God, Our Redeemer.

Isaiah 59-60, Revelation 13

…and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. – Isaiah 60:16b ESV

From the perspective of the Israelites, God seemed to be either ignorant of their difficult predicament or unable to do anything about it. It appeared as if He was oblivious to their condition or powerless to save them. But made it clear that the problem had nothing to do with Him. It was because of their sin. “…but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you” (Isaiah 59:2 ESV). It was their sins that were bringing about their own punishment. God was allowing their enemies to harass them, and He would eventually allow them to defeat them. The people of Israel were guilty of bloodshed, lying, iniquity, wickedness, injustice and violence. There was an absence of God's peace or shalom in the land because there was no justice and righteousness. “Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us” (Isaiah 59:9 ESV). Because they failed to extend justice to one another, God was withholding His justice from them. God's justice comes in the form of His rule setting all things right, restoring things to their proper order. Because they refused to live righteously, they were missing out on the righteousness of God. God's righteousness shows up in the form of His presence and power as He vindicates and delivers, fulfilling all His righteous purposes on behalf of His people. Because of their sin, the people of Israel were experiencing an absence of God's justice and righteousness on their behalf. God was not happy with them. “The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice” (Isaiah 59:15 ESV). God had intended for His people to be the conduit of His justice, mercy and righteousness. He had told them what He expected of them. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 ESV). But they had failed. And when God looked to see if anyone would intercede, He saw no one. “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede” (Isaiah 59:16a ESV).  

What does this passage reveal about God?

So God would intercede on man's behalf. “…then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him” (Isaiah 59:16b ESV). In spite of Israel's sin and rebellion, unrepentant hearts, and stubborn resistance to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with their God, He would intervene. He would intercede. God would step into the darkness and reveal His light. This was partially fulfilled with the coming of Christ. “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:9-11 ESV). God promised the coming of the Redeemer. “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression” (Isaiah 59:20 ESV). But most of Israel rejected Him when He came. They refused to accept Him as their Redeemer and Messiah. But God is not done yet. His plan for Israel is not yet complete. There is a day coming when His Son will return a second time and He will establish His Kingdom on earth and rule from the throne of David from the city of Jerusalem. In chapter 60, God gives Isaiah a glimpse into the distant future, revealing the Millennial Kingdom of Christ that will be established after the days of the Great Tribulation on earth. Jesus referred to the period of the tribulation in very foreboding terms. “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (Matthew 24:21 ESV). But even during those dark days, the light of God will shine. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1 ESV). God will one day shine His light in the form of His Son on the lives of His people. As a result, they will once again reflect His glory and radiance. God will once again remember and redeem His people. “…and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty one of Jacob” (Isaiah 60:16 ESV). All of these things have yet to happen. They are future events still waiting to be fulfilled. But God will bring them about. He will cause them to come to pass at just the right time and according to His perfect plan.  

What does this passage reveal about man?

While the people of Israel were guilty of lying and deceit, they could trust in their faithful and true God. “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19 ESV). God would do what He said He would do. And it might have appeared to the Israelites that His hand was shortened or His hearing diminished, God was fully aware of their circumstances and had everything under control. Even though God would allow them to fall at the hands of the Babylonians and experience the humility and despair of exile for 70 years, He would redeem them and restore them to their land. He would vindicate them and display His justice and righteousness on their behalf. But they would continue to sin against Him. They would continue to worship other gods besides Him. They would practice injustice and display their unrighteousness in a variety of ways for generations. Even when God sent His own Son to live in their midst and display His glory amongst them, they rejected Him. They refused to repent and turn to the physical manifestation of God living and walking as one of them. Even today, those of us who have been exposed to the reality of God's Son and experienced salvation through acceptance of His sacrificial death on our behalf, can find ourselves living as if nothing has really changed in our lives. We struggle with the same sins as before. We are prone to turn to other “gods” of our own making or choosing. We rebel against God's righteous rule in our lives and refuse to repent of the sins we so easily and regularly commit. We have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but still continue to wrestle with sinful habits and behaviors. We still fight against our sin natures, oftentimes losing the battle and succumbing to our own selfish passions. But God is not done yet. There is a day coming when our sin natures will be done away with permanently and completely. We will receive new bodies. We will have our sin natures eradicated once and for all time. “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15:53-56 ESV).

