God Sees Sinners in Black and White - Mar 9, 2008

May the undeserved love which comes from God be yours. May your hearts be filled with the peace which comes through Christ Jesus our Savior.

During Martin Luther’s time the Catholic Church falsely taught that Christ’s sacrifice was not enough to cover over all the sins of a person. The Catholic Church taught that to get rid of the sins Christ’s sacrifice didn’t cover, one must also to do specific acts of penance. If a believer didn’t get all their make-up work done before they died, then they had to go to a place called “purgatory” where their remaining sins were taken away through personal suffering.

The Catholic Encyclopedia describes purgatory as,

“…an intermediate state in which the departed souls can atone for unforgiven sins before receiving their final reward” (The Catholic Encyclopedia).

“…their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments…” (The Catholic Encyclopedia).

We might explain this false thinking with colors: God sees unbelieving sinners in black. God sees really good Christians in white. God sees not so good Christians in grey.

This thinking is thoroughly un-Biblical and therefore false. God does not see anybody as, “somewhat forgiven”. The innocent suffering of God’s own Son on the cross of Calvary completely paid the debt of all sinners. Those who trust in Jesus are dressed in the white of full forgiveness. Those who refuse Christ through unbelief remain dressed in the blackness of their own sins. There is no grey. There is no purgatory.

Today’s reading from God’s Word makes it very clear that God see sinners in black and white.

The prophet Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus was born. During Isaiah’s lifetime, God destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel because of their unbelief. They had expressed this unbelief through their continual idol worship.

Through His prophet Isaiah, God spoke a message of warning to the southern Kingdom of Judah. Their sinful behavior and faithless worship in God’s Temple had set them on the same path to God’s judgment. Today we read God’s warning to the people of Judah as recorded in…

Isaiah 1:10-20 (NIV)

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD,

you rulers of Sodom;

listen to the law of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

¹¹ “The multitude of your sacrifices—

what are they to me?” says the LORD.

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,

of rams and the fat of fattened animals;

I have no pleasure

in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

¹² When you come to appear before me,

who has asked this of you,

this trampling of my courts?

¹³ Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

¹⁴ Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts

my soul hates.

They have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even if you offer many prayers,

I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood;

¹⁶ wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds

out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,

¹⁷ learn to do right!

Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow.

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 as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the best from the land;

²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

▬

In the first five verses of our reading, God clearly describes His anger over the faithless worship that was going on in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The whole tone of this section is grim and black.

God begins His rebuke by addressing the people of Judah as, “you rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah”. Sodom and Gomorrah were cities that were utterly destroyed because they turned away from God and embraced their own sins.

The people of Judah had also turned away from God. Though they still brought sacrifices to God’s Temple, they had abandoned true worship. Their hearts were not involved as they went through the motions of their cold religion.

When asked where God pleasing worship takes place, Jesus responded by saying,

“…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24 NIV).

Without faith it is impossible to worship God, even if we were to bring all the money of the world as an offering. The people of Judah were certainly spending plenty of cash on their worship. They were sacrificing lots of animals on God’s altar. They were burning incense and holding festivals at God’s Temple. But all these were meaningless to God because they were not accompanied by a simple trust in God.

Because their worship was an empty shell, God says that His inmost being, His very soul, HATED their worship. That’s some striking and frightening communication from God! But what is more unsettling is how God talks about the festivals and celebrations that He had commanded.

All the worship events that the people of Judah were observing had originally been commanded by God. They were meant as times and events through which God could speak to His people and then hear their heartfelt response to Him. But God says that all these festivals had become a burden which He was tired of bearing. The false worship of Judah had worn God out. He was saddened by their fake worship.

Because they had closed their ears to His voice, God told them that He would now close His ears to their voices. As long as their folded hands remained full of the blood of their unrepentant sins, their prayers would remain unheard by God Almighty.

This is a timeless warning from God. In the book of Revelation, Jesus extended this same warning to the Christians worshipping in first century Ephesus. Jesus said,

“…You have forsaken your first love. ⁵Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Revelation 2:4-5 NIV).

Jesus was warning the Ephesian Christians not to stray away from the core of Bible teaching: Jesus is our Savior from sin. As Christians that is our first love. As the Ephesian Christians turned away from this Good News, their lives would show it, and God would eventually take away their church.

This warning still stand for us today. Look around at the churches of our time. So many churches that call themselves “Christian” either deny the Gospel of Christ or at least put the church’s focus on something other than sins forgiven through Christ.

