Objective Faith in a Subjective World

I was recently asked to give my Testimony. If you have ever talked with me about testimonies you know how little I like them, especially as a form of evangelism. Testimonies tend to change the focus of the gospel from what Christ did through his life, death, and resurrection (the objective side of salvation) to our lives and how they have been changed (subjective). The gospel is not about me, what happened to me, or even any change in me – though it certainly should change me. Rather, the gospel is about Christ, what happened to him, and what he did through it. Another reason I dislike testimonies as a form of evangelism is that in changing the focus of the gospel, they also change the authority of the gospel. The authenticity of the gospel is no longer rooted in historical facts, but in how I live my life. If I fail then the gospel fails as well.

That said, through the encouragement of my wife, I took up the challenge of writing an objective testimony that only used my story as support for the need of a savior. Below is the transcript of that. I got a lot of the content in the Isaiah 6 portion from a sermon by my pastor and commentaries from Young and Calvin.

Let me know what you think. I am especially interested if anyone agrees or disagrees with my dislike of testimonies in evangelism.

Testimony

Introduction

In giving my testimony I would like to do something different than most. I would first like to go through a section of scripture, looking at it in detail. The reason I want to do this first, before sharing my personal story, is because my story is not what is important. Rather it is the story of God’s work in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that matters. God does not require an experience for salvation, but faith. And this faith must be grounded in truth.

We are going to look at Isaiah 6 to see how the prophet Isaiah came realize his need for grace from God.

Isaiah 6

¹ In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

⁵ Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

Exposition

From this passage we can see the process of recognizing our need for grace in 2 stages.

God’s Holiness

The first stage that Isaiah goes through is seeing God for who he really is.

• Notice the language in verse one.
  • God is first described as sitting on a throne; he is a king and judge. God is both the ruler of the world – creating and controlling everything that happens, and judge – condemning those who rebel against his rule.
  • The next two words describe him as being lofty and exalted or “high and lifted up.” He is not just any judge or king, but THE ONE judge and King. He alone has the right to demand complete obedience to His rule from all people and he alone has the right to judge those who fall short and rebel.
  • That last few words of verse one describes where this vision is taking place. It is not a throne room as one would expect from a king and judge, but rather the vision is taking place in the temple. The temple was a symbol of God’s presence with his people. So while God is the high king and judge over all, he also condescends to his people, desiring to be present with them. He is not distant and inactive, but present and active.
• In verses 2 and 3 we are introduced to the Seraphim.
  • These creatures have no other purpose than to sing God’s praise without ceasing. Notice that they cover their face and feet with their wings. These are sinless creatures, yet even they cannot stand, unshielded, in the glory of God.
  • The song the Seraphim sing is “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” The only characteristic or attribute of God that is repeated 3 times is “holy.” Never to do we see that God is “Love, love, love” or “Mercy, mercy, mercy” or “Justice, justice, justice.” This means that of all God’s attributes, his holiness is the one from which the others flow and are controlled. So what is his holiness? Holiness has two basic meanings, both of which apply to God in this passage.
    • First – it designates something that is pure, without flaw. Specifically something that is without sin.
    • Second – it designates something that is set apart.
• So in summary the first stage of understanding our need for grace from God is to understand His holiness. We must see how unapproachable he is, how complete separate from sin he is. We must also understand that He as ruler and judge has set a perfect law in place and has the right to demand perfect obedience.

Our Sin

The second stage of recognizing our need for grace is seeing ourselves for who we truly are. Specifically seeing our sin for what it truly is.

1. Notice in verse 5 Isaiah’s response to seeing who God truly is. He says, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
2. Isaiah was a good man by earthly standards. Already for 5 chapters we see that he has been working for God, delivering God’s word to his people. Compared to any of his peers he was the godliest. And yet, upon seeing God he pronounces woe or judgment on himself.
3. When Isaiah says that his lips were unclean he is not just talking about his lips, but by speaking about part of his body he was really speaking of the whole. Isaiah’s lips were not the only part of him that was unclean, but he was unclean in his entirety.

