If the Gospel of Jesus could be condensed into one sentence, it would be by someone who never knew Jesus or ever heard him speak. It would be the Prophet Isaiah, speaking God’s own words to the Hebrew people in chapter 43, verse 25: “I even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

In the midst of God’s reminders of Israel’s back-sliding, with a list of rebukes: “You have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel,” (Isaiah 43:22) God paused to remind His people of who He is; and in this reminder God encapsulates His very being, as well as His motive ,”for my own sake.” It is entirely personal that God should “blot out” the sins of His people. They have not asked Him for forgiveness, or even acknowledged their sin of turning away from Him to worship idols made of wood or metal. In this single verse, God revealed Himself as having the larger stake in His relationship to His people. He used His infinite power to “blot out” their self destructive behavior, “for His own sake.”

“For His own sake” elevates the status of God’s people, for God places them in the center of His own interest. It is an amazing revelation of the character of our God, who, in spite of the people of his own creation ignoring Him and even rejecting Him, God responds like a parent who cannot bear to disown his or her child, regardless of their disobedience. God still sees Himself in His creation, and He loves His own.

It gets clearer and clearer when Mary says “Yes” to Gabriel’s message to her that she would bear an altogether unique child who would be both divine and human. Now God’s yearning for an obedient people would be fulfilled through His son Jesus, who would bring to his Father a new people who would recognize their God, and through His son, they would seek and find the path to His kingdom. This story that fills the Gospels with the knowledge and message of Jesus himself, is contained in Isaiah’s single sentence. He spoke forgiveness to a disobedient people, without even knowing the one who gave himself for that forgiveness for others. For more than two Thousand years people have returned to Isaiah’s words and found the Spirit of the Gospel written, even before Christ was born. Now we can all read Jesus’ words to find his kingdom.

Love in Him,

Prue