Isaiah 63:5

And I looked, and there was none to help

Man’s extremity the Divine opportunity

The doctrine of the text is, that salvation, of every kind and every degree, is from the Lord.

I. THIS POINTS OUT TO US THAT ALL MEN ARE IN A MISERABLE CONDITION. Why should man need salvation? He is lost.

II. THE TEXT IMPLIES THE INTERPOSITION OF GOD. The Speaker is the great Messiah, and He speaks in righteousness. There are difficulties in the way of a sinner’s recovery which none can remove but God. “The righteousness by faith” is accompanied by the power of God, and this alone can save the soul.

1. This shows God’s knowledge of the dreadful condition of the sinner. He lays help on One mighty to save.

2. It bespeaks His forbearance (Romans 3:25).

3. It implies the impossibility of man’s being saved but by a Divine arm; and the all-sufficiency of God to save sinners, however deeply sunk in sin, misery,” and guilt.”

4. Here is the language of,, triumph, as though God delighted in this work of saving sinners: “Mine own arm, etc. He had a sufficiency of wisdom to devise the plan; a fulness of merit to justify, of the Spirit to sanctify, of mercy to pity, and of grace that should abound, in the sinner’s pardon, and in the purity and peace of his conscience.

III. THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS SALVATION.

1. The full character of God is displayed. Here I see God to be just and wise in pardoning the sin He punishes, and showing His abhor fence of the sin He forgives.

2. Salvation is secured to every believer.

3. This secures all the glory to God.

4. It is the most encouraging that could have been devised.

5. It binds the strongest obligation on us. If saved without any power or merit of my own, what shall I render for such a salvation to such a sinner (J. Cooke.)