Isaiah 51:6

THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE SALVATION AND RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

Isaiah 51:6. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, &c.

There is no reason why we should not read these words in their positive and natural signification. Similar predictions (Isaiah 34:4; Psalms 102:26; 2 Peter 3:10). These predictions are confirmed by the reasoning of the latest science; also by the analogy of everyday experience, which go to show that, though the laws of the universe may be uniform, the material existences are in constant flux.

The description is not given to excite feelings of dismay, but to enhance our confidence in the immutability of the salvation and righteousness of God. We must first consider the one fact, that we may the better trust and enjoy the other.
I. THE WORLD PASSES.
We are called “to lift up our eyes” and to “look.” The heavens and the earth have great lessons to teach us. Nature is God’s prophetess. The spiritual man will see not only interesting geological facts, but also “Sermons in Stones.” Nature is speaking to us by its progress towards dissolution.

1. Astronomy points towards dissolution. The earth is slowly cooling, and if the present process continues, it must be ultimately reduced to the lifeless condition of the moon. Meanwhile, the moon is gradually approaching the earth, and must ultimately fall into it. The same cause—the check given to centrifugal motion by friction with the universal ether—must fling the earth into the sun, and possibly bring all the stars together.

2. Geology points towards dissolution. It shows that successive orders of life have risen and spread and perished. And there is every reason to believe that, as it was in the beginning, so it will be to the end.

3. History points towards dissolution. Kingdoms have their day—and then their night. “Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, where are they?” Institutions perish. Fashions change.

4. Common observation points towards dissolution. Science may prolong life, and ameliorate its conditions; but it has done nothing towards stopping the natural “funeral marches to the grave.” As life’s shadows lengthen, and old comrades drop out of the ranks, men feel more sadly the unutterable changefulness of earthly things. Facts of such personal importance speak loudly to us to look for better, more enduring grounds of confidence.

II. THE SALVATION AND RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD ENDURE FOR EVER.

1. They endure in Him. The immutable laws of nature are just reflections of the eternal constancy of God. He must be changeless because He is perfect; “He is not a man that He should err.” Immaculate and passionless, He can have no need to repent.

(1.) His salvation endures for ever. Much that we love and trust passes away. We are ready to despair of all light and hope. But no! one thing endures. To the poor, dark, sin-stained, fallen soul, beggared of all earthly joy, and buried in grief and shame, one grand hope is left. Christ is still standing knocking at the door of the heart: salvation is still possible; for “He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.”
(2.) God’s righteousness will not be abolished. He can never connive at sin. There would be no hope for us if it were not that here the righteousness and sacrifice of Christ meet our need.
2. The salvation and righteousness of God endure in us.

(1.) The salvation shall be for ever. Christ gives to us no temporary deliverance, but eternal salvation. There is one “friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” and one haven that is safe in the wildest tempest. But the salvation endures on condition that we remain faithful.
(2.) The righteousness shall not be abolished. That is the one permanent possession to be sought for. Wealth, health, pleasure, friends, knowledge, the earth itself, and the very heavens pass away; he who has any of them for his heritage will be finally bankrupt; he who lives righteously in God’s righteousness, shares the immortality of that righteousness.

TWO PRACTICAL LESSONS:

1. Trust in God alone.

“Change and decay in all around I see,
O Thou that changest not, abide with me.”

2. Fear no earthly evil.

(1.) Fear not the power of present foes. This power is doomed; with the glory of the world, its cruelty, its injustice, its wrong will perish.
(2.) Fear not the loss of present blessings. To part with them will be a pain. But if we have God, and His salvation and righteousness, the best treasures are left.—W. F. Adeney, M.A.: Clerical World, vol. i. pp. 254–255.

The design of this chapter is to comfort the people of God under the persecution of their enemies, and the various evils of their present warfare. The ground of consolation insisted on in the text, is the perpetuity of God’s mercy and faithfulness towards His people, which shall be manifested in accomplishing their salvation, protecting them from the assaults of their enemies, carrying them safely through all the chances and changes of this mortal life, and crowning them at length with victory and honour. And while they are led to expect this glorious end of their troubles and fears, they are assured that everything else that now appears so splendid and desirable shall perish like a vain shadow. “Lift up your eyes.”
In treating upon these words, I shall endeavour to show the perishing nature of all worldly objects, pursuits, and comforts, and the stability of those which the Gospel proposes, and to which the attention of all true Christians is directed.—W. Richardson, Sermons, vol. i. pp. 377, 378.

We are here called to contrast the fading and short-lived glory of all things earthly, with the enduring character of those hopes and consolations revealed in the Gospel.
I. “All flesh is grass”—not like the oak, the cedar, the enduring tree of the forest, but “grass,” which flourishes and dies within the compass of a season. As it is with man, so is it with his works. In vain the laborious master painted for eternity; in vain the skilful statuary inscribed his name, or inwrought his own image, with that of some divinity which he carved into stone; the colours of the picture are long since faded, the stone is mouldered or dashed into pieces. In vain the Egyptian tyrants raised a monument to their power and greatness, which might last as long as earth; the pile indeed stands, but the name of the builder is forgotten; and as for all the rest of all the boasted wonders of the world, the very ruins of them are lost and forgotten. [1566] Nay, the sure and firm-set earth itself partakes of this character of mutability. The sun shines but for a season; the earth crumbles with the foot that treads upon it. “They that dwell therein shall die in like manner.” You stand a ruin amid ruin. “Where are your fathers?” our friends? your brethren? Plainly, if you have not something better than time, you have nothing.

