Isaiah 45:21-22 Tell you, and bring them near; yes, let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time?… To human apprehension, light and darkness are not more opposed than justice and mercy. We cannot conceive how they possibly can meet together. But God's ways are not our ways; He is "a just God," leaving not the smallest possibility of escape for the smallest sin; and He is" a Saviour," freely and completely pardoning the most atrocious sinner. I. GOD IS A JUST GOD. The law of God is holy, and just, and good. It is man's plain, reasonable, bounden duty to obey these commandments; and when he fails in the performance of that duty, it is a righteous thing on the part of God to punish him. Some, indeed, have objected to this principle, and have supported their objection by perverting the Scripture doctrine of original sin, alleging that, if man's natural corruption render guilt inevitable, it is unjust in God to punish him for that guilt. To meet this objection in a plain practical manner, we would reply that, before any individual can reasonably plead this excuse in his own case, he must be able to prove that he has never been guilty of any transgression, except those only which were rendered inevitable by his original corruption; for the moment that he knowingly and wilfully breaks the law of God in any one instance, it becomes a righteous thing in the Lawgiver to inflict upon him the threatened punishment. II. GOD IN CHRIST IS A JUST GOD AND A SAVIOUR Jesus Christ is an adequate substitute for the sinner. Every impediment to the most unbounded exercise of mercy being thus righteously removed, the invitation is given forth in all its blessed broadness and fulness unto all lands, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." (D. Dickson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. |
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