Why Salvation Waits

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. . . .”The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord.

Isaiah 59:1-2, 20

The People’s Complaint

Have you ever complained to God, asking him why he has not answered your prayers? Have you ever questioned why he has not delivered, healed, and blessed you? Isaiah 59 speaks about such a complaint lodged by the people of Israel. God’s people had concluded that their covenant Lord did not answer their prayers because he was either not almighty or insensitive to their needs.

Why does God not come speedily to our aid every time we call on him? Why does salvation wait? Why is deliverance far away? These are valid questions for us as well, and we find the answers here in Isaiah’s prophecy.

First, we must realize that it is not due to any lack in God that we do not experience deliverance. In Isaiah 50:2 God asks his people, “Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?” In fact, God himself declares in Isaiah 59:1, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”

Why, then, does God not always rush to the aid of his people? The reason is stated in Isaiah 50:1: “Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.” The fault lies with us.

The people of God have a long history of blameshifting. When he sinned, Adam did not confess to God, “I myself sinned against your command.” Rather, he shifted blame to Eve and to God, saying, “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12). Eve likewise shifted blame, saying, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13). Ever since that time, we all try to shift blame to God and others when we sin. Thus, when Israel was not experiencing deliverance, they concluded, “The Lord is not faithful to his covenant.” They accused God and excused themselves.

But the Lord will not accept our blameshifting. How can God be unfaithful to his covenant? He is the almighty, unchanging God who cannot lie. The arm of the Lord, which represents the personal power of God, is ever mighty to save. The Lord himself asked Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). Throughout the book of Isaiah we find references to this mighty arm of God: “See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him” (Isaiah 40:10); “My arm will bring justice to nations” (Isaiah 51:5); “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:10); “His own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him” (Isaiah 59:16); “My own arm worked salvation for me” (Isaiah 63:5). The almighty God does not require any outside help; but we do. As dependent creatures, we would cease to exist if God did not uphold us by his mighty outstretched arm. The whole universe is held together by his power.

Additionally, the almighty, omnipotent God is also a compassionate Savior. In Isaiah 40 we read, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” (v. 29), and, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength” (v. 31). God’s ears are ever-attentive to the prayers of his people. We are told in Isaiah 58:9, “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here am I.'” In fact, Isaiah 65:24 tells us that God will answer even before we articulate our prayers: “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

Since God is mighty to save and compassionate, why then does he not answer our prayers? Why does salvation wait?

The Lord’s Charge against His People

We want to put the blame on God, but he clearly states that the fault is ours. Our iniquities, our transgressions, and our sins are the reason God hasn’t answered our prayers.

In the Hebrew Bible, the word “iniquities” appears five times in Isaiah 59-in verses 2, 4, 6, 7, and 12. Iniquity speaks about the total depravity of man, particularly the twisted, warped condition of the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” The word “transgressions” is used four times-twice in verse 12, and once each in verses 13 and 20. What is transgression? It is a conscious and deliberate rejection of God’s rule in our life, a flouting of God’s law. “Sin” appears two times-in verse 2 and verse 12. Sin is missing the mark. It is the non-performance of God’s will.

God is not the one to blame for our lack of deliverance. It is we who have created the wall of separation between ourselves and God. So he says in Isaiah 59:2, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

Not only does God make a general charge of sin, but he also specifies the particular sins of which we are guilty. In verse 3 God says, “Your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt.” This is an old charge. In Isaiah 1:15 God had said, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.”

God continues in Isaiah 59:3, charging, “Your lips have spoken lies.” This is the very definition of postmodernism – rejecting God’s objective revelation and embracing a lie. It is creating our own reality in our head and expressing it out loud. It is like a spider’s web passing itself off as a garment (v. 6).

God brings further charges against his people in verse 4: “They conceive trouble and give birth to evil.” Where do we conceive such wickedness? In our hearts (v. 13). Verse 7 says, “Your feet rush to sin.” Additionally, it says, “their thoughts are evil thoughts.” The very imagination of man is warped and twisted. Genesis 6:5 expresses the same truth: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” So every part of their being is involved. This is total depravity.

If people persist in such a path of wickedness, what will be the sum total of their life’s achievements? Destruction and worthlessness, pictured here by Isaiah as snake’s eggs and spider’s webs (vv. 5-6). All our plans will be but the weaving of spider’s webs, trying to create useless fig-leaf garments. And those who come in contact with us will die eating viper’s eggs. Jesus once asked, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Oh, we may work very hard, running hither and thither, even working overtime. But if we are children of the devil, we will only speak lies, produce snake’s eggs, and spin spider webs. Masquerading as the covenant people of God, we will accuse God and excuse ourselves.

Verse 8 declares, “There is no justice in their paths.” How often do the powerful use the law to suppress the weak! They create violence everywhere and shed innocent blood. Such people walk in the crooked paths of their own creation. Because they are self-centered, they have no love for God and, therefore, no love for God’s people. They refuse to know the way of peace and so they do not experience peace. They are fearful, anxious, depressed, hopeless, and confused. Yet they shift the blame to God, the Holy One, who is incapable of sinning!

