On June 26, 2000, President Bill Clinton announced that the National Human Genome Research Institute had completed the first ever map of the human genome. Dr. Francis Collins and other scientists had painstakingly uncovered the DNA blueprint that instructs every cell of a human body to reproduce and do its job. Every aspect of physical life is found in the map of a person’s DNA.

President Clinton said, “Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind . . . Today, we are learning the language in which God created life. We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift. With this profound new knowledge, humankind is on the verge of gaining immense, new power to heal. Genome science will have a real impact on all our lives — and even more, on the lives of our children. It will revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, if not all, human diseases.”

Francis Collins added his own comments that day: “It’s a happy day for the world. It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God.”

Since then researchers have used their growing understanding of DNA to identify diseases, develop treatments, and fight threats to human life. They are using what Dr. Collins refers to as “the language of God” to understand what he has created.

God’s Map of Instructions

Long before God helped scientists complete the Human Genome Project, he gave human beings another map for life in the Bible. It’s both elegantly simple and profoundly deep. Just as people only have 23 chromosomes from which the myriad variety of their traits emerge, so the Scriptures have only a handful of basic truths, but with nearly infinite applications for those who obey them.

 The first instruction for spiritual life in Isaiah is to acknowledge God and seek a relationship with him.

“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.” Isaiah 64:4-5

The second instruction is to confess and repent of sin so that we can be reconciled to God.

“Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.” Isaiah 64:8-9

Finally, live humbly in God’s presence and be obedient to his will.

“These are the ones I look on with favor; those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” Isaiah 66:2

This is the DNA of a child of God: Seek the Lord, repent of sin, be obedient. Your whole spiritual life can be built on these things.

God Makes It Easy

The Lord knows that unless he reveals himself to us, we will never know him, so he takes the initiative.

“I revealed myself to those who do not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations – a people who continually provoke me to my very face.” Isaiah 65:1-3

God makes it clear when he is speaking so those who are willing to listen won’t miss what he is saying.

“For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.” Isaiah 64:2

God makes it easy for people to know him. He is very clear about who he is and what he expects from us. He has made the path toward him open and easy to follow. The only reason people don’t have a relationship with God is their own stubbornness and pride.

People Have No Excuse

The Apostle Paul makes some things very clear in Romans 1:18-23,

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made so that people are without excuse.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

Rejecting God is rejecting life itself. The alternative to peace with God and eternal life is death.

“But as for you who forsake the Lord and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and all of you will fall in the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.” Isaiah 65:11-12

God’s Truth is the Only Truth

The book of Isaiah ends with the reminder that God is going to sweep away everything that’s sinful someday. He is going to create a new heaven and earth and those who have listened to him and answered his call will live with him there forever. Those who rejected him will suffer eternal consequences.

“‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the Lord.

‘And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” Isaiah 66:22-24

These are hard verses to read at the close of Isaiah. Some people hate what they say and would rather focus on the grace and love of God in the New Testament. While it’s a privilege to claim that grace and know that our eternal destiny is secure,  it’s important to recognize that not everyone shares that destiny.

Jesus Believed Isaiah

Jesus said that not one word of the Old Testament would fail, so he believed that a passage like this one at the end of Isaiah was absolute truth. He was so concerned that people escape the eternal death Isaiah describes that Jesus offered to die in their place.

Reading the challenging parts of the Bible makes us wise. We can’t practice wishful thinking when God has made his truth so clear. He has made the way to eternal life simple — there are only a few instructions to follow — but if we fail to follow them we will end up in death instead of life.