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God’s hearty invitation
For building our confidence upon this solid ground, these four warrants and special motives to believe in Christ may serve. The first is God’s hearty invitation that He shows forth in: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you” (Isaiah 55:1–5 ESV).
After setting down the precious ransom of our redemption by the sufferings of Christ, and the rich blessings purchased to us thereby in the two former chapters (Isaiah 53, 54), in this chapter:
The Lord makes an open offer of Christ and His grace by proclamation of a free and gracious “market” of righteousness and salvation to be had through Christ to every soul without exception that truly desires to be saved from sin and wrath. “Come, everyone who thirsts,” says He.49
The Lord invites all sinners that stand at a distance from God for any reason to come and take from Him riches of Grace running in Christ as a river to wash away sin and to abate wrath. “Come to the waters,” says He.
Lest any should stand back from a sense of his own sinfulness or unworthiness and inability to do any good, the Lord calls upon such persons especially, saying, “He who has no money, come.”
The Lord craves no more of His “customer,” except that he will be pleased with the wares offered, which are grace and more grace, and that he will heartily consent to and embrace this offer of grace, that he may accept God’s wares and accept a formal Covenant with God. “Come, buy … without money,” says He. “Come, buy and eat!” That is, consent to have and take to yourself all saving graces, make the wares your own, possess them, and make use of all blessings in Christ. Take whatever makes for your Spiritual life and comfort. Use and enjoy it freely without paying anything for it. “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price,” says God.
The Lord knows how much we are inclined to:
Seek righteousness and life by our own works
Give our own satisfaction for our sins
Have righteousness and life by means of our works
God also knows how greatly reluctant we are to embrace Christ Jesus and to take life by way of free grace through Jesus Christ upon the terms with which it is offered to us. Therefore the Lord lovingly calls us off these things, our crooked and unhappy way, with a gentle and seasonable admonition; He gives us to understand that we will only lose our labor by going our own way. “Why do you spend your money,” He says, “for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”
The Lord promises us solid satisfaction in the walk and life in the grace of Christ, even true contentment, and fullness of spiritual pleasure, saying, “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”
Because faith comes by hearing, He calls for attentive listening to the explanation of the offer. He calls for listening to and believing the truth, which is able to beget the application of saving faith and to draw the soul to trust in God. “Incline your ear, and come to me,” says He. For this purpose, the Lord promises that this offer, when received, will enliven the dead sinner. And, upon welcoming this offer, He will put into effect the Covenant of Grace with the person that will consent to it, even an inviolable perpetual Covenant of perpetual reconciliation and peace. “Hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant.” God declares that He will put this Covenant into effect and assign and make over to the believer of all the saving graces that David (who is Jesus Christ)50 has bought for us in the Covenant of Redemption. “I will make with you an everlasting covenant,” says God, “my steadfast, sure love for David.” By sure love, He means saving graces, such as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, adoption, sanctification, and glorification, and whatever belongs to godliness51 and eternal life.
To confirm and assure us of the real grant of these saving mercies, and to persuade us of the reality of the Covenant between God and the one who believes His Word, the Father has made a four-part gift of His eternal and only begotten Son:
Christ was made the God-Man and born for our sakes the offspring of David. Because David was a type52 of Christ, He is called here and in Acts 13:34, David. Christ is the true and everlasting King of Israel and the great gift of God to mankind, as implied in “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water’” (John 4:10 ESV).53
God made a gift of Christ to be a witness to the people, both of the sure and saving mercies granted to the redeemed in the Covenant of Redemption, and also of the Father’s willingness and purpose to apply those mercies. Christ is also a witness to the promise to make believers secure in the Covenant of Reconciliation, which is made with those who embrace the offer. “Behold, I made him,” says the Lord here, “a witness to the peoples.” And truly he is a sufficient witness in this matter in many respects, because:
He is one of the Persons of the blessed Trinity and Covenanter for us in the Covenant of Redemption before the world was.
In His office as Mediator, Christ is the messenger of the Covenant, and has received a commission to reveal it.
Christ actually began to reveal the Covenant in the Garden in Paradise, where He promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent.
Before His coming, Christ set forth His own death and sufferings and the great benefits that would thus come to us in the types and figures of sacrifices and ceremonies.
Christ gave more and more light about this Covenant, speaking by His Spirit from age to age in the holy prophets.
Christ Himself came in the fullness of time, and bore witness of all things belonging to this Covenant, and of God’s willing mind to take believers into it. Christ did this by:
Uniting our nature in one person with the Divine Nature
Preaching the good tidings of the Covenant with His own mouth
Paying the price of Redemption on the Cross
Continuing to deal with people from the beginning to this day, to draw and hold the redeemed into this Covenant
God has made a gift of Christ, “a leader … for the peoples,” to bring us into life by this Covenant, and that through all difficulties, all afflictions, and all temptations. And He it is, and no other, Who indeed leads His own into the Covenant, and in the Covenant, all the way on to salvation:
By the direction of His Word and Spirit
By the example of His own life, in faith and obedience, even to the death of the cross
By His powerful working while they go up through the wilderness,54 bearing His redeemed ones in His arms and causing them to lean on Him
God has made a gift of Christ to His people, as a “commander for the peoples.” He faithfully exercises this office by giving to his Church and people, Laws and Ordinances, pastors, civil officials, and all necessary officers, by keeping courts and assemblies among them to see that His Laws are obeyed. He subdues by His Word, Spirit, and discipline His people’s corruptions, and by His wisdom and power, guards them against their enemies.
Hence, anyone who has accepted the Covenant with God may strengthen his faith by reasoning after this manner: Whoever heartily receives the offer of free grace made here to sinners, who thirsts for righteousness and salvation, then by everlasting Covenant, Christ, the true David, belongs to him, with all his sure and saving mercies. “But I,” may the weak believer say, “do heartily receive the offer of free grace made here to sinners who thirst for righteousness and salvation. Therefore to me belongs Christ Jesus, with all his sure and saving mercies, by an everlasting Covenant.”
49 Readers unfamiliar with Isaiah chapters 53 and 54 will do well to read them now. Also, those unfamiliar with the symbolism of the Old Testament and Scripture as a whole may question whether the authors of the Sum are correctly interpreting and applying the above quoted passage (Isaiah 55:1–5) to our lives today. The answer is “yes,” as attested by numerous highly respected Bible commentators and theologians, including the reformer John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Book House, 1984) pp. 153–65.) and Matthew Henry (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, Volume 4 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), pp 248–51).
50 “And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David’” (Acts 13:34 ESV).
51 The word godliness means: Careful observance of, or conformity to, the laws of God; piety; loving obedience to the will of God, and earnest devotion to His service.
52 In theology, a type of something, is an earlier thing or person that prefigures or illustrates one or more characteristics of another and later person or thing. So a type of Christ is someone who illustrates or prefigures one or more characteristics of the incarnate Christ. David prefigured Christ in many ways because he was an anointed king of Israel, a man after God’s own heart, a successful warrior against God’s enemies, a recipient of God’s promises, and so on.
53 Whether the interpretation of gift in this passage is correct or not, certainly, Christ is a great gift of God to man.
54 Wilderness is here symbolic of life’s difficulties, struggles, and temptations as the Israelites had as they wandered in the Wilderness for forty years.
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