Think Biblically! (Trade Paper) by John MacArthur

Author:John MacArthur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2017-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

Man’s Sinfulness

When confronted with God’s glory, Isaiah confessed, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa 6:5). This must be the attitude of the believer. Isaiah saw himself as cursed unto damnation, debauched, dirty, filthy. In himself he was “like a polluted garment” (Isa 64:6). Why was Isaiah so critical of himself? After all, he was the son of Amoz, a contemporary of Jonah, a major prophet who foretold the future 150 years before it happened. His garment was sackcloth (Isa 20:2), which embodied the message of repentance he taught. Why did he see himself as a worm? Verse 5 finishes with, “for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts!” If Isaiah had looked at himself next to his contemporaries, he could have said, “I am not evil. In fact, I am better than most.” But he did no such thing. His eyes had seen the King, the Shekinah cloud. He measured himself against the ultimate standard and found himself to be unclean and unworthy.

In Zechariah 3:3, Joshua stands in filthy garments before an angel. The Old Testament word rendered “filthy” there is an adjective that comes from a root meaning “excrement,” and thus not only vile and dirty but with an offensive odor.21 Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Today we do not appreciate looking at ourselves as unclean. Some hymnals are changing lyrics to accommodate a softening of sin. For example, in Issac Watts’s original gospel hymn “At the Cross,” the words read:

Alas! And did my Savior bleed, and did my sovereign die?

Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?22

In recent hymnals the last line reads “. . . for sinners such as I” or “. . . for someone such as I.”

God’s view of man’s sin is and always has been the same. He has not moved. He has not changed. We are all dust and worms compared to the King of Glory. Yet, some worshipers see themselves as superior to others. The attitude is, “I’m self-sufficient. I am living and serving better than most.” This kind of worship could be categorized as mere ritual, dishonest, haughty, and absent of any self-examination (cf. the Pharisee in Luke 18:11-12).

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