April 23

" H o! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance."

Isaiah 55:1-2

If it were not for the truth set forth in chapter 53 of Isaiah, there would be no possibility of the gracious invitation of chapter 55. Throughout this entire section of Isaiah (chapters 49 to 57) God is presenting His chosen Servant, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer whose rejection at His first coming was foreknown and plainly predicted. But by His atoning work He was to open up the way for guilty sinners to find peace with God and pardon for all their transgressions. Because of His work God can send forth the gracious invitation for all men everywhere to partake of His salvation. Isaiah has been called “the evangelical prophet” and he well deserves to be so designated. Nowhere else in the Old Testament is the person and work of our Lord revealed so clearly and fully as in this wonderful book. Man is shown to be utterly bankrupt spiritually, destitute of righteousness, and with no claim upon God whatever. Yet Christ, Jehovah’s sinless Servant, is presented as the great sin offering through whose infinite sacrifice all who come to Him in faith will be justified in His sight. His salvation is based upon righteousness. In the cross the sin question has been settled in a righteous way, and so God can now save all who come to Him in faith.

I ask thee for nothing—

Come just as thou art;

Come sinful—come guilty—

Come give Me thine heart;

The fountain is open,—

It is open to thee,

Let thy Saviour not say,—

“Thou lovest not Me.”