Grace Part 2: Through Faith

What is the key that unlocks God's grace in our lives? In my last post I talked about how God's grace is the way to both salvation and sanctification. It is not the means to one and not the other, but to both. In this post, I want to look at how God's grace works.

Isaiah 30 might be one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible because it gives such a clear picture of how God's grace works. (And by grace I am referring to God's saving grace.)

The whole first part of the chapter is basically "woe to My children (Judah)" for being rebellious. And in verses 15-16 God sums up their rebellion.

"For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said, 'In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.' But you were not willing, And you said, 'No, for we will flee on horses,' Therefore you shall flee! 'And we will ride on swift horses,' Therefore, those who pursue you shall be swift."

Summary? God tells Judah to turn back to Him and trust Him, and that if they do, He will save them (from their enemy, Syria). But they didn't want to be saved; they wanted to save themselves. Judah didn't want to return to God; they wanted to remain independent of Him. They tried to take refuge in Egypt (vs 2), instead of in God. And therefore, God said he would frustrate their plans, and when Judah's enemies pursue them, instead of being victorious, they will flee.

Then look at verse 18.

"Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who wait for him."

I love what was just said. God is up in Heaven longingly waiting to show grace and compassion to Judah. He really wants to show them grace and save them from their enemies, but he's not doing it yet. Why not? Why is he waiting to show them grace?

The answer is that He is a God of justice. And His justice permits him to show grace to those who trust and wait for Him. But Judah is not trusting God. As long as they try with their own strength to save themselves, God's saving grace is going to be restrained. He wants to do it, but he won't.

The key to unlock God's saving grace will be for Judah to put their faith in Him and cry out to Him for salvation. Just as God longingly waits to show grace to them, he wants them to longingly wait for Him to save them.

"He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you." (Verse 19b)

I think I will talk about the implications of this in our lives in the next post.