Amazing Love (The New City Catechism #19)

Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus the prophet Isaiah foretold in Isaiah 53:10–11 what God would do through him to display his love and to save God’s people. Its detail is stunning and its promises priceless:

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Question and answer #19 in The New City Catechism provides sweet commentary upon the truths unveiled in Isaiah’s prophecy. Here is what it asks and the answer it gives: “Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor?  Yes, to satisfy his justice, God himself, out of mere mercy, reconciles us to himself and delivers us from sin and from the punishment for sin, by a Redeemer.”

 Each of these truths is precious:

• Though we are sinners only deserving punishment, we can be returned to a position of God’s favor.

• God himself has done this.

• God brings us back into his favor in the way he does to preserve his justice (that he does not overlook sin).

• God brings us back into his favor motivated by his mercy—that is, his compassion and love by which he reaches down into our plight to rescue us.

• God brings us back into his own favor by delivering us from sin’s power and someday its presence, and right now its punishment.

• Finally, God accomplishes all this by a Redeemer, one who delivers out of bondage. We will learn in future questions and answers the biblical truth this Redeemer is Jesus Christ.

This commentary is not only helping us understand how God saves, it is leading us to worship him for what he has done. We should be moved to sing with Charles Wesley:

And can it be that I should gain

An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain—

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Refrain:

Amazing love! How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Delighting In Our Savior’s Amazing Love With You,

 

Tom