In Amos 7:7 -8, Amos recounts a vision he had of God standing on a wall with a plumb line in His hand. A plumb line is a builder's tool consisting of a length of line connected to a heavy pointed object. The purpose of a plumb line is to establish “true-vertical.” This is accomplished by holding the line and letting the weight fall straight down, due to gravity. The walls, pillars, etc. are then built or adjusted to line up with the line, thereby assuring their vertical integrity. This same illustration is used in Isaiah 28:17 where God says, “Judgment I will lay to the line and righteousness to the plumb.”
In both of these references, God is saying that He will establish clearly in the sight of His people, the absolute standard of true righteousness and judgement, and all who do not measure up to this standard will be judged. The “plumb line” of God is Jesus Himself - The Word of God (John 1:1,14). He is the truth (John 14:6) and the standard by which men will be judged (John 5:22, Romans 2: 16).
The prophets Malachi and Isaiah both referred to this judgment:
“Who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire.” (Malachi 3:2)
“The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness has gripped the hypocrites. Who among us can dwell with the devouring [refining] fire, who can live with the everlasting burning?” (Isaiah 33:14)
Isaiah went on to answer this question, saying “he who walks righteously.” Only those who conform to God's standard of perfect righteousness will stand and not be afraid on that day of judgement.
But
here is where we struggle. Here is where we try
to be right; here is where we try to
measure up to God's standard. We try to
be like David, who said “The Lord has rewarded me according to my
righteousness.” In doing this, we
revert back to what Paul referred to as “the righteousness of the law”
(Romans 10:5) – which is based on what we do. (Deuteronomy 6:25)
Unfortunately,
many Christians never see that even our best attempts to be like Jesus, are
nothing more than “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Worse yet, far too often we
begin to develop a sense of trust in our righteousness,
which can quickly lead to pride, leaving us in a very dangerous spiritual
condition.
Here
is where we see relevance to Isaiah's words “Fearfulness has gripped the
hypocrites.” The dictionary defines
hypocrisy as both “claiming to be something
you are not,” as well as “claiming to believe
something you do not.” Jesus
cautioned his disciples against such hypocrisy (Luke 12:1) because he knew how
real the temptation is in all of us to believe that our works are making us as righteous in God's sight. The only
“work” that will both establish and maintain our righteousness with God is the “work
of faith” in Jesus (John 6:29).
We
must be ever watchful to heed Paul's words, “put no confidence in the flesh
[our works]” (Philippians 3:3). The
only way to line up with God's plumb line is to put all our faith in Jesus as our righteousness! Only then can we “have confidence and not
be ashamed before Him at His coming.” (1 John 2:28)