All We Like Fish
One of the most well-known verses in the Bible is: Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” In this one verse we have the very definition of sin, that fact that all are sinners and God’s plan of salvation. The nature of sin is to be independent. The, “going his own way”, is characteristic of sheep and of every one of us. In other words it is the rejection of authority and desire to be self-ruling. Another word for this is rebellious. We all have this nature.
The prophet Habakkak describes man in another way. He compares us to fish that have no ruler, (Hab. 1:14). Have you ever had a pet fish? Have you ever tried to train a fish? Do they obey you when you speak or motion to them? About the only thing they respond to is to food. The fish nature is to do their own thing…to go their own way. For mankind, that was created in the image of God, this fish, (sin), nature is not a good thing. Only God can fix this deviation and He did it by sending His Son Jesus. The sin nature was nailed to the cross and He became Lord over all. Rebellion must die on the cross so that submission can be given to us as a new nature.
Until our sin nature of independence and rebellion is dealt with on the cross, words like authority and submission have a “knee jerk” effect on us. Everything is fine as long as one has colleagues, but when our friend is promoted to being our boss, then the problems begin. All agree that authority is necessary, but we just don’t like it when it touches us. It is like the police, government, teacher, parents, etc., are the bad guys, until we need their help. Rebellion goes deep in each one of us and cannot be discipled into submission. It must be nailed to the cross.
One can submit for fear of the consequences of not submitting; such as fear of going to jail, fear of being punished, or losing a job, etc., but this not really submission. It is obedience. If there were no negative consequences, would one still submit? Rebellion wants its own way and will resist authority at any moment there is disagreement. It is like the little boy that was standing on his chair in the church meeting. His father told me to sit down and the boy remained standing. This continued until the father threatened to take him out of the service to be disciplined. The little boy sat down and in a huff said: “I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside.” That is the fish nature.
Only God can change our nature. Jesus went to the cross to break the power of sin, once and for all. As we embrace the work of the cross in our lives; praying, “Lord, not my will but Yours be done,” submission becomes a way of life and not something that one has to do. It is God’s nature.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Is. 53:6; Hab. 1:14; Rom. 3:23; 6:23