Prozac and Penal Substitution

Last night i read these verses:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows

yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted

Yet he was wounded for our transgression, He was crushed for our iniquities

Upon Him was the chastisement that bought us peace

And with His stripes we are healed.

Aren't they beautiful? Don't they explain a heart thrilling truth? Especially in the light of yesterdays reports that prozac is no more effective in some cases then a placebo. What have they got to do with each other? Well, despite, perhaps because of, the advancement in science and technology and medicine, most of us still feel like there's something missing. That we need something alien to fulfill ourselves. Which i guess is why people take prozac. Michael Ramsden tells the story of an investigation that finds that most people feel like at one point in time they were happy, and now they're not. That we've lost something that needs to be regained at any cost. Goodness knows how many dollars spent on research and we get to the end of Genesis 3.

But what's any of this got to do with Isaiah 53? Well, where does the need for medicine come from? it must and can only be from the fall. Not that medicine is evil or anything like that, but simply that people are ill because people are fallen. People are ill because people don't have a perfect, unbroken relationship with God. No one living does. I'm not saying that people sin so God makes them ill, but that sickness is a result of the Fall. Did Adam and Eve ever need prozac? Exactly.

God has dealt with this problem.

He has sent Christ to bear our grief, to carry our sorrow, to be wounded for us, crushed for us, chastised for us. Jesus has died to demonstrate the righteousness of God, and so that we might know God. He restores what is lost. He gives us hope of a future without mental or physical illness. And He does this by punishing His Son for our sin. So to deny this doctrine, to cast scorn on this life giving truth is not only supremely silly, it also robs people of hope.

Theology, proper theology, is not limited to the ivory towered academy in it's effect. It changes people's lives. It's not about pens and paper, it's about people's lives, its about pastoring the broken in our churches. Penal substitution gives us that hope. It gives us the ability to look at objective historical events and say to the sick and suffering: there is hope, there is life, you will have joy. God is righteous but He has made a way for us.

Two great truths. Here then is a doctrine worth preaching, writing about and defending. Because here is a doctrine that imparts life and hope.

Isaiah and the truth

Thursday afternoon means Cafe Modial, Isaiah and Nick Bale. Mondial was suspiciously busy today, i guess coffee tastes better when there's work to be done. We were in Isaiah 8, and in the corner of the busy cafe, i read these words, quite loudly:

'For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: "Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.'

It was good to read that, good to hear it. On tuesday i rode through London on the underground, about rushhour time. Lots of young and high earning people pouring out of their jobs and homeward. And really for the first time since graduating i wondered whether i was doing the right thing. Whether i shouldn't instead just persue more money, better clothes, nicer stuff and be done with it. This was shaken off quickly enough, but studying this really helped.

Standing firm in faith, trusting in what God has for you was hard for the faithful remnant in Isaiah 8. All around them people were fearing the war, and worshipping the world. And really nothing's changed in 28 centuries since. It's hard to believe and trust when all around you aren't. But what of those who ignore the sanctuary of Christ? Who stumble over the stumbling stone? They shall be snared and taken. And for those who trust, and build and shelter in the rock? They shall find peace and life. They shall prosper for eternity, in a real way, not in a nice clothes and nifty haircut way.

We need to believe this. And not waste our lives.

Constrained

I love Isaiah 6. I love the picture of God that the prophet gives us. And like i said earlier i don't really feel i understand it all that well, but there are a couple of things in his call that really stand out to me. Isaiah sees the Lord of hosts high and lifted up in a vision, realises his own hopeless situation and that of his people, repents and has his lips more or less burnt off by a burning coal to mark the atonement for his sin. And this 'coal event' totally changes his relationship with God. The Lord calls for a messenger 'who shall we send, and who shall go for us?' Isaiah, his lips still presumeably meshed together manages to present himself before God for this task.

And whats the essence of his message? Go and preach until the people's ears become unhearing and their eyes unseeing. Basically go and preach to them a message of judgement, that they won't listen to. This is not a message that will get Isaiah good invites in the Judah social circles, it won't get him popularity, it will cost him a lot more than it will gain him. It will get him sawn in half, according to Hebrews. And yet Isaiah, constrained by the glory and i'm guessing the joy of seeing God doesn't record a complaint. Infact he fills up the next sixty odd book with this message, and records of it's reception. Isaiah's message that YHWH is God of the nations will be rejected.

Is today's message of a crucified savior any less unbelievable? Of course not, thats why evangelism is so hard, thats why God is glorified through it. Because it's clearly not a man made message, and when people are saved it's clearly not due to the efforts of men. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all surpassing power belongs to God and not to us'. So we will never come away from a witnessing situation feeling good, because we are jars of clay. But how then do we survive in doing the work of an evangelist? There might be two ways.

Remembering that the work belongs to the Lord. This is key. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 tells us that salvation happens when God shines light in our heart to show us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And we can't do that. We can't shine that light. All we can do is trust, pray, and proclaim not ourselves, but Jesus as Lord. And trust. Lots of trusting.

And we can, like Isaiah be constrained by the glory and majesty of God. As John Piper might say, we must be constrained by the joys of heaven and the horrors of hell. We need faith to do evangelism, to proclaim an unbelievable message to a deaf and blind people. Isaiah was constrained by his faith, constrained by his belief that his message was important, and constrained by his vision of the glory of God.

Isaiah

I love reading the Bible 1-2-1 with people. I don't think i'll ever feel i'm any good at it, but i like that feeling. It drives me on in prayer and keeps me humble. One of my favourite passages to read i Isaiah 6-12, which i've just started indiviudally with three guys from Reading Family Church, Tim, Nick and Laurence. I studied this passage last year with a couple fo guys from Surrey as well. I remember thinking that at least the work i'd done on chapter 6 was ok, then hearing a sermon by R.C Sproul on it, and wondering if we even had the same Bible! Me and Tim looked at chapter seven this week, which i'm still not sure i get. Maybe i should ask RC!

I like Isaiah because it makes us think about Biblical Theology. It's easy to look, for example, at the Immanuel sign in chapter seven, and go straigh to Jesus. But first we need to engage with the time, we need to ask what it originally meant for Ahaz to recieve that sign. Who the 'God with us' was in that time.

I like it because it hangs on peoples names. Isaiah 'YHWH will save' Shear-Jashub 'a remnant will return'. I just think things like that a re pretty cool. I like it because it has so much history in it. Ahaz is told not to fear the northern alliance that threatens to wipe out his kingdom, but rather trust in the Lord. Later Judah is told no to ally with Egypt. I like that the Bible proves that these things happened in history.

I like it because it's the Old Testament, and even though it's a major prophet, it is rarely preached on or taught in my experience. So it's great to introduce people to the old testament.

Lastly, but definately not least, i like it because it's the Gospel, 800 years before the incarnation. The message is: have faith in God or be destroyed, live by faith or fall, stand firm by faith, or you won't stand firm at all. We've heard that somewhere before...