We begin with a look at the relationship between Isaiah 42:16-17 and New Testament exposition of similar material. We are using Scripture to understand Scripture.
God's plans were plans from the foundation of the earth. He waited with holy patience and changed the landscape of salvation. What the law could not do because it functioned through human flesh God did by sending His own Son. That changed everything.
And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods."
Isaiah 42:16-17
He led this blind man in a way he did not know. He also led me in paths I couldn't walk though so He had to guide me. He is the author and finisher of my faith. He justified me and He will continue to work in my life to sanctify me.
I was not born again knowing these things intuitively. These things about my salvation and what happened to me are things I learn after salvation and not by sudden revelation at salvation. At my salvation I may not have understood at all that I was led and guided. I might even have taken the credit for my good decision and described my efforts in seeking God rather than His efforts in seeking me and moving me by the Holy Spirit. In reality, some of the first things I did were to take the credit for my good decision and attempt to evangelize from that position of pride. God had to explain to me that He made my heart live and He led me and He guided and guides me. I didn't learn the lesson early or easily.
He moved me from darkness into light (Ephesians 5:8) illuminates our future and prepares the way for us to walk as Children of Light. I think Scripture illuminates these verses of Isaiah best in Ephesians 2:8-17.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10
Here is God's necessary sovereignty in our salvation experience. The start of our salvation is said to be monergistic because God must overcome our dead hearts by grace as a gift to justify us before God. You were not spiritually weak before salvation. You were spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) and your mind was set on things of the flesh (Romans 8:5) and you were not inclined or able to submit to God (Romans 8:7-8). But God made you alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5) and you were born not by blood, or the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but of God (John 1:13). This is so shocking that many do all they can to avoid force of Scripture on this point and cling to the idea that they chose God. We even had a nationwide evangelistic effort in 1976 and 1977 with the theme "I found it" (apparently revived in a smaller form in 2003 by CCC). Keep in mind that even if you climb a tree to see Jesus you will not be due any praise or commendation for your acrobatics at your salvation. Jesus will simply say that "the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10).
The working out of our salvation, often called sanctification, is said to be synergistic because God prepares works beforehand for us to embrace and do for His glory. We need to be active and prayerful. You won't surprise God or prevent Him from ultimately accomplishing His will but you may grieve the Holy Spirit if you neglect prayer and resist what God has prepared for you. God gets the glory because we are His workmanship doing works that He prepared for us.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:11-12
"Therefore" is there so that we will look back and move forward in the complete Grace of God as we consider these verses. Our situation was hopeless in the extreme and to the utmost. We were separated from Christ because our wills were not subject to God and we would not will our wills to submit to God. The walls were down all the way to hell and you never noticed or understood your position. That made us unable in the deepest sense of the word to perform any action pleasing to God. We were also alienated from what God had promised to do in Israel and we had no part in the covenants of promise. We, each of us, had no hope. Ethic Israel now struggles in the position we as gentiles once held as aliens and strangers to the covenant written in the Blood of Christ. Remember that "no hope" doesn't mean a little tiny bit of hope. We were, and many around us are, utterly lost. Spontaneous generation was a myth of a few generations ago. Spontaneous regeneration is at least as great a myth. Regeneration is not spontaneous. On the contrary it is God breathed. It is like the wind; you don't see where it comes from or goes to but you see the impact . The unsaved heart needs resurrection not healing and our society and churches desperately need this in the form of a God breathed revival.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Ephesians 2:8-17
We (most of us are ethnically Gentiles) were far off but the blood of Christ brings us near. He has made Gentile and Jew into one man or one body. His one body reconciles us and makes us one in Christ. Under the Blood (through the Cross), Christ has eliminated the hostility against God in both Jew and Gentile hearts and the hostility toward sin that God has for those Jews and Gentiles who are now one man. He preached peace for those who were near (the Jews) and peace to those who were far off (the Gentiles). I hope that you can appreciate the light that God has given to us who were in darkness to understand these things. We typically have very little appreciation for the bondage our wills held us in. We preach "free will" as if we are the masters of our fate but our brothers in the reformation knew better. God tells us these things so that we'll be bold in sharing our faith. I had a pastor once who wore an eye patch because he had an eye shot out while working as an evangelist in Cuba. He had to leave Cuba after the revolution but he did not worry about who he was talking to. He was in a convention center and was moving down a corridor when he met Mohammad Ali and so he took the opportunity to shake his hand and share his faith. He understood that if God could save him then he could save Ali. There was no essential difference because, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God (Romans 3:10-11). But we who have been made alive can pray and see God move in the life of Mohammad Ali or our neighbor or coworker.
Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, "Restore!" Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.
Isaiah 42:18-25
I think in our age and society we see may of those exposed to the Gospel (but not converted by the Gospel) acting like the Old Testament Jews. We clearly have many who are nominal Christians in our nation today who don't see what God has demonstrated or hear what He has said. The basic information is there but the interpretation and understanding is lost. Seeing without observing. Hearing but not "hearing" in the sense that your parents used the word and said, "Do you hear me?"
When the Church in the United States has trouble, or when I have trouble, the first thing to do is to look at my relationship to the Word of God. I need to be in agreement with the Word and not disagreement. If I can keep my heart in agreement with the Word then difficulties in this world will just be opportunities for God to be glorified.
We have so many people worried about 2012 based on false prophets that NASA has had to respond to their worries about lies and insane ramblings. But who among those is worried about what God says. God's warnings are sure foundation but our culture is so deaf and blind that they don't even understand the real danger. They tell stories of a planet the ancient Sumerian's saw (without a telescope) or the danger of Eris in orbit around the sun more than 4 billion miles away from us out near Pluto and forget the danger of our Holy God who is right here right now and hates sin. We need to gently be ready to give an answer of the hope that is in us. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10), the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7), hatred of evil (Proverbs 8:13), prolongs life (Proverbs 10:27), brings strong confidence (Proverbs 14:26), is a fountain of life (Proverbs 14:27), makes what is little to be enough (Proverbs 15:16), a hedge against evil (Proverbs 16:6), riches, honor, and life (Proverbs 22:4).
But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.
1 Peter 3:14-17
Our response should be without fear of man as we give the reasons for our hope in gentleness and respect so that our good behavior will put those who show bad behavior to shame in there eyes or in the eyes of others. If we are going to suffer for being Christians then we want it to be for good reasons and not bad reasons. How blessed we are to be the Seed of Abraham.
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 43:1-2
God has formed us and redeemed us. Although these verses are generally taken to mean that God protects us from the storms of life, remember in context that judgment is coming and the greatest thing about your redemption is that the waters and fire of judgment will not destroy you. God's wrath for your sin has been satisfied in the perfect work of Christ on the Cross. Remember that the waters of baptism symbolize the wrath of God's judgment as illustrated by Noah's flood that you survive in Christ (1 Peter 3:21). We don't have just the baptism of repentance found in John but our baptism as Christians is an appeal to God for a good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He paid the price and His resurrection is evidence that His work was perfect and therefore we can be forgiven and found righteous in Him. It is also a firm foundation and a work our souls can find rest in.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
"All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever."
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
1 Peter 1:22-25
So you see that this verse quoted from Isaiah is to comfort you in your salvation. You are no longer just a man born of the perishable seed of men. You have the imperishable Word of God inside of you that has made you alive when you were dead and that Word will remain alive forever. If you are a believer, the glory of the Lord will be revealed in you.
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