“Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” —Luke 20:18
When we fall on Jesus as our only hope of salvation, with a broken and contrite heart, completely sorry for our sin and hopeless condition—in other words “broken to pieces”—God will welcome us!
“The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit—O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject.” —Psalm 51:17
“Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is–will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable—‘I have been crucified with Christ.’” —Oswald Chambers
It is a crushing blow to come face-to-face with the reality of our own sinfulness. The more that we grow in Christlikeness, the more aware of our sinful nature we become.
And it is when we approach God’s throne full of ourselves, full of our works, full of self-righteousness, full of arrogance, full of self-importance, and full of our ability to reconcile ourselves to a holy God, that we are crushed. Eventually, when face-to-face with God’s pure holiness and glorious majesty, it will be evident to those who have chosen not to follow our Savior that neither their arrogance nor their wealth will be able to save them.
We are told by the prophet Isaiah:
“Their land is full of gold and silver; there is no end to their wealth. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned. Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don’t spare them! Go up into the rocky cliffs, hide in the ground. Get away from the dreadful judgment of the LORD, from his royal splendor! Proud men will be brought low, arrogant men will be humiliated; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. Indeed, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has planned a day of judgment, for all the high and mighty, for all who are proud—they will be humiliated.” —Isaiah 2:7–12
The book of Hebrews explains:
“Take care not to refuse the one who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less shall we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven? Then his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘I will once more shake not only the earth but heaven too.’ Now this phrase ‘once more’ indicates the removal of what is shaken, that is, of created things, so that what is unshaken may remain. So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe. For our God is indeed a devouring fire.” —Hebrews 12:25–29
Become More
I am a religious fraud if I depend upon by own sense of righteousness and abilities to reconcile myself to a holy God. It is only through the blood of Jesus that I am washed and made clean of my sins.
“Hey, all who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come! Buy and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? Why spend your hard-earned money on something that will not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is nourishing! Enjoy fine food! Pay attention and come to me! Listen, so you can live! Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. Look, I made him a witness to nations, a ruler and commander of nations. Look, you will summon nations you did not previously know; nations that did not previously know you will run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he bestows honor on you. Seek the LORD while he makes himself available; call to him while he is nearby! The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle and sinful people their plans. They should return to the LORD, and he will show mercy to them, and to their God, for he will freely forgive them.” —Isaiah 55:1–7
“Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.” —1 John 1:5–v10
Further Reflection
“It’s the nature of God to make something out of nothing; therefore, when anyone is nothing, God may yet make something of him.” —Martin Luther