God. But in preparing a sermon I cannot preach to you my version of God. I must preach God’s version of God. And in my experience he is always more out of control, wilder, bigger, scarier than my version of him.
And it’s the same for all of us if we want to read the Bible properly and really know God. We must allow the text to change our picture of God.

A big problem is that our idea of God comes not from the Bible but from our culture around us. What does our culture say God should be and shouldn’t be? It affects us more than we know.

How do we deal with a passage like this? It wrecks us because it ruins our idea of God. And our idea of ourselves.

In order for us to be good Bible readers we need to understand our cultural bias. So we don’t read what we want to be there, but read what’s actually there.

So, what does our culture say about God and about us?

Let’s start with ourselves. Because that’s what we’re most interested in. What do we think about ourselves? We are inherently good. Not perfect, but pretty decent. It is outrageous that God does not accept us. Totally unfair that God sends us to hell. Punishment does not fit the crime. We do not think of ourselves as sinners. Sinners are other people, certainly not me.

This is because we don’t understand that God’s standard is perfection. That’s partly what holiness means: absolute perfection. Absolute goodness. But we think that’s unreasonable. Perfection is unreasonable. When Chinese parents drive their children or Russia drive their gymnasts to be perfect we think hey, slow down. So when God says be perfect. Uh-oh.

And of course Hell doesn’t exist. That’s far too unreasonable. Maybe Hitler is there. And a few Islamic State guys. But no-one else. Fire & brimstone seems childish.

Our movies though reveal another side. When Liam Neeson’s daughter in Taken gets kidnapped – he goes all out and murders loads of criminals involved in the sex trade. And we’re all woohoo! Justice.
Or in Avengers when the alien baddies get killed by our heroes. With a nuclear bomb! Oh well they’re aliens.
But we understand the need to be rescued from evil. When there’s evil in the world we want justice.
But note we are always innocent. We’re never the ones doing the evil. Bad news – the Bible says that we’re the evil ones.

Well, that’s what we think about ourselves. The good. The decent. The innocent. I’ve heard many times “I thought I was good, until I started reading the Book”. One of our members said that a few weeks ago! We don’t believe we are sinners, rebels against God.

But what do we believe about God?

God is a kindly old grandfather, who says tut-tut to our sins, but will really let us all in to paradise anyway, because hey, we’re basically good people. Maybe not Hitler though. Maybe he shouldn’t be let in. Anyway, the Bible says “God wants everybody to be saved” so they will be, right? The Bible says it so it must be true.

We don’t believe God is sovereign. I determine my life. I have free will, and that is what makes me human. It is the creed of humanism – har du lyst, har du lov (så lenge det ikke skade andre). Do what you want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. And so there is no room for the God of the Bible who is in control of my life.

We also don’t believe in God as judge. I am my own judge. The only opinion that matters is mine. On Thursday at the school concert a young girl was wearing a t-shirt that said “I complete me”.
In the movie Frozen the heroine, Elsa, ends up saving herself. No-one else saved her. She did it. Her own character was what saved her in the end. Our culture says you do not need a rescuer (Jesus) you can save yourself. God cannot judge you, only you can judge yourself.

How does this compare to what we’ve just read?

Couldn’t be further apart! And so our temptation is to make God a bit less holy, a bit less scary, ourselves a bit better, a bit bigger, a bit more like God. Every cult, false religion, has a small God. You can win him over. Do this, do that and he’ll like you. JW’s, Iglesio ni Christo, Islam, Hindism, even atheism although there the “God” is me. Just do these things and you can win God’s favour. The God of the Bible? You cannot win his favour. You cannot impress God. Look at 64:6! We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Even the good things we do are worthless – our goodness is like dirty rags. Literally the word there is menstrual cloths – that is pads or tampons. You really think you can impress God with your goodness. I’m a decent guy! Hey look God here’s a load of used tampons – are you impressed. It’s shocking language because it’s mean to shock us, wake us up! It’s meant to blast our cultural bias right away.

