It's all about Relationship!

By: Becca- Bluett Duncan, UK

More about Becca:

Becca is a 23-yr-old newly qualified speech and language therapist , passionate for Jesus. She lives in Leeds, UK. She’s been involved in few youth ministries recently. She's the 'student worker' for her Local Church at the moment. She likes to dance, and writes beautifully on her own blog!:) http://www.findingflapjack.blogspot.com/

The other day I was reading some chapters of Isaiah. The last thing I expected to find was the gospel story. Prophecies of a Messiah, yes, but I always thought it came in pieces like a jigsaw. Then in one chapter I found the entire gospel story!

It all begins in Isaiah 59:1-2.

1Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,

or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

2 but your iniquities have made a separation

between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden his face from you

so that he does not hear.

There is no limit to our God’s power. But mankind’s sin has put up a huge barrier between us and Him. I love the sentiment of this verse, I can almost imagine God saying, “I didn’t put up this barrier, I didn’t want it! I want to reach out my arm to save you; I want to listen to and converse with you; but your sins are forcing you away from me.” A God who loves his people.

The rest of the chapter (read the whole thing here) goes on to list all of the terrible things that the people are doing that break God’s heart and cause the separation. In verse 15, God steps in. He sees that there is no man who is pure enough to bridge the gap so he himself steps onto the scene to bring salvation. Verse 16 says:

16 He saw that there was no man,

and wondered that there was no one to intercede;

then his own arm brought him salvation,

and his righteousness upheld him.

Down comes that strong arm to save, in spite of all our sin. God is reunited with his children. The chapter finishes with promise of a Redeemer and a Spirit that will never leave His people, or their descendants, ever.

What I love so much about this is that God said it 700 years before Jesus ever came on the scene! This is no last-minute plan. Isaiah 43:11-12 says

11 I, yes I, am the LORD,

and there is no other Saviour.

12 First I predicted your rescue,

then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world.

No foreign god has ever done this.

You are witnesses that I am the only God,”

says the LORD.

For centuries, millennia, God has been talking about his plan to reunite himself with us. It’s all about Relationship.

Paul reminds us that we were still dead in our sins when Jesus died for us- not the holy and righteous ones we are today (Romans 5:8). Isaiah 43:25 tells us that God blots out our sins for His own sake- because He wants to!

How unknowable is that, that a divine God who created everything and has need of nothing, would choose to limit himself, come down to earth as a man in order to suffer and die, to save a race who had only rejected and separated themselves from him, in order that we might have a renewed relationship with him (Eph 1:4-5). Wow.

It’s all about relationship!
Becca