Guilty - Isaiah 1:2

Isaiah 1:2
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for the LORD has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.

Every human being who has ever lived has had at least this one thing in common with everyone else. We are the offspring of God and we are fallen.

Okay, that's two things. Nevertheless . . .

According to Scripture, God has cared for and nurtured every human who ever lived, indeed, every creature. God is the source of life and apart from God there is no life. Our life is his and we only live as long as he grants it. For as long as we live, we owe our lives to him. Witness what St. Paul says in his famous speech before the Areopagus in Rome:

Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

God gives us life. God gives us breath. God gives us everything. In God we live. In God we move. In God we exist. He chose our genetic make-up, our geography, our family, our heritage, our environment. He made us who we are, placed us where we are, sustained us every moment, guided our experiences, and all with a purpose . . . "that we should seek the Lord." Yet, we haven't.

Children have I reared and brought up, yet they have rebelled against me.

This is the issue God has with us and it is a huge issue. Our very life is a gift of grace and we spend it in opposition to him--every waking moment--since the day we were born. It is not a nice thing to be told is it? No one wants to hear something like that. We all think of ourselves as pretty good and we can all point to someone else who is worse than us, can we not? The problem is that the standard by which we are to be measured is God's perfect holiness. Up against that standard we are exposed for what we really are. Rebels. Moral criminals.

But Scripture condemns us all and it does more than that, it brings forth the proof. It demonstrates our guilt. God's law shows us who we really are.

Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

It's like a 12-step program. We have to admit who we are in relation to God, we have to admit our guilt, before we can begin to have that relationship restored.

While this is certainly true for the unbeliever, it is also something the believer must take note of as well. Remember that in Isaiah 1 God is addressing his covenant community--professing believers. That makes this passage especially powerful and especially relevant to our 21st century culture where everyone, it seems, is a believer--but no one really knows what it means to follow Christ--nor even seems to care.

How much does Isaiah 1 pertain to us? to you? Be honest.