Week 16 - Isaiah 43:25

Week 16 – Isaiah 43:25: “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.”

I recently heard John MacArthur answer the question regarding the goodness of God and the existence of evil. He simply stated that everything exists for His glory or the sake of His name. While God does not create evil, He allows it, for His glory. Without evil, where is His glory in grace, mercy, patience, etc.? Charles Spurgeon once described God’s glory in grace in relation to how exquisite the most rare and beautiful diamond appears against a dark black backdrop. If you have not sin and evil, where then is mercy and grace?

In reading Isaiah 43 and 44 you will soon notice that Israel has turned their back on God and is not worthy of any grace or goodness from Him. While not worthy, God still promises to bless them, for His own sake. Let us get one thing straight, we are not worthy of His goodness. We are not so special as to merit a place in His kingdom and grace. We are not so beautiful and amazing that He HAD to save us. Sovereign election is a doctrine easily gleaned from the pages of Scripture that emphasizes the choice God made in the salvation of His people that is based solely in His divine will and not on our perceived worth or righteousness. Look at what He tells Israel before they inherit something they do not deserve…

“Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.
5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. (Deuteronomy 9:4-7)

How about a more poignant example of His divine will in election…

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— (Romans 9:10-11)

We are experiencing a God who shows no partiality regarding mankind. His sovereign election is not based on who we are. All of us find ourselves on the same playing field. We are all sinners, children of wrath (see Romans 3). There is nothing about us that is worthy of God.

Now that you feel worthless, let us rejoice! What!? Yes, you read that right – Rejoice! Why?
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Perhaps you are one of those whom the God rich in mercy chose to spend that mercy on. Meditate on the fact that He chose to make much of His grace by blotting out your transgressions. He gave you worth by making you His child when you were only worthy of His condemnation. You may be His possession for all of eternity because He chose to glorify His name through saving you! If God is going to display the fullness of His glory, all things will be worked to serve that great endeavor.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)