Isaiah 50:1-3
Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away?
or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold
yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. 2Wherefore, when I came,
was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it
cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make
the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. 3I
clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
God is not powerless to save even if we’re dumb. We created our own problems, but God is
not limited by them. God has all power even to save idiots. But idiots can have bummer lives
because of their sin, but this does not demonstrate weakness in God
Isaiah 50:6-7
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my
face from shame and spitting. 7For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be
confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Even those who listen to God can have bummer lives! Ultimately picturing the sacrifice of Christ
and His rejection. He was set in His way because His way was of God. There was no shame in
His derision--Luke 9:51-53--as His death approached het set His face to go to Jerusalem--this
was no defeat
Isaiah 50:8-10
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine
adversary? let him come near to me. 9Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall
condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. 10Who is
among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in
darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.
Because God justifies us we need not fear what man can do. No charge will stand in God’s
court, if God is your justifier. If he’s not, many charges will stand! Fear and obedience to God’s
Servant is the result, obedience to God has always been obedience to Christ and His perfect
fulfillment of the righteousness of the Law.
Laying charges to God’s elect--Romans 8:33,34--who can lay anything to the charge of God’s
elect? Nobody, it is God who justifies.
Fearing and obeying Christ, the suffering servant, is the sign of justification
Romans 2:8
But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth
Galatians 3:1
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth
Galatians 5:7
Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Jesus Christ said, “I am the way The Truth and the life.”
Justified people obey the servant, the truth. We are obedient to Christ because we are in Christ,
no more I but Christ and Christ’s life is marked by obedience:
Philippians 2:7,8
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Philippians 2:12,13
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4(For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of
God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6And having in a
readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
Romans 8:29-39
29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he
justified, them he also glorified. 31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, [signifies provision and what He may do
to us] but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he
that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The purpose of our justification is to conform us into Christ’s image, to be called to a life that is
like His--one laid down as a sacrifice. He has given us full provision, satisfaction, reward,
power, and security to live this way. Do we have the faith to trust?