Our culture creates a God like ourselves – just slightly bigger. He has a bit more power, but not all-powerful. He’s a bit better than us, but not holy, not blindingly, frighteningly perfect. He demands nothing of us. Unlike the God of the Bible who demands obedience. As Jesus said: if you love me you’ll obey my commands. If you want to follow me pick up your cross – crucify yourselves daily and give up your lives for me. Would our Norwegian “God” ever ask that?!

No wonder we struggle when the Bible says that God is coming as judge – to judge us! That his judgement is that we have fallen short, and belong in hell. And that he’s coming to trample us like grapes in his winepress.

So what do you do as a preacher or indeed just as a reader of the Bible when you come to verses like these? What do you do with 63:1-6?

I know. Just don’t read them. Just don’t read the Bible. Many of us don’t. Or just read the “nice” bits. Or we read the Bible lazily. We read without really thinking about what we read. We read what we want to be there, rather than what’s there.
That’s what we do isn’t it? How many of us here do exactly that?
Examine yourself here. If you don’t read the Bible or you only read the bits you like... is it because you are hanging onto your culture, your false view of God – an idol, rather than the true and living God.

It’s much easier if we don’t read the Bible or just read bit of it, because then we can make God whatever we want him to be. That’s what the Jehovah’s Witnesses do. And the Mormons. And unfortunately, many, many Christians. Including us.

So, those are the puzzles, the surprises, the question marks. Ok. So now that we’ve battled our culture we can see what these verses really tell us. We can get to the big picture. What are some of the big ideas in the passage, and what is its overall message?

62:1-12, the whole chapter, is God’s promise to rescue his people and give them a glorious future. Made righteous, not forsaken, a royal wedding. He will place watchmen on the walls who will cry out day and night to the Lord , praying, until he keeps his promise. He will not forget. HE will redeem, save, rescue his people.

And this is certain. Because he is the sovereign, AWESOME God of the Bible – BIG not small. Because we’ve seen time and time again that when he says something it happens. We know: he will redeem his people. He will rescue his people. If he was not sovereign it would just be wishful thinking. I HOPE I can rescue my people.

See, we like the God can rescue us part, but we don’t like the God is sovereign part – but God’s promises are meaningless, worthless, if he is not sovereign. If we want God’s rescue, if we want to know the future is secure that heaven awaits, that the world will be remade, that Jesus will come back – if we want all of that, we have to accept his sovereignty. Otherwise he has no power to make things happen! But we know he does because of the Old Testament stories. Because of Isaiah. How often do we read “ I, the Lord, have said this”. He wil rescue his people.

And we also know that God will take revenge on his enemies. 63:1-6. Why is this here? Because judgement is the flip side of salvation. There is no salvation without judgement. It is one and the same action. God comes down – you either cry to him for mercy – and he will save you – or stand against him – and he will crush you. Are you one of his people or not.

Again, God is sovereign to judge. Judgement will happen. Again, that’s not something we particularly like. But actually, we should. Because it means that evil will not have the last word. Evil will not overcome. He will have the last word.

I read on Wednesday evening in the newspaper that Islamic State just burned alive 19 Yazidi girls for refusing to be sex slaves. I read another article about two of these women who were kidnapped by IS and what they went through – and the men who are risking their lives to rescue them. That’s just one event, in one small part of the world. Stuff like that is going on everywhere. We live in an evil and ugly world. But evil will not win.

Because God is sovereign. Because God is taking care of them now. No-one escapes. Everybody dies and will stand before the fury of the righteous judge. Light so bright you cannot look at it. Remember Isaiah’s cry when he saw the Lord “I am doomed”. And Isaiah WAS a “good” man. But he was doomed. Filthy rags do not belong in the throne room.

So, application. What do we do with this chapter?

If we read the Bible lazily. If we read with our cultural blinkers on. What will our application be?

Work hard! Impress God. By being a bit better. By choosing to be a nice person. That’s our default “gospel” that we have.

And that’s completely wrong.

Thankfully Isaiah shows us what our reaction should be, what our application should be: a prayer of thanks and asking for mercy.

