In a recent post I made the case that the Lord is our salvation because He is our righteousness, that we can’t save ourselves. Isaiah 61 makes that same point beautifully, that our salvation is wholly the work of God. This Christian theological fact is what separates Christianity from every other religion on earth because they are man-made religions. When human beings invent a religion, man works his way to God and acceptance with God (or the gods), and thus puts God in his debt. God then owes man acceptance because of what he’s done. Because we are born sinners, we are all born “religious,” meaning we think we can earn God’s favor with our works. Christianity, however, declares we are born dead in our sin, alienated and hostile to God and can do absolutely nothing to attain his favor unless God takes the initiative to save us and transform our dead stone hearts to living hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
The first words of Isaiah 61 have profound significance in redemptive history because they are spoken by Jesus near the beginning of his ministry to accomplish the salvation of His people. We read in Luke 4 that he visited his hometown of Nazareth where he had been brought up and was teaching in the synagogue. News about him had spread throughout the whole countryside of Galilee, so we have to imagine there was great anticipation to see what the hubbub was all about. He gets up to read and the scroll of this passage in Isaiah is providentially given to him:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
When he hands the scroll back to the attendant and sits down, Luke says, “The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.” It feels dramatic and we’re waiting for something to happen, and his next words seem to indicate this is it: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” But the people don’t respond to these astonishing words. Maybe the words were not seen as directly Messianic, I’m not sure, but what he says next really gets them ticked off. For some reason, we’re not told, he says, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown,” and then uses the story of Elijah doing miracles only for non-Jews. They were so furious they ran him out of town and tried to throw him off a cliff! You just don’t make stuff like that up!
Jesus had only started his ministry so he walked right through them and left, but his words to these Jews in his hometown were prophetic. You will notice he had stopped the Isaiah quotation mid-sentence and left out these words: “and the day of vengeance of our God.” That vengeance would come against the Jews who will reject their Messiah 40 years later with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and will come at the end of time with the judgment of the living and the dead. Until then it’s all good news, the gospel of the kingdom, of reconciliation and forgiveness of sins, of mercy and grace in Christ. And all of this is of God as we read in verse 3:
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Oaks of righteousness is an interesting phrase. If we think of Oak trees it brings to mind strength and stability, something not easily moved. If our salvation was our doing, we would be weeds, not oaks. As it is, our helplessness is more than clear in the passage. The “they” referred to are those Jesus came to proclaim this good news to, those who are poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed. What is it that has people in such a state? Sin. Alienation from God, their Creator and ours.
These words indicate what Calvinists call total depravity, the utter inability of sinners to save themselves. We’re not sick in our sin, we’re dead in our sin. Big difference. Being poor and oppressed is something we could possibly address by our own efforts, but if we’re blind, there is nothing we can do to make ourselves see, and if we’re in prison, nothing we can do to set ourselves free. It’s all God, all of it, including our faith, our decisions, our will, our affections, He transforms our entire being by the almighty power of his Holy Spirit that our lives might be “for the display of his splendor.”
In New Testament hindsight we know there is a direct connection between “the year of the Lord’s favor” and being an oak of righteousness, “a planting of the Lord.” The Apostle Paul tells us how in Romans 3:
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
We trust in Jesus, and the very righteousness of God is ours! That is why we are at this very moment “oaks of righteousness.” It literally has nothing to do with us! Is that the best news ever or what! This is no longer something we have to try to attain by our own efforts and works, the “religion” I spoke of above. The pressure is off. We no longer have to worry about measuring up to something we can never measure up to anyway. He himself will plant us for our good and his glory. No human beings could ever make up such a religion because it goes against the grain of every inclination of the human religious heart. All grace and mercy? That makes no sense! It is revealed to us that it is true, praise be to God.
The last two verses of the chapter are the icing on God’s sovereign salvific cake:
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
Isn’t it incredible that instead of fearing God and always worrying that we’re just not good enough, that we’re not pulling this Christian thing off like we think we should, we can rejoice in the Lord God because He clothes and covers us? The right answer is yes! It turns “religion” on its head, upside down, inside out, and why Christianity could never, ever, be invented, be a figment of human imagination, mere fiction. If we did make it up, we would never, ever make it this easy. We are completely His work for the display of His splendor, thanks be to God!
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