Isaiah 59:9-21
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
Nor does righteousness overtake us;
We look for light, but there is darkness!
For brightness, but we walk in blackness!
10 We grope for the wall like the blind,
And we grope as if we had no eyes;
We stumble at noonday as at twilight;
We are as dead men in desolate places.
11 We all growl like bears,
And moan sadly like doves;
We look for justice, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
And our sins testify against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And as for our iniquities, we know them:
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD,
And departing from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands afar off;
For truth is fallen in the street,
And equity cannot enter.
15 So truth fails,
And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him
That there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man,
And wondered that there was no intercessor;
Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
17 For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay,
Fury to His adversaries,
Recompense to His enemies;
The coastlands He will fully repay.
19 So shall they fear
The name of the LORD from the west,
And His glory from the rising of the sun;
When the enemy comes in like a flood,
The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.
20 "The Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,"
Says the LORD.
21 "As for Me," says the LORD, "this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the LORD, "from this time and forevermore."
Confessed sin and eternal life are explained here. The eternal gospel message reigns supreme throughout all of scripture, at first as a hidden mystery and later revealed through opening our deaf ears, our blind eyes in darkness, and our stony hearts unable to feels God’s lovingkindness and grace. It begins with the realization that we all are sinners who fumble and stumble around in the darkness outside of the light of the Lord. We grope for answers to life and forgiveness but find we are blind as not possessing eyes to see, dead in sin and unable to grasp Him. Our suffering and misery at times makes us sound like animals in pain and we seem unable to earn salvation from our just due of judgment and wrath on sin we cannot atone for or do enough penance to earn God’s forgiving favor. We all fall short (Romans 3:23). We know, but try to deny, our sins against Him accordingly to His word and the more we search that word the more our condemnation seems inevitable (Romans 7:7-8). We see and learn to understand that our sins of lying and denying our Lord have caused us to flee from Him instead of drawing near to hear more clearly the answer to our wretched state. We see only a failure of truth and justice in the world around us as we despair of lasting hope. When we attempt to stop sinning as those around us, we find ourselves under attack for seeking answers in the scriptures which are ridiculed and reasoned away to avoid accountability to God our Maker. In the end we come to realize that no mere man can save us, none among us can stand between us and Almighty God to intercede on our behalf. In and of ourselves there is no hope. God’s answer is the gospel revealed here as Him doing the saving which we are utterly unable to work or earn on our own. His breastplate of righteousness, His perfection, alone can earn it for us by battling without blame or harm. His deliverance of salvation is in His protection of providence and grace according to His word as He has thought it and given to us through the prophets in the scriptures. He also is dressed in the armor of vengeance for our sin and zeal to accomplish all judgment and mercy in His power. By ourselves we only receive according to our works, which always fall short of necessary perfection if they are to save us. Sinners find recompense apart from God’s work to save and reconcile us from our just due. Inevitably, those who understand where they stand in God’s eyes on their own merits fear Him and the judgment to come when their eyes, ears, and hearts are opened to understand these things. Yes, then they look for their Redeemer to save them. The gospel message is hope and life to all who hear and see by His working in Christ (John 6:29), believing and receiving the truth and Him as their Redeemer (John 1:12). Then the final verse of this chapter is realized; God’s new covenant of unearned (by us) grace is permanent and unshakable. It cannot be broken or revoked. This is a certain hope and no mere wish. Certain because of who makes the covenant agreement which is legally and morally binding in heaven, and a definite hope because He who promises is always faithful and righteous (Hebrew 10:23). Turning from the sin we confess and accepting His redeeming grace are the beginning of entering this covenant we cannot earn, the good news once hidden but now revealed in Christ. This message of saving hope, the gospel, is then put in the mouths of all He delivers from death to life (John 5:24) to tell others (Matthew 28:18-20), as is His Spirit living in us from the moment of our second birth, the One who seals us as His own forever (Ephesians 1:13-14). We are entrusted with this message to pass to our spiritual descendants who will do the same (2 Timothy 2:2) until His return when we shall be face to face with Him and the very presence of sin so pervasive in the world will be done away with forever. As 1 John 5:20 says, “This is the true God and eternal life.” Amen.
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