“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5

Isaiah has seen the LORD. He has experienced His Holiness. He has realized in the glorious holiness of the LORD’s presence the awful truth of his estate. He is a sinner. He had seen the Lord sitting upon His throne. He had seen and heard the worship of the seraphim. He had experienced the glory of the LORD. Yet, with the realization of the fact that he is a sinner, he is overcome with the hopelessness of his own ability to do anything about it. Have you come to this place, Believer? To the place of complete disgust of your sin and the desperate need for cleansing? To the place where your sin comes face to face with God’s perfection? To the place where you acknowledge you are unclean and surrounded by unclean people? It would be a dark and hopeless place if that is where the story ends. Praise God, it’s not!

Instead, Hope arrives. It arrives in the cleansing of sin. It comes from the cleansing fire directly taken from the altar of the Most High. The prophets of the Old Testament knew very well the meaning and basis for the altar. It was for the High Priest to sacrifice an innocent animal for the forgiveness of the sins of the people. Here in our passage, Isaiah receives a cleansing from a lump of divine coal from the Heavenly Altar. “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.”v.7

Isaiah knew he was a sinner, guilty, and unclean before the Lord Almighty.  But now he also knew that the guilt was paid for. The cleansing fire of the Lord Jesus Christ has made him clean. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God has cleansed him from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

A wonderful indicator of this complete cleansing is God’s immediate question following the cleansing; “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” There was no extra work that Isaiah had to do. “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”(Heb. 9:14). The guilt was immediately gone by the power of God.

Now, it was time to work. And Isaiah was ready. He did not doubt the power of the LORD. It was an immediate understanding of the atonement and he was ready to do the LORD’s work. “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Eph. 5:26). He was ready to serve.

Dear Believer, you are a sinner. I am a sinner. We make mistakes, we have unclean lips. And we know that Jesus died for our sins. And that when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But do you live and respond to God in the way Isaiah did? With full confidence that we ARE clean? That what Christ did, His shed blood, makes us white as snow? Or do you live with guilt? Do you still carry the guilt that He already died for? It’s done, dear Believer. He did not die for you to still carry that burden on your back. He died to set you free from the guilt of your past and the guilt of the future. We are to confess our sins, believe He has cleansed us, and continue with the mission He has given. We cannot allow our guilt and uncleanness to hinder us from living as free, approved, unashamed workmen of the LORD.  When God asks, “Whom shall I send?”, He is asking for your willingness to serve. If the Father can see the purity and righteousness of Christ in us, then we indeed are qualified to be His messengers.

“For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.” 1 Thessalonians 2:5

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” 2 Timothy 2:21

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30

Dear Believer, has God called you? If so, He has also justified you, will send you, and equip you to be His messenger of His Good News.

We are to confidently answer with a willing heart and confidence in His power in us, “Here I am! Send me!”.

The LORD be with you,

Bianca