By Scott Guffin
Associate Professor and Executive Director of Christian Ministry, Samford University
The Reason for Forgiveness
Isaiah 43:1-7,21-25
The book of Isaiah may be clearly divided into two distinct sections. The first, chapters 1-39, deals mainly with the warnings of God to His people, calling them to repentance and obedience to His ways. These warnings are peppered with references to a future Messianic king, many of which are familiar to us from their being read in conjunction with the Christmas story. The second part of Isaiah, chapters 43-66, addresses the people of Judah at the end of their time of exile, roughly 200 years later. Sections of this latter part refer to a coming Messianic suffering servant, thus rounding out the prophecies Jesus would fulfill as both the one at whose name “every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:10) and the one who came “not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Amidst these prophecies—that the early church in Acts immediately viewed as being fulfilled in Jesus (see the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8)—we find other expressions of the foundations of the Gospel, particularly in passages that highlight the character of God and His heart toward His people. Isaiah 43 is a strong example of such a passage that relates to us the loving and forgiving nature of God.
God redeems and forgives us because He loves us (1-5a).
Isaiah 43 begins with God’s expressions of His love for His people, as He tells them, “…you are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you” (v.4). Because of His great love for them, God says that He has redeemed His people and called them by their name. Consider those people who call us by our own personal name and the closeness that such an intimate address implies. In verse 2, God declares how His passion for His people is demonstrated through His providential protection: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flame will not burn you.” This redeeming, protecting love of God is the source from which His forgiveness pours forth to those who belong to Him. The assurance that His love brings negates our fears, as does His presence in our lives.
God created us for His glory and desires to bring us back to Himself (5b-7).
As God calls forth His people, he ultimately does so for His glory. While such a thing might seem on the surface to be self-aggrandizing, God’s desire to be glorified makes complete sense in light of who He is. Who else’s honor would He seek? Who else would He call us to praise? To seek the glory and honor of anyone else would be to place a spotlight on one who cannot redeem us, forgive our sins, and save us. Such a thing would point us toward certain doom and would be antithetical to God’s very nature. On the contrary, God calls us back to Himself, to His glory, a work He has been engaged in since the fall of humanity in Genesis 3. God’s nature indeed is to “devise plans so that the one banished from him does not remain banished.” Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 that in Christ, God is ever engaged in the work of reconciling people to himself, calling them back into relationship with Him that they might be created anew.
God does not want us burdened with sin (21-25).
As God calls His people to Himself, he reminds them (and us by extension) that He is the One who sweeps away their transgressions and remembers their sins no more (verse 25). Sadly, however, He laments to the people of Judah that they have not called on Him (verse 22). Imagine hearing from God Himself how much He loves you, how He desires to claim you as His own, to redeem you, and to unburden you from your sin and its eternal consequences. Consider what a foolish thing it would be to know that your Creator feels this way toward you and desires to do these things for you and yet you choose to ignore Him! And yet, people do this every day, hearing God’s offer of salvation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and walking away from God’s gracious gift.
In verse 22, God bluntly states that the people of Israel had “become weary” of Him. May we never tire of hearing of and receiving the grace of God! May we never grow weary of expressing it to others! May we instead respond with urgency to the One who calls us by name and who stands ready to forgive and redeem and encourage others to do the same.
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