Chapter Seventeen: His Ways Are Not Our Ways

Tonight we are in one of my favorite chapters in one of my favorite books of the Bible: Isaiah 55. This chapter, in my opinion, is one of the most hopeful, sweet, and God-glorifying chapters in the whole Bible. Many people love Romans chapter 8, and rightly so, but I think Isaiah 55 is the Romans 8 of the OT.

The chapter in our book focuses on the phrase “my ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts.” Ortlund comments on this that many times people use that phrase in relation to a difficulty someone is facing. They unexpectedly lose their job and we try to encourage them by reminding them “his ways are not our ways.”

This applies to a variety of situations, and it is biblically true. God’s providential purposes, His guiding of all things for His glory and our good (i.e., Christlikeness), completely blows our minds. His ways are truly not our ways.

However, just as we use Philippians 4:13 out of context, we use this phrase out of context. This phrase does not refer to God’s providential rule in our lives. It refers to the astounding nature of God’s love and grace and forgiveness.

I. The Call to Repentance and Faith- 55:6-7

What we have in this chapter of Isaiah is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the call to repentance from sins and faith in God’s forgiveness (i.e., faith in Messiah).

This is Gospel 101. God is the creator. He made everything with His word as we learn from Genesis chapter 1. He created humanity in His image and gave humanity several commands and one prohibition. Humanity, though free from sin and living in paradise (literally heaven on earth), rejected God’s rule in their lives. As a result, they plunged themselves into sin. Our minds, emotions, and wills have all been infected by this spiritual disease. We died spiritually that day, and every human being since that time has been born in sin.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”

Paul elaborates on the terror of the situation in Ephesians 2:1-3. We were hopeless. God had to intervene if we were to be saved. And He did. Ephesians 2:4 and following give us the greatest news in the universe, that through God’s grace we can repent (turn) from our sins and trust the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Christian, never tire of this good news. A love the hymn “Jesus Loves Even Me,” and particularly because it is all about the sweetness of the gospel. Listen to the last verse.

“O, if there's only one song I can sing, When in His beauty I see the great King, This shall my song in eternity be: O, what a wonder that Jesus loves me!”

If there was only one song we could sing to Jesus, Philip Bliss says let it be this one: that Jesus loves even me.

As a side note, this is the gospel we get to proclaim to this world. This is the good news for “the wicked” and the “unrighteous man.” It is good news indeed!

II. The Cofounding Revelation of God- 55:8-9

As we rejoice and praise God for this good news, the wonder that Jesus loves even me, we begin to think and ask questions. Why? Why does Jesus love even me? Why does Yahweh say, “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near” with the result that “the LORD will have compassion on him” and “abundantly pardon him”? WHY!?

We bring nothing to God, He is self-sufficient.

We bring God no more joy, He is eternally happy in Himself.

We could go on, but you get the point. It is not that God gets the short end of the stick. In this exchange, He receives nothing in return. So, why?

This is the confounding revelation of God: His ways are not our ways. He is not like us, as Ortlund says. This is what Ortlund says,

“Returning to God in fresh contrition, however ashamed and disgusted with ourselves, he will not tepidly pardon. He will abundantly pardon.” (156-157)

If we could picture this graphically, it would be like us bringing a bathroom cup filled with our sin, and God dumps His abundant pardon of the Niagara Falls over all. The bathroom cup is around 3 ounces and in one second 3,100 tons of water flows over Niagara Falls. 1 ton is 32,000 ounces, and 3,100 tons is a lot of ounces!

God uses a very concrete example of this that the Hebrews would understand immediately: the distance between heaven and earth. God’s gracious and pardoning is completely outside our ability to understand. We cannot fathom it.

Listen, if you tire of the gospel, the good news that God forgives your sins, your heart is cold. This is a terrible state in which to live, and I would argue spiritually dangerous (cf. 2 Pet. 1:9).

John Newton, the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” lived an incredibly wicked life. The Lord graciously saved him, and toward the end of his life he wrote, “Although my memory’s failing, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior.”

Let that be our thoughts about this confounding revelation of God.

III. The Christ Who Incarnates this Truth- Matt. 11:28-30

This all brings us back to Christ and our starting point of this entire study (and will continue for a while).

Our thoughts of God must be realigned with Scripture

Our Gospel is the greatest news in the universe—let it encourage our evangelism