I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a heavy mist.
Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
This sequence is the reverse of what we would expect. First forgiveness and redemption. Then the call to return.
Indeed it is because of the forgiveness that Israel is called to return.
This follows the pattern throughout Chapter 43, and most of Isaiah. Yes, there has been an exile because of Israel’s idolatry. But now the time of exile is past. God has forgiven and redeemed. He will now make a way in the desert for a return. So – “Come!” says the LORD.
Jesus repeats this sequence in the parable of the prodigal son. The father has forgiven the son long before he sees his son on the horizon, and cuts off his son’s rehearsed confession. This confounds the obedient son who stayed home. It confounds us.
While the son is returning, that return is possible only because the father has already forgiven him. The return and restoration are so much more than the son ever imagines.
“First clean up your act,” we imperiously demand of others, “then come into the fold.”
We make the same demand on ourselves.
But Jesus says just come.
John writes that before we ever loved Him, He first loved us.
The precondition to returning to God has already been satisfied. God has satisfied it Himself.
The reconciliation between God and us is not our own confession and repentance. It is the Cross.
We could not have reconciled ourselves to God if we had wanted to. It is all God’s initiative. It is all the Cross.
So come. Don’t wait until you are qualified. Or have cleaned up your act. Or become righteous enough, or worthy enough, or anything else enough.
Just come.
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