Tag Archives: forgiveness

Though Your Sins are Like Scarlet Only Christ Can Atone :: Isaiah 1:18-20

I am in the middle of reading three different reading plans from YouVersion (I rotate reading from one particular plan each day), and today in the Canonical Plan started the book of Isaiah. I put off starting the book for a week or two because of its depth and heaviness, but today was the day. This is one of my favorite Old Testament books, probably because it is one that I understand the least, but three verses really stuck with me, Isaiah 1:18, 19, and 20.

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

At first I just read that above and moved on. I love that “let us reason together,” but if we stop there we miss the point. There is a decision to be made for that statement to come to pass on our lives, and it’s from verse 18, “if you are willing and obedient,” and verse 19, “but if you refuse and rebel.”

The decision is for Christ, and without Christ, verse 18 will never come to pass. The word from the Lord is a simple, yet a profound, if-then statement. Our sins will be forgiven if we trust and obey. This of course is not a full and complete exegetical look at verse 18-20, but at the start of this Holy Week, the incredible fact of Isaiah and the rest of Scripture is it all points to the saving work of Christ, done on the cross, which we traditionally observe starting on Thursday with a Maundy Thursday prayer vigil (see last year) followed by Good Friday.

Poisoning Toomer's Live Oaks in Auburn Senseless but Requires Forgiveness

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I was quite saddened yesterday when I found out (who we now allegedly know as) Harvey Updyke from Dadeville (here on Facebook) had deliberately poisoned the Toomer’s Oaks in Auburn with a Dow Agroscience called Spike 80 DF (PDF of what this chemical is and does) “in retaliation for a 1983 event when Auburn students rolled the trees to celebrate the death of Alabama coaching legend Paul “Bear” Bryant.”

According to the Paul Finebaum show, (audio of caller is here) he had deliberately poisoned the Toomer’s Live Oaks in Auburn some time prior to the January 27th phone call. The OANews is now reporting on Updyke’s arrest, but the reaction across the Internet from Facebook and Twitter has been almost incalculable (see 16,000+ Toomer’s Tree Hug Saturday Ralley on Facebook for starters).

At the time I heard about this I couldn’t think of a more senseless and baseless act of vandalism that could never be punished to the extent of the damaged caused, especially when you count the hundreds of thousands of Auburn fans that love the Toomer’s Live Oaks. But, once again we can see this is nothing new under the sun. This very same thing happened to the University of Texas in Austin to their Treaty Oak in 1989. While I can’t say it’s the same, it makes me wonder if we at Auburn were destined to repeat this history?

I have a special tree here on my property I sit under and read during the summer, and have blogged about over and over again. If someone purposely had killed that tree it would have been quite upsetting. But for Auburn fans, how do you process something like this, the killing of something so special, something that has such key symbolic significance to Auburn itself? Auburn released a statement yesterday, where the president addressed this question.

We will take every step we can to save the Toomer’s oaks, which have been the home of countless celebrations and a symbol of the Auburn spirit for generations of Auburn students, fans, alumni and the community,” said University President Jay Gogue.

Gogue asked members of the Auburn Family to “continue to be ‘All In’ in upholding its reputation for class” and not allow anger to be expressed inappropriately or undeservedly.

“It is understandable to feel outrage in reaction to a malicious act of vandalism,” Gogue said. “However, we should live up to the example we set in becoming national champions and the beliefs expressed in our Auburn Creed. Individuals act alone, not on behalf of anyone or any place, and all universities are vulnerable to and condemn such reprehensible acts.

I know some crazy fan somewhere is not going to take that to heart but the example, rooted in Auburn’s Creed from 1945 says many great things about class and dignity of fellow people. Of course it doesn’t directly address the issue of forgiveness, (mainly because this is a creed for a secular, publicly funded university, not a religious organization) which is really what is needed here. This could be a huge, long, drawn out, post on the sinful nature of man, how we go about showing forgiveness, and why someone would do such a thing, but in the end, we as Christians are called to love one another as Christ loved the church, and this includes Harvey Updyke of Dadeville.

That means forgiving, without malice in our hearts, knowing all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, not just one man but all of us. We are now given the opportunity to show how a forgiving heart acts and reacts when hurt, even if Updyke is not remorseful or repentant himself.

I assume that now here in Auburn anyway, we can move away from the who done it aspect of the trees and focus more on the preservation or the Toomer’s Oaks or what to do if and when they do die. Here are some photos below I took of the Toomer’s Oaks as they sit today, bathed in bright February sunshine, on a gorgeous day in the south.

I will say that these are just trees. Very special trees When I went down to Toomer’s Corner today it was a zoo. The perspective on what happened in some respect has been totally lost. These are beloved trees that symbolize much of what is great about Auburn, but if we could channel this money, effort, and energy into something productive it would be amazing. Just a thought.

