Isaiah 53:1-3: “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 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 forsaken 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.” (NASB)
Just a thought: What an amazing word portrait of Jesus taken from God’s Word! How it so differs from all the artist depictions we see today. The deliverer of all mankind – God in flesh had no stately form, nor an appearance that would turn anyone’s head. Yet, this is the form – the tent God chose to live in during His brief earthly visit. Furthermore, Immanuel – Jesus was born in an animal’s cave, laid in an animal’s feeding trough, and raised in Nazareth, the slum area of their times. Indeed, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
The forerunner for God – for Jesus, John the Baptist, not groomed, nor polished, but an outcast from the general public. He lived on wild honey and locust, and covered himself in a burlap type of fabric made from camel’s hair. A pitiful sight indeed!
Do you get a picture that God did not want to use this world’s so called attractiveness to draw people unto Himself? Indeed, who has believed our message? Yet, today we try to use the attractiveness of this world to draw people unto God’s salvation. Did God get it wrong, or do we have it wrong? Yes, we have it wrong. Using God’s way our (Christian) numbers will likely go down, but we have to ask ourselves this question: By using our ways, are our numbers now just an illusion? Well, the overall fruit of today’s church seems to indeed confirm an illusion as it conforms to the world much more than it conforms to holiness.
Maybe, just maybe, we should return to the ways of our Lord and rely totally on the Holy Spirit to draw mankind unto Him – to convict the world of sin – to convict the world of righteousness – to convict the world of judgment? Right now we seem to be offering people two different roads to Calvary – to salvation. One paved by the world with the pride of life, and the other paved by the Holy Spirit with contrition. However, there is truly only one road which will bring genuine salvation! John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, used the road paved by the Holy Spirit with contrition – a baptism of repentance.
Are we losing our saltiness? Is darkness coming in like a flood? Yes! Then maybe it’s because we are pointing people to the wrong road in order to fill our churches with numbers – in order to pay our bills so we can keep up our worldly attractiveness. What a vicious and insidious trap to keep the “Church” ineffective in winning souls! Do we want to count numbers – count heads, or do we want genuine salvations? If it’s genuine salvation, then we must come to understand the following verses: Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” (NASB) The Christian must never confuse numbers with success. The only way we have to tell a good tree from a bad tree is its fruit.
Prayer: My God – my Father, if in my zeal to see loved ones saved I’ve used the means of this world to draw mankind to You, please forgive me. If I have, then at best all I have done is to have placed myself within an illusion to soothe my breaking heart. No longer do I want to live in an illusion. I need to see the truth so I can work effectively for You. I must no longer use a whitewash to say all is well – to say peace when there is no peace. Salvation can only be found through the cross – our cross – my cross. Not pleasant, nor of this world, but then again, salvation is not of this world. God, forgive us for whitewashing, for indeed, today’s “Church” at-large appears in so many ways to be like this world, i.e., not holy. Help me, through Your Holy Spirit, to be yet another voice in this spiritual wilderness saying: “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14-17) Amen and Amen!
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