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

God is not done yet. He is not through redeeming me. His plan for my salvation, while completely taken care of by Christ, is not yet completed. There is a day coming when He will finish what He began. Paul tells us, “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ESV). Elsewhere he reminds us, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 ESV). God has a plan for His church, the body of Christ. He is sending His Son back for us some day, and when that time comes, our salvation will be complete. The ongoing process of our sanctification or transformation into Christ's image will be finished. We will be glorified. And God is not done with Israel either. He has great plans in store for them. And while the period of the Great Tribulation remains in their future, so does His redemption. The book of Revelation tells us of God's future plans for Israel. These include the coming of the Antichrist and a period of difficulty and intense persecution. But it also includes the redemption of God and the restoration of His people. “For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended” (Isaiah 60:20 ESV). God will redeem. He will restore. “I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it” (Isaiah 60:22 ESV).

Father, Your redemption of mankind and Your restoration of Israel is not yet complete. You are not done yet. Your work is not finished. Don't let me lose sight of the fact that Your arm is not shortened and Your hearing has not failed. You know what is going on in my life and in this world. Your salvation will come. Your great redemptive plan for mankind will be finished one day. You will do it in Your time. You have promised it and You will bring it about. Help me rest in Your faithfulness. Amen

The Reality of the Resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. – 1 Corinthians 15:20 NLT

The future resurrection of the dead may have been in question with some of the believers in Corinth, but Paul affirmed it's reality. His argument was that if there is was no such thing as a future resurrection of the dead, then Christ Himself was not resurrected. Their rejection of the doctrine of bodily resurrection had ramifications. It eliminated the possibility of Christ having been resurrected from the dead. "And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless" (1 Corinthians 15:14 NLT). And if there was no such thing as the resurrection of the dead, then Paul and the other apostles were nothing more than liars, having taught that God raised Jesus from the dead. Without the doctrine of the resurrection, there is no such thing as a risen Savior, forgiveness of sin, or an eternal estate. All it would leave us with is the present reality of this world, then death.

One of the things that jumps out at me in this passage is the danger of human logic and reason. When men begin to try and explain away what they see as difficult to understand, it almost always leads to heresy. The Corinthians were wrestling with their cultural concept of the dichotomy between the flesh and the spirit, the body and the soul. They had been indoctrinated with the idea that the body was material and therefore evil. But the soul was spiritual and therefore good. So the idea of a resurrection of the body was inexplicable to them. They couldn't fathom how that could be. So their human reasoning kicked in and they simply denied the possibility of a bodily resurrection. It didn't matter to them what God may have to say about the subject. They had reached their conclusion and were completely comfortable with it. But Paul wasn't. He wanted them to understand the dangerous ramifications of their human reasoning. By denying the bodily resurrection of the dead, they were denying the very thing that was the key to their forgiveness and future glorification: The resurrection of Jesus. When God raised Jesus from the dead, it was not just to prove His own power, but as a precursor of what was to come. As Paul said, "Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died" (1 Corinthians 15:20 NLT). Paul made a comparison between Jesus and Adam. When Adam sinned, he brought death (both physical and spiritual) to the world. When Jesus was raised from the dead, He brought new life (both physical and spiritual) to the world. Paul gave them a glimpse into the future when he wrote, "Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back" (1 Corinthians 15:23 NLT). He is referring to the Rapture of the Church. Paul goes into greater detail about this future event in his letter to the Thessalonian believers. "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NLT). Just a few verses earlier in this passage, Paul made it clear that when Christ returns for His Church, He will be accompanied by all the believers who have died. But then he wrote that all "the Christians who have died will rise from their graves." They will return in their spirit form, but will be reunited with their resurrected, renewed bodies. And those believers who are alive at the time of Christ's return will also be given new bodies. Paul addresses that a few verses later in this section of his letter to the Corinthians. "It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies" (1 Corinthians 15:52-53 NLT).

The resurrection of our earthly bodies is a non-negotiable aspect of our faith as believers. God is not redeeming just a part of us, but all of us. He is going to restore ALL things, not just some things. He will redeem and restore what has been marred by sin, including all of creation and our bodies. All that God made in the physical universe He deemed as good. But it has all been damaged by sin. God will restore it all. He will bring back to life even those bodies that have been dead and buried for centuries. But if none of this is true, and there is no resurrection, then as Paul said, "Let's feast, and drink, for tomorrow we die!" (1 Corinthians 15:32 NLT). But Paul also warned the Corinthians to avoid people who thought that way. He wanted them to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the resurrection was a reality. Christ Himself was proof of it. And His own resurrection was ample evidence and assurance of our own future resurrection. It's going to happen. We don't know when or how, but it is going to happen. "So encourage each other with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:18 NLT).

Father, thank You for this timely reminder. We live in a world where everything is growing old, decaying, and falling apart. While I have Your Spirit living within me, my body continues to show the effects of sin. But there is a day coming when I will receive a new, resurrected body. You will make all things new, including my own physical body. Your work of transformation in my life will be complete and whole, because You don't do anything halfway. Amen.