Based on Isaiah 62 (New King James Version)
“For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. I have set watchmen on your walls, o Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength: ‘Surely I will no longer give your grain as food for your enemies; and the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored. But those who have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts.’ Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples! Indeed the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world: ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.’’ And they shall call them The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken.
God truly loves His people. There is no doubt. And He promises to do great things with them. There is no doubting that either. That has always been His plan, His desire. It is not necessarily God’s will to punish the wicked, but also, punishment needs to come because God is not only a God of love, but also, a Holy God. He is both things because otherwise, He would not be perfect, and undoubtedly, God is perfect. And if a person thinks otherwise, then they have no hope. Nothing can be obtained from God if this concept that God is perfect does not exist because much, the most important part, rests on the person of God. To be able to understand this better, it is necessary to go deeper, because precisely on the person of God is that this beautiful hope and promise we have in Him rests on.
The first thing we need to understand is the person of God. God is God. He has always existed. There was no one before Him, and there will be none greater after Him. He always is, just as He revealed it to Moses, as it is written: And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:14. And nothing has changed since then, for it is also written: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. Now, someone may ask, “Is Jesus Christ God?” and the answer is, “Yes.” He is the same Lord that existed before, the One that was with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, and even with this Moses. Jesus is the I AM. We see the following in the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:1-3. “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” 1 John 5:7. “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Colossians 1:16-17. And here is where we see where He mentions Himself as the I AM and what happened when He did: “They answered Him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am He.’ And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” John 18:5-6. So then, since Jesus is God, and since He was from before, the One that gave this promise through Isaiah, as the Great, Fearful, and Almighty God, then we can establish that we can count on Him that such a promise could be fulfilled. Since God is God, He can assure us that all of this can happen, what depends on Him. He has the power and the way to make possible anything He promises.
Now then, does absolutely everything depend on God? If we are referring to the establishing of the parameters so this can happen, of course. Just as He did with creation, He is the One that establishes the parameters for everything. But, the issue is that within the parameters He established, there is a place for man’s decision, and that He chooses not to control everything within that because He established that men should choose their own way. And here enters this famous free will. Some take God’s perfection as something that gives place for men not to have any responsibility for their actions, and that God is the One that resolves everything, even man’s rebellion, and things do not work like that. From the moment that God inserts the word “love” in the relationship between Him and us, like loving Him with our whole being, He has then left a place for decision, because not even God forces love. That is the whole matter. God allowed for sin to exist so there could be an option for either following Him or not, to see if a person really loves Him or not. We see this, for example, in two places in the Word: “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.” Deuteronomy 30:14-16. And also: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36. It is clear in both passages that choice—free will exists. Love means decision and choice, and man has the capacity to choose, which is one of the great likenesses we have with the Most High as created beings.
So then, how can we attain the promise that God gives us in Isaiah? It is necessary to do our part, with what God has established as the part that corresponds to what man needs to do to obtain what God offers. The Bible gives us this counsel on God’s behalf: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9. Nothing divine or eternal can be obtained with sin: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23. No matter what our condition is and the sins we may have committed, if we repent with all our heart, and we turn completely to God, there is forgiveness, redemption, and promises that can be found through Christ. The Lord is the One that makes it all possible, if we convert to Him and we love Him, just as His Word tells us to do, for our own good. So then, have you done your part so you can experience in your own life God’s restoration through Jesus Christ? Lord bless! John