Self Isolation (5)

Two of my friends are about to come out of isolation. Having developed virus symptoms they followed government recommendations and stayed locked in for several days. Their quarantine time has now passed and their personal restrictions can be relaxed.

How do we come out of isolation when our own selfishness and sin have isolated us from God? It is no easy thing to do. The Bible describes our spiritual self-isolation as ‘falling short of God’s glory’, being at ‘enmity’ with God, and being ‘dead in trespasses and sins’. At heart sin involves the rejection of God’s infinite love. The consequences of this are not easily undone. It is not a temporary infection but a chronic, terminal illness which, left untreated, leads to an eternal isolation from God and permanent exclusion from Heaven in a terrible place the Bible calls ‘Hell’.

Many people try to treat themselves. They try a bit of moral reform or religion to improve their condition. The problem is that this only covers the symptoms. It is like putting a band aid on a shark bite or taking paracetamol (US: Tylenol) to treat cancer. We can make dramatic surface level changes but they leave us no better off because they don’t change the underlying problem: sin and self. Trying to repair the damage ourselves, on our own, simply proves that we are not in a relationship of dependence on God and that we are still isolated from Him. That kind of religion leaves you in a worse state before - still sick on the inside but no longer able to see the warning signs.

We need a sin-doctor, who is able to treat this terrible spiritual disease, and who is willing to enter the isolation ward regardless of the personal cost involved in doing so. The Bible teaches that Jesus, the Son of God, is such a ‘doctor’. God entered the ‘sin isolation ward’ by becoming a human being with flesh and blood like ours but without sin. One of the first names given to Jesus in the New Testament is ‘Immanuel’ which means 

God is with us.

As human beings we have self-isolated from God but He has taken the initiative to heal and cleanse our sickness - the selfish heart disease not just the symptoms. Jesus did not isolate himself from sinners. He worked with them and relaxed with them. He ate and drank with them. He went to the social outcasts and touched the lepers. He was often rejected and despised - which is exactly what you would expect from people who are deliberately self-isolating from God. But He endured it and continued to reach out to them. He even died with sinners - strung out on a Roman cross, crucified alongside thieves and murderers. When God, in Jesus, came to earth in human flesh He was known as

‘The friend of sinners’

In other words, 

‘The friend of people who had deliberately self-isolated from Him’

Or to put it even more starkly,

‘The friend of those who have declared themselves His enemies’

He doesn’t want your religion or your moral reform, He wants you. He wants your heart. He wants your all.

Jesus said:

“Those who are well do not need a doctor but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance”

He came to us in our self-imposed isolation to call us out of isolation and back into relationship with God.