Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Isaiah is often said glowingly to be the "Gospel Prophet." Yes, there is blessed Good News in his book, but it starts out in chapter one with the most devastating indictment God has ever pronounced on the corporate body of His true church at the time--the kingdom of Judah. He likened them to Sodom and Gomorrah, "laden with iniquity," morally and spiritually filthy. God throws up His hands in horror at the utter hypocrisy of their Sabbath worship services, which He plainly says He "hates" (1:4-15). He simply refuses to "go to church to meet with them," or words to that effect. He turns the other way.
But then immediately we come face to face with "Gospel": the same sad opening chapter predicts His salvation work for them. He commands the people to take a bath and clean themselves up (a common sense thing to do, 16-17), but He also promises that as the Savior of the world He will transform their wicked Sodom into "the city of righteousness, the faithful city" (25-27). He, not they, will have to wash their scarlet sin "white as snow" (18).
From the very first, Isaiah's idea is that they need a Savior; they cannot save themselves. The prophet presages the Ephesians truth that "by grace you have been saved through faith" (2:8); the entire Book of Isaiah is a grace-filled book. Nobody in Isaiah saves himself. But ... every honest person therein cooperates with the divine Savior. Each sinner takes a bath; the Savior won't hose you down against your will; but the cleansing water flows from His wounded side. It's not that you save yourself 50 percent; you let Him save you 100 percent.
You learn to abhor your filth, you welcome His cleansing. If you are one of the tiny fraction who are "willing" to believe, you get a new mind and a new heart. But if you are like the masses of God's people who He said "refuse and rebel," all the angels in heaven can't save you from the disaster you choose to bring upon yourself (19, 20).
Judgment Day is not afar off; it's today. We would be wise to assume that now is our last chance. Life is that serious.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 30, 2004.
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