[1566] “Mark the glory of collective man. United he puts on the appearance of strength. He founds empires, builds cities; he guards by his armies, he cements all by his policy. But trace the track of civilised man through the world, and you find it covered with the wreck of his hopes; and the monuments of his power have been converted into the mockery of his weakness. His eternal cities moulder in their ruins. The serpent hisses in the cabinet where he planned his empire. Echo itself is startled by the foot which breaks the silence which has reigned for ages in his hall of feast and song. Columns stand in the untrodden desert; and the but of the shepherd or the den of the robber shelters the only residents of his palaces. And the glory which now exists is crumbling everywhere, where it has not the cement of Christianity, and where it takes not something of perpetuity from the everlasting Word. All heathen glory and Mahommedan pride creak in the blast and nod to their fall. The withering wind or the raging tempest shall pass over them in turn; and men shall sit upon the ruins of their proudest grandeur, and be reminded that all flesh is grass.”—Watson.

II. Contrast with all this the undecaying character of the blessings of salvation. “My salvation shall be for ever.” The Gospel comes not under this law of mutability. It partakes of the unchangeableness and immortality of its Author, and addresses itself to the changeless and incorruptible part of man.

1. It exhibits a permanent standard of truth—truth of doctrine, truth of morals. Truth is everlasting. Therefore, if we have evidence of the truth of the Gospel, we have evidence of its everlasting character. Errors are nothing. They are deceptions, and must pass away. They are the clouds of the mind, and however gilded and painted they may be by chance rays of truth, they change while we gaze upon them, and shall be swept away by the wind of heaven. But truth is the steady light of heaven. This truth survived the test of experiment. It has been found suited to men of all sorts and in all conditions. It is bound up essentially with the moral condition of man; and, therefore, it can never become obsolete. While man is man, he must know that he is a sinner—that he needs a Saviour—that he cannot secure his own happiness, but must find it in communion with higher beings in higher worlds. What the Gospel has been, it is. Had it failed to reveal pardon, to secure peace, to reconcile to God, to point the way to heaven, it would have been a vanity, and it would have died out like other vanities long ago. But it answers these ends. It is the only system that does so. It abides the test of experiment. It is felt and acknowledged to be Divine (H. E. I. 1138, 1139, 1142–1148, 2421–2427).

2. It presents a perpetual source of comfort. Comfort under the changes and the frowns of the world—under the sense of guilt—under the temptations of Satan—under the loss of friends—under the fear of death.

3. It reveals and communicates an undecaying principle of life. By it life and immortality are brought to light. It conveys life; it is regenerative; it gives the life of grace, as well as reveals and leads to the life of glory.

Consequently,

1. The Gospel demands your most serious attention. This is demanded by the subject of its message; and by the majesty of its Author, who here says, “Hearken to me!”

2. It solicits your cordial acceptance. “The isles shall wait for Me, and on Mine arm shall they trust.”

3. It leaves no alternative between obedience and ruin (Isaiah 51:8).—Samuel Thodey.

God’s unchangeable purposes cannot fail. Such is the thought with which Isaiah animates the people of God, discouraged by the taunts of those who thought that the promises of Jehovah would not be fulfilled. All changes but the Eternal God.
I. The majestic heavens over our heads are subject to the law of change. True, these great changes baffle our powers. The life of man is too short to mark great changes in that which seems the least subject to this law, the heavens above us. Yet science teaches us that vast changes are going on in the very life of our system, the sun. And one day the heavens will pass away with a great noise and be rolled up as a scroll.
II. The earth is subject to the law of change. The scientific facts by which this is proved are most abundant—

“There rolls the deep where grew the tree;
O earth! what changes hast thou seen!
There, where the long street rolls, hath been
The stillness of the central sea.”

III. Man, made in the image of God, is not exempt from the operation of this law. The highest and noblest work of God, the most perfect of nature’s works, passes away, dissolved into a few gases and a small amount of earthy substances. “One generation passeth away and another cometh.” But amid this universal change one thing abides; it is the purpose of the everlasting God.
IV. The salvation and the righteousness of God abide unchanged. The kingdom of God waxes not old. It is subject to no decay.

1. The salvation that God has provided for man is available throughout all generations.
2. The righteousness which led to its provision is the guarantee of its continuance. When the character of God changes and is subject to decay, then His salvation shall not be for ever. The salvation and the righteousness of God are manifested in Christ. The Epiphany will be everlasting because He is an everlasting Saviour—eternally “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 71.

I. The destiny of the heavens and the earth. II. The destiny of man. III. The destiny of God’s saving rule.—E. Johnson, B.A.