The largest “Lutheran” church in this country, the ELCA, openly denies clear teachings of Scripture like the virgin birth. They also deny that Jesus rose from the dead. Where Christ is denied, worship is worthless, and sinners cannot truly be comforted. Retaining the title, “Lutheran” or even “Christian” does not guarantee faithfulness to our Savior’s saving message.

May the Holy Spirit keep the Good News of sins forgiven through Christ as the central gem in the crown of this church. And may our worship NEVER be a burden to God, but always the joyful song of His redeemed people.

▬

God did not send Isaiah only to preach a black message of condemnation to the people of Judah. In verses 16-18 of our text, God directs the people of Judah to turn away from their sins, so they might receive God’s forgiveness.

God told them,

“¹⁶ wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds

out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,

¹⁷ learn to do right!

Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow.

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 as crimson,

they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:16-18 NIV).

When I was in sixth grade, I used to clown around in class. When my teacher, Mrs. O’Donnell, would yell at me I’d respond with a quick, “Sooorry.” She would shoot back, “If you were really sorry, you wouldn’t do it.” In a way, she was right. True sorry-ness is followed with evidence of repentance.

John the baptizer told the Pharisees,

“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance...”(Luke 3:8 NIV).

When God told the people of Judah to “Stop doing wrong” and “learn to do right”, He was pointing them to the fruits of true repentance. He was telling them to stop embracing their sins and prove their sorriness by embracing the good things that God commanded. Things like seeking justice, encouraging people who were being oppressed, defending the needy. If the people of Judah repented of their sins, these good actions would serve as an outward confession of their inward repentance.

God pointed the people of Judah to repentance because true repentance is followed by full forgiveness.

In the book of First John it is written,

“…the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9 NIV).

Through the suffering and death of God’s Son, the sins of the repentant are covered over with the pure white of Christ’s righteousness. No longer does God see the black of faithless worship. No longer does God see the red of sin staining our hands. Through Christ, God sees us in white.

Did you know that it snowed on Mt. Calvary when Jesus was crucified? In drawings and paintings that help us visualize our Lord’s crucifixion we see dark clouds and flashes of lightning, but seldom do we see precipitation of any kind, especially not snow. And truth be told, none of the Gospel writers record anything about snow.

But that doesn’t change the fact that with every twinge of pain in Christ’s body there came down another flake of pure, white snow. It was a snowstorm, not just a flurry. We might even call it a blizzard. For when Jesus had felt all the pains of body and soul that our sins had earned, there over the blood red field of the world’s sinfulness lay a thick blanket of white. This snowy blanket of Christ’s suffering covered all the misspoken words and misshapen deeds that mankind had ever created. By the time the storm had subsided the snow was so deep, that not even the pudgy shapes of those evil things could be seen from above. All was smooth, and white, and pure, and new.

Perhaps you feel a reoccurring twinge of regret over some foolish word you once spoke. Perhaps you are saddened by some hurtful thing you once did. Remember the snow of Mt. Calvary. Even the outline of that sin in gone, buried in the avalanche of Christ’s suffering, covered over by the blanket of His righteousness.

“Come now, let us reason together,”

says the LORD.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;” (Isaiah 1:18 NIV).

And this gift is not only meant for us, it is also meant to be applied by us, to others.

Perhaps you have a hard time forgiving the foolish words directed your way by someone else. Perhaps you can’t seem to forget some hurtful thing someone else has done to you. Remember the snow of Mt. Calvary. To God, even the outline of those sins is gone, buried in the avalanche of Christ’s suffering, covered over by the blanket of His righteousness.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV).

▬

In the final words of our text, God says to the people of Judah,

“¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the best from the land;

²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 1:19-20 NIV)

With these words God made it abundantly clear to the people of Judah that He sees sinners in black and white. There were only two paths from their faithless worship. They could refuse God’s loving offer to cover over their sins, or they could turn around in repentance to feel the warm embrace of the forgiving God.

“That’s the way it is”, said the mouth of the LORD. And that’s the way it is today. Black and white. There is no grey of purgatory. There is no grey of partly forgiven. All is white in the Kingdom of Christ our Lord. Therefore, all thanks be to God for leading us out of the blackness of unbelief and covering over our sins with the white of full forgiveness in Christ.

Amen.

The Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

-Pastor Caleb Schaller