The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts. [Isaiah 57.15]
This is a beautiful promise to us. It serves to remind us that repentance is a good thing and enables us to live in God's presence. Repentance precedes restoration.
Repentance precedes restoration...
Isaiah 57.15 points out that contrition and humility are the evidence of repentance.
But check this out, there was someone else Isaiah prophesied about who was of this contrite and humble disposition:
He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. [Isaiah 53.3-6]
Isaiah's foreknowledge of Jesus is amazing. But, it is also very deep and revealing.
If Isaiah 57.15 is about repentance - and contrition and humility are involved, and if Jesus would be a man of contrition and humility - then Jesus was repentant. THINK! A man of no sin was repentant? WHY? Because "it was OUR weaknesses He carried: it was OUR sorrows that weighed Him down..."
Okay, so... if Jesus repented for us, then what need is there for us to repent?
Ready for this? In Jesus' anguish on the Cross, He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23.34) Why is this significant? Because this is what true repentance looks like according to Matthew 6:
“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. [Matthew 6.14]
and...
It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ [Luke 24.47]
Repentance precedes restoration!
As Jesus carried the punishment for mankind's sin to the Cross, He effectively repented for everyone's sin in His forgiveness of them.
Forgiveness of others so that we might be forgiven is impossible outside a contrite and humble spirit. I am not the authority on forgiveness, but God's Word is. Jesus is. And, there is simply no room for arrogance and unforgiveness in any would-be follower of Jesus. God does not dwell with any except those whose spirits are contrite and humble... AND THIS INCLUDES HIS VERY OWN SON!
What is it then that puts us "in Christ" so we might enjoy that forgiveness? When we, like Christ, can say of those who persecute us, "Father forgive them!" Nothing more effectively secures our own forgiveness than our forgiveness of others because nothing is more significantly like Jesus in our lives than when we forgive!
Here is another nugget: there is no purer, more powerful expression of faith than forgiveness.
And with that, I will recede to my own contemplation!
Father, the revelation of Jesus on the Cross, starting with Isaiah's prophecy and continuing in the new Testament with Jesus' own words and instruction, is an amazing display of Your brilliance. Help me today to get a more accurate understanding of forgiveness and how it translates into repentance and faith.
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