63:7 to the end of 64 is one long prayer.

I want us particularly to note his reaction to Jesus the warrior God in v7. 7 I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love. I will praise the Lord for all he has done. I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel (His chosen people), which he has granted according to his mercy and love. Remember that Isaiah writes this inspired by the Holy Spirit. So He, the Spirit is also teaching us how we are to respond to God’s judgement on his enemies: “I will tell of his unfailing love”.

Isaiah then goes through and remembers all the times God has faithfully rescued his people in the past, even though they rebelled and sinned against him. God of mercy.
And so, because God is merciful to sinners, he is so bold to ask again “Lord, remember us. Lord, save us.” 15 Lord, look down from heaven; look from your holy, glorious home, and see us. Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf? Where are your mercy and compassion now? 16 Surely you are still our Father!

Amen we cry. Lord, you are still our Father because of your great mercy. We do not trust in our own goodness – even our best good works are filthy rags before you the holy, almighty God. We are weak, we are small, we are hard pressed. Is 64 Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How Himingen and Gaustatoppen would quake in your presence!

Let us cry out to mercy to the Lord, and ask him to help us, remember us. Our God will come in salvation or in judgement. Let us plead with him to come to us in mercy. Let us plead with him for Notodden, for Norway.

Let us stand and pray v5-9 Let us make it our prayer. 5 You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways. But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly. We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved? 6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. 7 Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins. 8 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand. 9 Don’t be so angry with us, Lord. Please don’t remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people.

Colossians 3:1-17 Anger, war, malicious behaviour, lying...and Christ.

Colossians 3:1-17

One of the best days in my Granddad’s life was the day he was dismissed from the British Army after World War 2. No more marching. No more fighting. No more war. No more standing to attention. No more of the Sergeant shouting and screaming and yelling at them. Free. He was free.
Walking away after he was dismissed, he saw his sergeant approaching. Immediately his arms went straight at his sides, his chest went out, his whole posture stiffened and changed as he went to attention and his hand was ready to salute.
And then he remembered. “I’m free”.
And all the attention went out of his body, his hands went in his pockets, and he whistled a happy tune. The sergeant was furious, his face turning bright red, looking like he was about to burst – but his rage was powerless. He had no authority.

How often do we stiffen to attention and salute and obey the old sinful nature within us? How often do we forget that we are free, and keep living the old way? We live like we’re in the Army, instead of living as free men.

Brothers and sisters, live as free men and women. Live as those who have been set free by Christ. Why go back to the old way of living? Why listen to the world, your own sinful desires, and the devil? Why allow yourself to be ruled by the old nature?

We have died to that old life. It no longer rules over us: it is dead. We are alive to Christ. As we see in this passage, death is the pathway to life. And only when we understand that, can we start to live like Christ.

1. Death leads to life

2. Live for Christ: anger does not rule you

3. Live for Christ: be like him (Put on the new nature)

1. Death leads to life

3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. 5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you

Christian, you are dead. So live like it! You are dead to the old life, alive to the new, the new life of Christ. You have been raised to life like Jesus, perfect, holy, full of love and compassion and righteousness. You are now tender-hearted, kind, humble, gentle, patient, forgiving, loving, at peace (v12-15). That is who we are in Christ. That is what we were made to be. Imagine a society like that!! That is what the new creation will be like one day. We will, all of us, be like Jesus.

So let us lift up our eyes to heaven. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

And if we are looking up to heaven, our vision filled with Christ, then we will see our sin as the dirty enemy it truly is. In the presence of Christ Almighty do you want your mind to be full of lust? In Him, can you lie? With Him by your side can you be full of rage?

5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.

Last week we dealt with these verses. If you weren’t here, download it listen to it, particularly if you struggle with sexual sin. In other words: all of us! No matter what your sexual sin, your sexual struggle, you are not judged here. You are welcome here. There are things in our past we are ashamed of, just like you. But you know what. We have been declared holy and blameless. Our sins have been confessed and forgiven. We have made right and asked for forgiveness where we have had to make right and ask for forgiveness.