Verses 14-15 further describe this miserable situation: “Truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found.” We see this today also. Truth is almost impossible to find, whether in political life, in the courts, in the legislature, in the executive branch, in the media, in the universities, in the churches, in the business world, in the home, or in personal life. We are surrounded by lies and postmodernism. Having rejected God and his revelation, people create their own reality.

Truth as revealed in the Scriptures-truth as it is in Jesus, truth of an objective triune God, truth of creation, fall, and redemption-cannot be found easily, and when it is, it is often negated, mocked, and trampled down. Just as the true prophets of the Old Testament were stoned to death, so today anyone who stands for truth is reviled, opposed and vilified.

Total depravity is an irreversible condition for which there is no human solution. Thus Paul says in Romans 3:10-18, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Having negated God and his revelation, the fool says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).

The People’s Confession

Is there any cure for our wicked condition? “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). By the mighty creative work of God’s Holy Spirit, the elect people of God will be led to confess their wicked sinfulness. Isaiah 55:6-7 says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

As long as we shift blame to God and to others, as long as we refuse to repent and confess our sins, as long as we refuse to say, “Have mercy upon me, the sinner,” we shall not experience God’s salvation. But beginning in verse 9 of Isaiah 59, the focus suddenly shifts. Now we hear the people of God confessing their sins, with Isaiah including himself in the company of the confessing, elect sinners. This section is like the communal laments of Daniel 9, Ezra 9, and Nehemiah 9. There is no more blameshifting, no more excusing themselves and accusing God and others. The first-person pronouns we, our, and us appear many times in this section. The elect people of God now agree that, rather than being the problem, God is their only solution. They agree that they themselves are the problem, the reason their salvation has been delayed. They acknowledge that they are full of iniquity, transgression, and sin.

The people’s condition is described as being imprisoned in darkness. Isaiah says, “Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes” (v. 10). They are like the man in John 9 who was born blind and perhaps eyeless. We are all sinners since birth; yea, since conception we are in the dark prison of sin, and we can only grope along the walls, for we are blind and have no eyes. Proverbs 4:19 says, “But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.”

But blindness is not our biggest problem. Verse 10 also says we are like the dead. What a clear, comprehensive, self-denying, Christ-honoring, Spirit-produced glorious confession this is! No one can make such a confession unless God creates it within him. Because we are dead, we need a spiritual resurrection; God himself must raise us up.

This is what John Murray calls man’s total inability to save himself. Ephesians 2:4-6 says, “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” Burdened by the weight of our sin and our guilt, Isaiah says, “We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves” (v. 11). In Psalm 32:3-4 David describes our condition: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” But then he says, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’-and you forgave the guilt of my sin” (v. 5).

There is hope for the confessing sinner! There is light, full pardon, and liberty for the confessing sinner. There is guidance, healing, and communion for the confessing sinner. In other words, there is salvation for the confessing sinner.

I pray that we will acknowledge our sins and say with David, “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4). Let us say with the publican, “God, have mercy on me, the sinner.” (Luke 18:13). That is exactly what is happening in Isaiah 59. In verse 9 the people say, “So justice is far from us.” Now they realize it is because of their sins that salvation is far from them. This is full confession, full agreement with God’s analysis of their problem. There is no argument or negotiation. In verse 12 they say the same thing: “For our offenses are many in your sight,” and in verse 14, “So justice is driven back.” In other words, the people were saying, “We agree with you, O God. Now we know why salvation is far from us. It is all because of our sins.”

In the Hebrew Bible, we find six absolute infinitives in verse 13 in which the people are agreeing with God: they have rebelled against the Lord, denied the Lord, turned away from the Lord, spoken oppression and revolt against the Lord, conceived evil in their hearts, and, finally, uttered lying words from their hearts. The people were saying, “Lord, you are right; we have done all these things.”

I pray that God will help all of us to so confess. No one will do so unless the Holy Spirit creates that confession on his lips. (PGM) In 1 John 1:8-9 we are told, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Christ the Redeemer

Now we must ask: How can a holy God pardon guilty sinners and yet remain holy? God must punish sin, and he does. But rather than punish us guilty sinners, he punishes a substitute. This substitute eagerly and willingly lays down his life for us. He willingly drinks up the cup of the just wrath of God against us (Jeremiah 25). This Savior rescues us from our prison and gives us salvation.

Verse 20 says, “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins.” Who is this Redeemer? Isaiah spoke about him earlier in his prophecy. He is the virgin’s son, Immanuel, God with us. He is the Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of God. He is the Spirit-anointed One and the Suffering Servant. He is perfect God and perfect man, the God/man who is without sin. He is Jesus Christ.

All have sinned (Romans 3:23); therefore, there is no human solution for our sin problem. The solution must come from God through a Redeemer who is both able and willing to save us. The Hebrew word for redeemer, go’el, indicates that the Redeemer must be a blood relative (Ruth 2:20). Jesus Christ is our blood relative, our Boaz. As God incarnate, he alone has the right to redeem us, for he alone can intervene between holy God and miserable sinners to effect our reconciliation.

