reflection on Isaiah 63

You said to us, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And You became our Savior. But we grieved Your Holy Spirit; we turned in sin against You towards other gods- believing that our joy was somehow to be found elsewhere, outside of Your presence, where there is the fullness of joy. You hardened our hearts, O Lord, so that we feared You not and could not follow in Your ways. Our eyes were blind so that we could not see the light of the glory of the gospel of Your truth. Our hearts were made dull, and we chased fleeting pleasures, filled our broken cisterns, and drank from wells certain to run dry.

We stood condemned before the Maker and Master of all the universe, who alone is to be praised and feared forever. He who made, governs, and has purposed all of creation for the glory of His name was not pleased with the creature that bore His image. His anger and wrath burned against them, against us. For the honor of His name and for the sake of His holiness, His wrath must be satisfied lest His justice be made cheap. And yet, seemingly, the apocalypse of His judgment was withheld, a common grace was bestowed upon all mankind, even those who sought Him not.

Man frivoled in their sin, content to ignore and spit in the face of the Lord, to commit treason against God Most High in the name of themselves, building a tower to commemorate their greatness and building doctrine to belittle the greatness of God.

Yet the signs were there. Signs and wonders and words of prophecy were spoken declaring that one day, all things would be set right. One day in Jerusalem the great and perfect plan of God Himself was revealed. Impossibly grievous and unforgivable sin met the glorious and indescribably righteous plan of God. What we had planned for evil, God intended for good, penultimate good. Good enough to redeem any man from His sins, to loose any woman from her chains.

And the unbelievable greatness and vastness of God was revealed (though we continue to see but through a glass darkly). From before the creation of the world, God had planned this moment- the crucifixion of His perfect Son, the God-man- to offer forgiveness to mankind and to reveal His attributes and glory all the more clearly to His most beloved creation. And in this substitutionary atonement, the atoning sacrifice of one man whose worthiness cannot be contained in words, showed that God had planned from the beginning- His unflinching, unfailing love for man and unchanging glory and righteousness in all His actions.

For now, He waits, not wanting that any should perish, but that all should come to redemptive faith in His son, until the day in which the moon shall turn to blood and His robe shall be tainted the same as He treads the winepress in wrath alone, setting all things right. He will trample down those who, even in the face of offered forgiveness, do not run to the cross in repentance. And the honor of His holiness shall be known in all the earth.

And there will be a new heavens and new earth, and the chosen, adopted sons and daughters of the King will sit with Him on His throne, having been made perfectly clean, having been given new names and glorified bodies, and each day shall be better than the last.