“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” – Isaiah 45:22
When we read our verse today we can see that God has implored to His chosen people to turn to Him. It’s as if that God is begging us to go to Him so that we can be saved. Most people think that God is entitled to thank us or entitled to beg us to run to Him because we think that without us, He cannot exercise how good He is and how gracious He is. Other people have this twisted belief that it is such a good thing that we are wicked and God is holy, two opposite characteristics and thus God must be glad that through us His goodness and grace will be exercised more. However, this is such a very wrong mindset.
We have to understand that we are unrighteous. No one is indeed righteous among us. We will not be saved because of our works and our wickedness should not make us proud. No matter how good we are or how bad we are, God will remain good and gracious. He is by existence good, loving, righteous and gracious. He is not entitled to thank us or to beg us to run to Him. He does not need to do that because it is us who depend on Him, not Him who depend on us.
This call to turn to God and be saved is a calling for us out of God’s love. Not because He owes us something or because He cannot exist without us. This calling is for our benefit and it is God showing us His grace. Even if all we could show Him is unfaithfulness and treachery. God wants to remind us that He is the true God and only through Him we can find our salvation. Through prophet Isaiah, God calls the Israelites to abandon their false gods and their wickedness and to turn to Him so that they will be saved.
Just like them, we too are called by God to do the same. Why are we given the law and told not to do things? It is because we are capable of doing those. God tells us not to steal or not to kill or not to disobey Him because He knows that we can easily do that. When we are still not saved and still not found the true way to our eternal life, we don’t have the choice to do good because we are always wicked. Now that we are in Christ, we are given the power to obey God and to do good. So, God implores us to turn to Him and be saved. He wants us to always remember that He is the only living God so that we might not forget it.
Therefore, we should always remember that indeed it is only through God we can find our salvation and only through Him we can be saved. He is the only God and there is no other. We are all saved by grace and not by our own works. Let us abandon our selfish nature, our idols, our wickedness and choose to obey and follow God. We are given power to obey and to delight in Him through the new self Christ has given us. Thus, we must dwell in His light and not in the darkness. Let us always remember to follow God, turn to Him and seek him always through His Word.
