“God-kind not Mankind”

Isaiah 42:5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

            Does God exist because we believe in Him?  Or, do we exist because God believes we should?  Without God we would not have life for He is the one who breathed life into us, (Gen 2:7). We do not exist through some freak accident that has beaten all the probabilities that says we cannot exist; rather we exist because it is God’s will for us to exist.  Everything you see and even those things you cannot see exist through what God originally created.  Those things that have life God gave life though plant or animal or mankind.

            God created us in His likeness, (Gen 1:26) maybe we were supposed to be called God-kind, instead Adam allowed Eve to fall and then fell himself into sin, and we became mankind cursed with a sinful nature.  Because God is without sin we cannot be called God-kind.  We are only mankind, weak in that we cannot save ourselves.  What we might call our strengths are our delusions of grandeur because we fail to see our strengths as the gifts God has so graciously bestowed upon us.

Isaiah 42:1–9 ⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

            The former things that are spoken about here are not that the law is being replaced, but that the outcome of the law is being changed.  The law is not a law if it does not demand a consequence.  Think about it if you break the law of our government then you will pay a penalty for breaking that law.  God’s law is the same; if you break God’s law the consequence is the penalty of death.  However, God created us to love not to destroy. 

God gave Adam and Eve freewill to make choices the test of that choice was the tree of knowledge of all good and all evil.  We do not have that same freewill we cannot choose to be sinless.  We are cursed, that is what a curse is, and you cannot escape this curse unless someone else lifts the curse from you.  That is what is new; God has procured a means of lifting the results of the curse and gives us another result.  Instead of receiving death we receive life.  Through God’s mercy we are saved from the consequences of the law.  Through God’s grace we are given the opposite of what the law demands we receive.  Instead of death we receive life.

Isaiah 42:6–8 ⁶“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, ⁷to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

            God gives us a savior to wash away the sin that breaks the law and demands us to suffer an eternal death.  We are blind to the curse we are under and also prisoners to our sinful nature.  God has given us a mirror to shows us what we are blinded to, the mirror is His law.  God’s law shows us we are sinners, and that we are plunged into darkness.  Our Lord and savior is the light that illuminates our way out of this prison of sin and graces us with salvation, everlasting life and eternal relationship with God..

            Isaiah 42:1 ¹Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

            Man’s justice is to make sure we punish as many as we can so that we can live in an illusion thinking we have made things better for ourselves. God’s justice is to justify you to Him that He does not lose you but rather He keeps you forever.  The law however, needs to fulfill the consequences that are demanded for breaking the law and God knows this must be done in order to save what He loves.  So God gives up something He loves to save many.  God gives up His only begotten Son to death for our sin.  However God raises His Son to let us know we too will be raised as we become His adopted Children.

Isaiah 42:2–4 ²He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; ³a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. ⁴He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

            Though many have that “faintly burning wick ” of faith Christ still dies for them too as He dies and received the punishment for all sin past, present and future.  Christ through His resurrection defeats death and Satan once and for all we are the all.  Christ washes us clean and now justifies us to God the Father, so that we are now righteous in His eyes.  We are now serving in the justice of our Lord our God, saved for eternal life and relationship with Him.

Christ has made us again to become God-kind in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

By Pastor Curtis A. May