Summary of Exposition

From this passage we have seen that Isaiah, though a good man by earthly standards, upon coming before God and seeing God for who he truly is, realizes his own sinful state and pronounces judgment on himself. Before, had he looked around at his peers, he could have had pride in his godliness. After all he was a prophet of God, a holy many by earthly standards. But now he can only cry out that he is ruined because he is unclean.

However, notice in verses 6 and 7 that God does not leave Isaiah in this state. God sends one of the Seraphim to Isaiah with a coal from the altar and touches his lips (again symbolic of his whole body). Through this transaction Isaiah is cleansed and made right with God. Notice how this is grace from God. Isaiah truly deserved the judgment he pronounced on himself, however, God, of his own accord, was pleased to forgive his sins and cleans him. Notice also, what Isaiah had to do to receive this grace…nothing. He didn’t even ask for it. God’s forgiveness and cleansing is always undeserved, that is what makes it grace.

Testimony

So what does this have to do with my story? I grew up in a Christian home. My parents were in fulltime Christian ministry, first as Christian camp directors here in the States and then as missionaries in France. I cannot remember a time when I did not trust Christ as my savior. Like Isaiah, in comparison to my friends I was much better. I prayed, I read the bible, I served in my parents ministry, I didn’t curse, I rarely lied, I didn’t sleep around, etc… If you had judged me according to the cultural average, if you had compared me to most of my peers, I would have come across as a saint.

However, when compared to God’s perfect law and holiness I was, and am, nothing close to a saint. My own works fall far short of God’s requirements. When I compare myself to God’s standard instead of my friends and coworkers I am not proud, but humbled and terrified of God’s judgment. Left on my own, without the grace of God, I deserve God’s holy and just judgment. The more I get to know God for who he is and the more I see my sin for what it is the more I fear God and loath myself.

This is where my story ends, fearing God’s wrath and judgment and self-hatred. But, if you remember at the beginning, I said there was another story which matters more. That is Christ’s story.

The Gospel

As we saw with Isaiah and myself none of us are able to live up to God’s perfect standard. Even those of us who seem good based on our outward appearance fall far short of being perfect when we come before a Holy God. Romans 3:23 teaches that “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

A friend of my wife recently remarked that Christians never live up to the standards they teach and are all hypocrites. When my wife asked me how she should respond I told her that what her friend had said was the core of Christianity. No human lives up to God’s standards; as such Christians never have and never will, in this life, live up to the standards they teach – as long as they teach God’s standards.

So this leaves us in a hopeless situation when we look exclusively at what we do. However, God, because of His great mercy has provided a way out. About 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and equal to him in glory and power came to earth. As we saw in Isaiah, God wishes to live with his people. In the Old Testament that was through the Tabernacle and Temple. However, in Jesus, God in a very real way came to live with his people as God Incarnate – that is God in flesh. As both fully God and fully man Jesus was able to live up to all of God’s laws in our place and he received the judgment we deserve through his death. Through faith God will credit Christ’s holy life to us and credit our sin to Christ.

Christ now stands ready to receive all who will believe on him; all those who will stop measuring themselves by their own works and instead measure themselves by God’s holiness; all those who will see their sin for what it truly is; all those who upon realizing that they can never live up to God’s standard will cry out “Woe is me! God save me!”

If you have your doubts, please ask questions of me or any strong Christian. As I said at the beginning faith must be based in truth. If you come to a bridge and doubt its strength to hold up under your weight you will not sit down and look inside to see why your trust in the bridge is so weak, but you will instead investigate the bridge. Is it made of rotting ropes and twigs or concrete and steel? In the same way if you doubt that Christ is who he says he is or that his work on behalf of sinners can bear the weight of your sin then investigate the facts, study the bible, and talk with mature Christians. He is more than enough to carry your sin for you.

Prayer

Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it shows us that even good men like Isaiah are failures when compared to your perfect law. But you did not leave him, nor us without hope. Instead you provided your only Son, who you have loved eternally, to live the life we couldn’t and die the death we deserved. And now he sits at your right hand, having completed his work, ready to receive all who will come. Through him we can have forgiveness from our sins and become loved by you. I pray that if anyone here has doubts or questions that they not hesitate to find answers so that they may trust in you and the work of your Son. May our lives bring you glory. Amen.

Advertisement