Throughout the Scriptures we see God looking for someone to intervene, someone to interpose, someone to mediate between himself and sinful man: “The Lord had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them” (2 Kings 14:26); “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30). Sin causes a breach between man and God, and someone must put his body in that breach. In Numbers 16:48 we find Aaron standing in the breach. But the problem with Aaron is that he himself was also a sinner, so he could not atone for our sins. Moses likewise intervened, as we read in Psalm 106:23, “[The Lord] said he would destroy them-had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.” But Moses too was a sinner and could not ultimately save anyone.

In Isaiah 59:16 we are told that the Lord “saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.”

Praise God, God himself provided a Redeemer! The word “redeemer” appears in Isaiah twenty-four times. Isaiah 59:17 describes the Redeemer’s character, commitment, and enduement in terms of his garments: “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.” All this speaks of the ability of this Redeemer to save and to judge. He is mighty to save his people and judge his enemies.

Verse 20 tells us our mighty Redeemer has come to Zion, to the elect of God. He has come from heaven in search of sinners. He has come to us in the incarnation of Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification.

Isaiah 53 tells of this redeeming work of Christ. He is our mediator, our intercessor, the one who comes between holy God and wicked man to make reconciliation and peace. Verse 12 says, “For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” As we read in 1Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” There is no other Redeemer, Savior, or Mediator. Christ alone accomplished salvation. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). And he now saves all who will repent of their iniquities, transgressions, and sins. Isaiah 59:20 declares, “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins.”

But there is no redemption without repentance. This idea was stated earlier in Isaiah 1:27: “Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.” Why does salvation wait? Is it because there is no Redeemer? No! It is because the sinner refuses to repent. He refuses to confess. He refuses to call upon the name of the Lord.

Paul identifies Isaiah 59:20 with Jesus in Romans 11:25-26. He also identifies the Redeemer as Jesus in Romans 10:9 and 13, saying, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved . . . for, ‘Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.'”

Salvation need not wait, for it has come in Jesus Christ. Thus the angel commanded Joseph, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21, KJV), and John the Baptist declared, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, KJV). Your sin and guilt does not have to sit on you as an iron girder pressing you down into depression, misery, fear, anxiety, loneliness, and lostness. For 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). When the gospel is proclaimed, we must add faith to it and come to Christ. Do not wait any longer. Come to him and be liberated from death, blindness, fear, anxiety, and loneliness. The Savior has come. Salvation is accomplished. The feast has been made ready, and God calls all people: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isaiah 55:1). This is a universal call.

In Isaiah 41:14 we are given this wonderful word of encouragement: “‘Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” If we come to him, he will save us.

The Church Christ Creates

As Christ our Redeemer saves all his elect people, he is creating his church, an international body of believers. In Jesus, the Seed of Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. So we read in verse 19: “From the west, men will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.” From the west and from the east, elect sinners from every part of the world will come to hear the gospel, confess their sins, and be saved. In spite of secularism, postmodernism, and unbelief , God will save his people!

In Isaiah 57:18-19 God says of sinful man, “I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, creating praises on the lips of the mourners in Israel”-the Hebrew word is bara, creating out of nothing. “‘Peace, peace, to those far and near,’ says the Lord.” This is the universal proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of his people.

The church is the offspring of the Redeemer. So we read in Isaiah 53:10, “He will see his offspring and prolong his days.” We are dead until God creates life in us by his mighty Holy Spirit. What we need is life! Through regeneration, God puts his life into the soul of man. Through a divine, miraculous, mighty work of God, he raises us from the dead and causes us to understand spiritual realities. The Spirit of the Lord makes the dead alive, enabling them to repent and confess their sins and believe in and live by the word of God. In Isaiah 44:3 God says, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord. . . .'” Notice, it is only because the Spirit of the Lord made them alive that these people can say, “I belong to the Lord. I am his offspring.” Jesus himself said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).

Not only does the Redeemer make us alive by his Spirit, but he also puts his mighty word in our mouths that we may confess it and live by it. This truth is stated in verse 21: “‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the Lord. ‘My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,’ says the Lord.” Notice, God not only guarantees to save us, but also our children. He says he will put his Spirit upon them and his word in their mouths forevermore. As Peter declared, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39).

Are You Waiting to Be Saved?

What about you? Is God’s salvation far from you? Are you groping about in the darkness of your sin and misery? If so, then you must acknowledge that the problem is not with God, but because of your own iniquity, transgression, and sin.

But the Redeemer has come to Zion, and he is coming to you right now. As he came to Zacchaeus, as he came to blind Bartimaeus, as he came to the one possessed of a legion of demons, this mighty Redeemer is coming to you and to me. And he will save all sinners who repent and cry out, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

Do you want deliverance? Do you want healing? Do you want guidance? Do you want forgiveness? Do you want justification? These are all found in Jesus Christ. He is the only Savior. I pray that you will come to him today and be saved.