“Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,
you who are far from righteousness:
I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off,
and my salvation will not delay;
I will put salvation in Zion,
for Israel my glory.”
What is the entire point of the Bible? What is the entire plan of God? Least we forget, God created the earth to be inhabited. Note what Isaiah said in the previous chapter:
For thus says the LORD,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the LORD, and there is no other.
God created the earth to have fellowship with mankind. But, mankind (through Adam’s sin) broke that fellowship. But, God designed a plan to redeem man and bring to him God’s eternal salvation by restoring the relationship between Himself and mankind. That is the plan of God and the story of the Bible. In the above verse we read God’s entire plan. He is bringing His righteousness to mankind. That is it!! Man is unrighteous. He needs to be remade and created in righteousness. That is the new birth. We are, as the verse states, far from righteous. Our natures were forever stained and damaged by Adam’s sin. But, the Plan of God was to bring us His righteousness through the Person of Christ, via the Power of the Spirit, thereby sanctifying us as holy, righteous and good. Note these verses, which demonstrate the New Testament equivalent of the above words of Isaiah:
Romans 3:22 (ESV)
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 1:2 (ESV)
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
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