The conclusion of the 2024 Olympics in Paris was marked by singing of the “great” American anthem exalting human autonomy, self-determination, self-will and ultimately self-worship, namely the Frank Sinatra classic, My Way. This was of course after having in the opening ceremony, a blasphemous parody of Leonardo da Vincci’s “The Last Supper”, a painting depicting Jesus and His 12 disciples at their final meal before the completion of His glorious work of redemption (Matthew 26:26-30).
The song, My Way, presents the self-assessment of one who is self-satisfied with the course of one’s life, the authenticity in which it has been lived, and the noble decisions he has made despite the many and various challenges to his autonomy; challenges in which he sees himself as having heroically overcome. It commends a life governed by one’s feelings rather than by objective truth and submission to it. It includes the defining line “For what is a man, what has He got, if not himself then He is naught”.
In contemplating the lyrics of that song, what came to mind was the passage found in Isaiah 14 which many believe to be related to the origin of Satan or the devil. In Isaiah 14:13-14, we have revealed the rebellious heart attitude of the one referred to as Lucifer. We read, ‘For you have said in your heart: ‘I will “ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’’ Then in Isaiah 14:15 we have God proclaiming the just consequences of this self-willed, self-exalting proclamation, “Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit”, a statement by God to Lucifer which historically has been understood as a reference to his eventual confinement in Hell (Revelation 17:8).
The Bible clearly reveals that we were created by God and for God – for His glory; that the infinite perfections of His being would be revealed and displayed in the glory of the natural and supernatural creation, and most prominently in mankind, whom He would create in His image and likeness (Psalm 19:1-6) (Psalm 103:20) (Isaiah 43:7) (Genesis 1:26). As such. we were designed to know our greatest joy, our greatest pleasure, our ultimate satisfaction and significance through intimate relationship with God and one another, living our lives His Way, consistent with His order and design for human flourishing and our individual happiness in Him (Genesis 1:28-31) (Psalm 100:1-3).
All of life was to be one of the worship of the eternal, infinitely glorious God who has revealed Himself in the 66 books of the Bible – acknowledging, proclaiming, pursuing and rejoicing in Him as the desire of our heart and delight of our soul, the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy, which is the essence of true worship (Matthew 22:36-40).
Tragically, from the beginning, mankind has been bent on doing things our way, most importantly in our worship of God, if we worship Him at all (Ecclesiastes 7:29) (Jeremiah 4:22-24). We pridefully seek to live life on our terms, free from any dependence upon or accountability to God nor to anyone else for that matter, believing the serpent/devil’s lie that we would find a greater happiness in doing so, and thus suffering the immense consequences God warned Adam of in the beginning (Genesis 3:1-7) (Jeremiah 7:23-25) (Genesis 2:15-17) (Proverbs 16:25).
The consequences of doing things our way have been catastrophic, bringing all humanity under the wrath and judgement of God, beginning with the curse God placed upon the earth in response to Adam’s sin (Genesis 3:17-19). His wrath is revealed in the subsequent providential calamities He brings upon the earth daily (Amos 3:6), and His giving rebellious mankind over to the pain, sorrow, suffering, frustration, futility, hatred, hostility, sin and death that is the natural consequence of doing things my way, with the ultimate consequence being our confinement to Hell (Romans 1:18-31) (Deuteronomy 28:15-63) (Psalm 9:17).
However, it was never God’s plan to leave all of mankind in our “my way” delusion or its eternal consequences, but to redeem men and women from those consequences and instill in their hearts a sense of eternal joy and delight in doing things His way (Hebrews 3:12-13) (2 Timothy2:24-26) (Psalm 40:8) (Isaiah 51:11); a way revealed throughout His written word and ultimately displayed in the perfect obedience to that way by God the Son, Jesus Christ (Psalm 19:7-11) (John 14:6) (John 6:38) (Psalm 18:30).
This plan and God’s offer of it is summarized in Isaiah Chapter 55. In Isaiah 55:1-4, God is calling those, who like the women at the well in John Chapter 4, have invested their time and money and energies in pursuit of a lasting peace and joy and satisfaction and fulfillment, but have failed to find it, to humbly realize that their/our only solution is to seek it with all of their heart in Him, who is the source of everything we will ever need to satisfy the deepest needs and desires of our soul Psalm 63:1-5) (Jeremiah 29:13). God had made a covenant of blessing with King David and ultimately with King David’s heir, Jesus Christ, through whom those blessings will ultimately come (Matthew 11:25-30) (Ephesians 1:7-12).
Isaiah 55:7 is a call to repentance, to turn from doing things our way, to a life committed to knowing and doing things God’s way, with the assurance that God, who is gracious and merciful, will, through Jesus Christ, abundantly pardon our sins and reconcile us to right relationship with Himself (Acts 17:30) (Exodus 34:5-7 (Hebrews 7:25) (2 Corinthians 5:17-19) .
True repentance is a gift from God (Acts 11:18) in which we become, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirt (Romans 8:9), exceedingly distressed in our hearts over our sins – our rebellion against a Holy God and His ways (Psalm 51:1-4). In turn, we become fully inclined, fully committed to and fully capable of doing things God’s way and delighting in doing so (Philippians 2:13) (Psalm 37:4), as we begin to see and understand by faith, that God has always been fully inclined, fully capable and fully committed to making those who do things His way exceedingly and abundantly happy in Him (Psalm 1:1-3) (Psalm 65:4) (Matthew 7:13-14).
Thus in Isaiah 55:8-11, we have God rightly exalting His thoughts and ways as being exceedingly above any and all of His creation, in that they are the ways of an infinitely good, infinitely wise and infinitely powerful eternal being, who from the foundation of the world planned to proclaim and display His glory, the infinite perfections of His being for the eternal joy of and His eternal enjoyment in those who would live their lives His way (Isaiah 43:7) (Revelation 2:7). All of the creation and the redemption of that creation was planned with this in mind (Revelation 21 and 22).
It would be a plan fulfilled in the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16). In its fulfillment, God’s glory would be proclaimed and displayed in the beauty of His holiness and in the righteousness of His justice; in the excellence of His infallible wisdom; in the awesomeness of His majestic power; in the splendor of His abundant goodness and amazing grace, and in the sweetness and riches of His great mercy resulting in the redeemed, all who would put their faith in and entrust their lives to Jesus, coming to know a full forgiveness of their sin and freedom from sins’ condemnation (Romans 8:1); a peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7); a joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:6-8), all a product of God’s overwhelming, inexhaustible love, which we can never again be separated from (Romans 8:35-39).
And we learn in Ephesians 2:7 that God accomplished all of this so that in the ages to come He could display to His redeemed, to all who are fully inclined, fully committed and now fully capable of only doing things His way, the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Grace and Peace ×