Year 3, Day 45: Isaiah 61

A Trinitarian Confession

Another chapter with an incredible opening verse!  Did you catch the Trinity in Isaiah 61:1?  I’ll confess.  I didn’t.  But fortunately one of the commentaries that I use in studying God’s Word caught it!

Look again.  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.”  Right there.  All three persons of the Trinity.  Okay, so you might feel like I am cheating with the “me” part.  So continue on in verse 1.  “Because the Lord has anointed me.”  The Hebrew word for “anointed” is literally mashach, which is the word that we put into English as Messiah.  So, we could literally say that the middle of verse 1 reads, “Because the Lord has messiahed me.”  Who is the Messiah but Jesus?  Therefore, we can say in a very clever and a very incredible way that Isaiah 61:1 is Trinitarian in its theology!  How cool is that?  The Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to write something that made sense in his day but wouldn’t be fully understood for several hundred years later.  I love scripture like that.  To me, it just proves God’s absolute sovereignty over life and His Word.

The Job Of The Messiah

So what is it that the Lord has messiahed the subject of these verses to do?  {I’m sorry if it annoys you, but I think today I am inspired to use the word messiah as a verb.  I know it really isn’t a verb.  Just bear with me.  I promise I won’t make too much of a habit of it.}

• Bring Good News to the poor.
• Bandage the broken-hearted
• Proclaim liberty to the captives
• Release the imprisoned from their prisons.

Do you know what I love about that list?  That list is precisely what God is currently doing within me right now.  It is a process that began almost 3 decades ago when I was 8 years old and I truly just began to grasp what God did through Jesus.  Yet it is a process that hadn’t really begun in earnest until about 5 years ago.  But I can honestly say that the more and more I consider myself with respect to the agendas of the world, God is alive and well within me with respect to bringing good news to my poor spirit, bandaging up my broken heart, proclaiming liberty to me with respect to the idols that hold me captive, and releasing the bondage of sin that so readily weighs me down.  That is what the Messiah has been called to do in this world.  It is what the Messiah is doing in me and in thousands – perhaps even millions – of people across the globe.  Behold – the Messiah of the Lord has come!

Time In God’s Eyes

Then we get to verse two.  As I read verse 2 I am genuinely struck by the comparison of time listed here.  We are told of a “year of the Lord’s favor” and a “day of the Lord’s vengeance.”  Again we see the blessed pairing of Law and Gospel.  Again we see that there cannot be forgiveness without repentance.  There cannot be … aw, shoot.  I’ll just let Bonhoeffer say it.  He says it so much better than I could ever say it anyway.  This is from The Cost of Discipleship:

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

You see?  With God, when we do things correctly there is always a “year of favor” AND a “day of vengeance.”  Forgiveness comes through repentance.  Baptism comes through spiritual discipline.  Communion comes following confession.  Grace comes through discipleship.  Grace comes through the cross.  Grace and Gospel abound, but there is always both the Law and the Gospel.

In fact, the Law and the Gospel may not be in balance.  I hope that it isn’t!  I believe God to be of the character that His grace far outweighs His judgment.  But that does not mean God’s judgment is not present.  There absolutely will be a day of judgment; there will be a year of God’s favor.  Amen!

The World’s Response

So as we look to the rest of this chapter, what is the effect of the coming of the one that the Lord has messiahed?  The nations will gather.  The ancient places of “relationship with God” shall be rebuilt.  The ruin and devastation of earlier times will be overcome.  We will fellowship and work alongside strangers and foreigners – and we shall be priests to serve our God!  Priests, I tell you!  With the coming of the Messiah we shall be priests! 

Men, women, children, people of all race and tongue – we can be priests to serve our God!

Wow.  I feel myself getting caught up emotionally a good bit in this chapter today.  But why shouldn’t I?  With the coming of the Messiah is also a coming of righteousness.  I can feel it within me.  I can feel Him within me.  Can you?

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