Additional current information related to the post above.

A Few News Reports on the Topic

Sins No Longer Remembered for Judgment, Romans 2

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This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post on Romans chapter 2. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (see Blogger Small Group Rules/Guidlelines). Right now we are a few weeks into the group, which started in James.

No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.

A Little Background on Romans 2

This time I am going to do something a little different and instead of going verse by verse I am going to take the chapter as a whole and discuss one or two points. Romans is so packed full it is hard to even discuss a small section of it at a time and cover the details it deserves.

Romans 2 is broken up into two sections (in the NASB), The Impartiality of God, and The Jew Is condemned by the Law. Two parts of this stand out to me that I will discuss below. Judgment of our sins, and passing judgment on others.

Theme For Chapter 2

God will judge us all, the self-righteous, the religious, the un-Godly, and the Godly. This is always key for me to remember. Paul is not talking about salvation here. He is talking about sin. When it comes to the judgment of God I try to remember a basic thing, found right here in Romans 2:11-12

11For there is no partiality with God. 12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;

Sins No Longer Remembered for Judgment

If you notice, there is impartiality, but with a distinction. Both the righteous and un-righteous (Believers and non-Believers) will be judged by their sins.

But, the Believers sins are washed away from the redemption of Christ. So, to me, negative judgment of sins is reserved for the unrepentant, positive judgment of your life is reserved for the repentant soul. How’s that you say?

To try and better understand it myself, I sketched this out while working through these verses. It is very simplistic, but it is what represented the ideas here, to me.

Repentant Believers sin is not seen in God’s eyes, so therefore we are not judged on life’s sins, but on what positive things we have done in our lives for Christ. How did we use our life Christ gave us for His purposes AND any un-confessed sin.
Non-repentant Unbelievers, those still trapped by sin, are judged by their sins.

This may be a little off topic of the impartiality of God, but I do believe that scripture tells us that we, as repentant Believers in Christ, will not be judged by our sins, but by our life as a follower of Christ. The first is from Psalms 103:12 when are are told that our sins are remembered no more.

Psalms 103: 12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He ^(A)removed our transgressions from us.

and the second is from Isaiah 1:18-19 where we are told our sins will be made white as snow

Isaiah 1:18-19 – 18 “Come now, and ^(C)let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “^(D)Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. 19 “^(E)If you consent and obey, You will ^(F)eat the best of the land;

The key of course in those two verses is that you have to ask for your sins to be forgiven. Once we do this, our sins are remembered no more and they are white as snow. This means even though WE remember our own sins, God does not. If He does not remember our sins, we will not be judged by the sins unknown.

We do have to keep in mind what the repentant sinner is in us. It isn’t saying grace before dinner. We are given examples to follow all throughout scripture in how to pray, ask for forgiveness, and repent. When researching Romans 2, one thing that came to mind was Matthew 6:14-15.

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

There is more to God no longer remembering our sins than us just asking and moving on, when it comes to forgiveness of others. There is action involved in confessing our sins, yes, but there is a specific action involved here, for us to forgive others as well. Often times, something extremely difficult for us to do.

Passing Judgment on Others

I think with many of us this is a favorite pastime. I just recently watched a video of Loswhit (a worship leader and pastor) who did a post on the tatooe he got on the show LA Ink called YouTube Chatter where he posted some comments left for him by his viewers. These are… say it all together… judgments.

Romans 2:1 just about says it all.

1 Therefore you have ^(A)no excuse, ^(B)everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which ^(C)you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.

Why do we find it so necessary to judge others in this manner? We all do it in one form or another, right? Lets see.

that dress is to short to wear to church
he is a Christian, he should hang on in those places
he shouldn’t get that tattoo
he shouldn’t drink, smoke, curse, cut his hair, have long hair
that person is stupid, look at how he drives
they shouldn’t do this, they should do that

It can go on and on, but we make instantaneous judgments all the time, or at least I think I do. Paul is saying, we are going to be judged by the same standard we judge others, BUT, there is one other thing. Paul is condemning people here for not living up to God’s standard, not the standard of man we set for each other.

Summary of This Week

For me, I am glad God is an impartial God. No other human court or government can have the impartiality that God can have, and I am glad for that. I am also thankful that once we confess our sins to God, he does not remember them any more.

I know I also have to continually remind myself NOT to judge others. That is not up to me, it is up to God. By me looking upon others in judgment is to elevate myself to a God status, and I certainly don’t want that.

Other Blogs of Note

This is a powerful book, and chapter. Almost impossible to go into any great depth but I am looking forward to reading the other posts as well. See the blogs participating in the study below and make sure to leave a comment for them.

Scott Fillmer

Life in Faith & Photos