We
are now on the path of Isaiah
11:5.
The path of Isaiah 11:5 is set
in the context of “The Lord Reigning by Righteousness and Faithfulness” as
recorded in Isaiah 11:1-5.
Keywords
The two main keywords in Isaiah
11:5 are righteousness and faithfulness with the metaphor of a belt
assigned to them. We have just seen in Ephesians
6:14 that Christ crucified, the grace of God personified, is the truth
of our righteousness.
Righteousness
We
have also seen that righteousness can mean “justice” and “having been
vindicated”. And the word “vindicated”
means having been cleared of blame or proven to be justified. In theological terms, the word “justified”
means to have been declared innocent or guiltless; absolved or acquitted. The
word “righteousness” is also used in the administration of justice.
Faithfulness
Faithfulness refers to firmness,
fidelity, steadfastness, and steadiness; in short, integrity.
Foundation of God’s Throne
We see from Psalm
89:14 that righteousness and justice are the foundation of
God’s throne. These two attributes are like a belt that holds the throne of God
together as a manner of speaking. To me, righteousness and justice are one and
the same. Redundancy, or the repeat of
the same thing, is used for emphasis.
Justice
As
the divine righteous Judge, God must carry out the judgment which is the
consequence of Adam’s disobedience (A
detailed discussion of this can be found in volume 1 of this series).
That is justice. It must be executed or administered. How can God bless
sinners? That would be unrighteous. If
God did not punish sinners and yet bless them, the very foundation of God’s
throne would collapse. And guess who is
next in line to take over the throne? S.A. Tan!
God
hates sin but love sinners. How can a
righteous God pardon sinners in order to bless them? How can God do that righteously? It is by sending His beloved Son to be
punished in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth. Is that fair?
It
is absolutely fair as recorded in Romans
5:19. The verse speaks of Adam’s
failure to hear. So does it mean that Adam
did not hear what God told him? No! Therefore,
the word “hear” would mean putting into action what God said.
Mankind was made sinners because of
Adam’s disobedience. So, mankind was
made righteous because of Jesus’ obedience through His substitutionary death
and resurrection. Fair and square; righteous and just! Christ crucified executed justice and
righteousness when He was punished for our sins.
Jesus was executed to execute justice on earth.
The beloved Son of God came in the
flesh as Jesus of Nazareth to serve justice and not demand justice. In other words, we committed a crime worthy
of death. But instead of us dying,
Christ died for us. By so doing, justice
has been carried out. Because Christ
Jesus is our Representative, He being punished means that we have been
punished. When He was resurrected, it
signified that the sentence of death has been fully served. Once again, because Christ Jesus is our
Representative, He having fully served the sentence is the same as we having
served the sentence in full. And since
we have served the sentence, we are now free and cannot be punished for that
same crime again. That would be double
jeopardy.
A person who has been released from
prison is a freeman in the sight of justice.
Sinners who have been punished are righteous in the sight of God. And because Christ took our punishment, we
are therefore righteous in Christ before God.
God is therefore righteous in declaring sinners, who accept the
righteousness of Christ Jesus, righteous.
Blessings are on the head of the
righteous as Proverbs
10:6 tells us. The blessing of
the LORD maketh rich and He addedth no sorrow to it according to Proverbs
10:22.
Due punishment has been meted out as
the penalty for sin and that settled the sin problem. Satan could no longer “blackmail” God with
that issue of sin. With the sin problem
out of the way, God can righteously bless the forgiven ones in Christ.
With all that said, the tenet of Isaiah
11:5 is:
“The Messiah will be righteous and faithful”.
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