God does not call the holy, but the broken. That is why Jesus came. You cannot deal with your sin. But he can, and has.
So if you are a sexual sinner, you are welcome here. Actually, let me correct that: you are a sexual sinner, and you are welcome here. You are among friends. And we urge you, turn to Christ – he is the only one who can wash away your sins, set you free from addiction to your bodily urges. Only he is a better vision.

There is no room for sexual sin in the Christian, so put it to death. There is no room for greed in the Christian, so strip it off. Greed says “I’m worshipping something else. I’m looking to this thing to satisfy me” – instead of looking to Christ. Strip it off, put it to death. And if that means you close your eyes during the adverts and avoid the shopping mall and stop looking on finn.no then good for you. Do whatever you need to do to get rid of greed in your life. That goes for food too. We probably all of us here eat too much and exercise too little. I know I do. Greedy little piggy. Look to Christ, not to food to satisfy.

We must put to death these things, brothers and sisters, because they belong to the old life – and we have died to that old life. We must not go back under the authority of the Sergeant, standing to attention, obeying his every whim. We are free! Let’s live as free men. No sexual sin, no impurity, no lust, no evil desires, no greed for we have found what is real, what truly satisfies.

Let Christ rule your sex life, you thoughts and actions. Let him fill your needs and lead you away from greed. We have died to that old life, and live for Christ. Death leads to life.

2. Live for Christ: anger does not rule you

7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behaviour, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

Paul now changes the picture from death/life to clothing: stripping off and putting on. Rip off the old life, put on the new life of Christ. And part of what belongs to the old life is anger and rage. Rage. That fury which bubbles underneath the surface in all of us, just looking for an excuse to come out.

We have a problem with anger, rage and malicious behaviour. These come so naturally, so easily to us.

My children regularly disagree. “I say Kaleb, would you mind terribly giving back that toy that you just took from my hand.” “Certainly, just as soon as you stop driving it into my foot and messing up my game.” “Oh, I am so sorry, I do apologise”. Is not how things normally go. Things escalate rapidly: Stop it! No, YOU stop it. Give it back! Not if you don’t stop it! No! Yes! Give it! Nyahh, nyahh! Graaaaaah! AAAAAAAHHH! And enraged they fly at each other grabbing and hitting and kicking.

Now what’s remarkable about that picture is that we’ve never taught them that. We’ve never sat them down and said “Now, first you yell and scream, then you go red in the face, then you insult him, and then you hit her there, and...” No, we say the opposite time and time again. But blind rage comes so easily to us. Revenge. Maliciousness – because they deserve it. Kids fighting over toys is one thing, and we shake our heads and go “huh, kids” – but we adults do the same, and it becomes deadly serious. Hamas shoots rockets at Israel, and Israel hits back. Both sides enraged by the other, until the actions and reactions leave thousands dead and thousands more wounded. In Mosul Muslim warriors are enraged at the “blasphemy” of Christians and Shia Muslims, and run rampage through the town murdering anyone who stands in their way, and justifying it through selected suras in the Khoran. Our anger is the just anger of Allah they say, while holding up the heads of innocents.
How is this possible? How can ordinary men and women be so easily converted into murderous lunatics, so full of rage and anger against their fellow humans?
The Nazis managed to turn ordinary Germans into murderers. They would be sitting down to a pleasant meal with their family only a few hours after savagely beating, stripping, and gassing Jews.
And here we have our own Anders Bering Breivik, so enraged by the policies of the Arbeiderpartiet that he plans and executes the cold-blooded murder of children and teenagers – and to this day thinks his actions are justified, in fact, good, instead of monstrously evil.

There is something wrong deep within us.

And I say “us” because we are just the same. The same anger, the same rage burns in us, just in more socially acceptable ways. The guys cuts us off on the road, and we fly into a rage. At work, we complain about our colleagues or our boss behind their back, all the while presenting a fake smile to them. And then we mistreat those under our authority. Maybe we take out our anger on them, using cutting words – slander, malicious behaviour, lies. Whatever it takes to build us up and to tear them down.

