Let us reason together

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Bringing good news to most people is easy. You tell them and then they are happy. But on occasion, bringing good news to someone who is skeptical or even cynical can be very challenging. “That just cannot be the truth” is what we sometimes hear from the recipient of good news.

As we go about our daily lives we may encounter people who just do not get it. By get it, I mean the concept of forgiveness freely given in Jesus Christ. It’s a foreign concept. From their perspective, forgiveness must be earned. After all, how can something be given that is not earned.  In most other aspects of their lives, the always having to earn something holds true. So why should forgiveness not follow that same pattern. It is an interesting argument.  It is also an argument that many in our community hold as a premise of their faith.  Sadly, that is not only a flawed outlook, it is a spiritually deadly perspective.  For at the heart of that argument is one big problem. If you have to earn forgiveness, what was accomplished with Jesus Christ dying on the cross and His resurrection?  His own words as captured in John 19:30 “It is finished.”  And so much was accomplished with his death and resurrection that some cannot, or will not, accept the totality of the accomplishment.  The concept of rejecting grace, to those who grasp onto and freely accept the awesome gift, is confusing. The rejection flies in the face of so much of what is in fact written in the Old and New testaments. Yet in spite of what is written, it is rejected.  The sacrifice of Christ is belittled and minimized. It is a sad, yet all too often true fact for many. Yet for Christians we say with our mouths what is written in Psalms 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of you goodness, O Lord!   And we are confident, because of Jesus Christ that the answer we receive is straight from Isaiah 1:18 Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  That is what we cling to, the truth that is in Jesus Christ, not a rationalization from modern man. It is finished! Enough said.

PRAYER: Almighty God, too many in our world reject Your gift of grace. Too many try to follow a different path from the path You have laid out for all believers. Your path leads to life everlasting. Their path leads to despair and spiritual death. Father, give us the words, Your words to speak to the lost. Guide us to reach out in love to all who would seek their own way. This we ask in the name of Your Son who died to set all men free from the death of sin, Amen.