Now this might sound way too extreme. Seriously, you’re comparing me snapping angrily at a bad driver to..to murder? Really? Well, let’s take us out of a situation where irrational anger is frowned upon and socially unacceptable and put us in a group baying for blood in front of someone we intensely dislike. The crowd is shouting, egging us on – glory awaits in giving in to our anger, our hate – and if we don’t we will be an outcast, disloyal to the cause, shunned perhaps even beaten or killed. You still think you wouldn’t give in to your rage? You still think you’re so peaceful?

In 1994 the country of Rwanda exploded into bloodshed as ordinary people turned on their neighbours and murdered them because they were of a different tribe. Doctors let patients die, teachers murdered their students… over half a million people died in less than 100 days.

What is wrong with us? It’s sin. The root of this anger, this rage that flares up so quickly, is idolatry. Idolatry of self. “I believe I am God” is the root problem. That is what sin is: replacing God with something else (most often me). And when people do not do, say, or believe what I do, say or believe. How dare you disagree with me? How dare you get in my way? How dare you have a different opinion? Feel my wrath.

Someone once said “What would happen if you put a weapon in the hand of a two-year old in a temper tantrum?”.

7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behaviour, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

Strip off the anger, put on the new man. As the words are about to flood out, pray! Say, Lord, I hate this person right now, please help me to love them, please help me to see them with your eyes.

Strip off the old. Put on the new.

3. Live for Christ: be like him (Put on the new nature)

10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. 12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

CS Lewis once described Christianity as a renovation of a house. He compares our lives to a run-down house in need of repairs. At the beginning, you can see him fixing up the roof, and replacing windows and fixing the pipes – all good things, and you feel better. But then he starts tearing down walls, and digging new foundations, and putting up a whole new wing over there, and lifting the roof off to put a new floor – and it’s painful! It hurts. It’s HARD! You see, you thought you were just going to be a nice little garden cottage – but Jesus is transforming you into a palace. Why? Because it’s his house, and he’s the King.

Being a little bit better is insulting to the King. We are not called to be slightly nicer than everybody else. That’s religion. That’s a self-help program. That’s a waste of time – chapter 2 told us that. Christianity is a program of perfection, of pure holiness. It is utterly extreme in its demands. We are not called to be better. We are called to be exactly. Like. Jesus.

10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

A while ago there were little bangles that really popular with WWJD on them: “What would Jesus do”. They were a little bit silly, I suppose, but they really got to the heart of this truth: that we are to be like Christ in everything we do. Look at v17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
In everything we do. We are not to be like each other, or like this church group or that type of Christian. But we are to be like Christ. He is the standard, he is the goal. Because one day we will be with him, in his very presence. His holiness burns like the noonday sun, his righteousness a blazing fire. And anyone who is not perfect will be destroyed in his presence. Remember the Temple in the Old Testament, how no-one could go in to God except the High Priest and even he had to first be made holy through lots of sacrifices and elaborate rituals. How not even Moses could see God’s face without being destroyed? How Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark of God’s Covenant as it was about to fall off the wagon it was on – and was struck down dead because he was unholy and the Ark was holy?

We will be in the presence of the Living God, in his terrifying holiness! And we will be seated on his lap, our Abba, our Daddy, because he who began the good work in us will complete it. We will be made holy. We are declared holy. We are being made holy. Be like Christ.

We have died to our old life, and now live for Christ. Our new life is Christ’s life, and we are being made like him. That is our goal, our destiny. That is the Holy Spirit’s work within us.

So, no more sexual immorality, but love. No lust, but kindness. Not evil desires and malicious behaviour, but mercy and gentleness. Not anger and rage but patience, harmony, and forgiveness. Not greed, but thankfulness.

What would Jesus do? Well, often we know exactly what Jesus would do. My Dad wore the bangle he said to ask not what would Jesus do, but what will Jack do?
This week, before you act, before you speak, ask yourself what would Christ say? What would Christ do? And then do that.