“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.” (Isaiah 55:1-3 ESV)
Whenever I read this passage of Scripture in Isaiah 55, it reminds me of Jesus’ words to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:18-19:
“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (in context, read Revelation 3:14-22).
So, what does it all mean? For this is speaking largely figuratively and not of literal food and drink and garments and salve, etc. What is the spiritual condition of the people in Isaiah’s passage? In the passage in Revelation? And how can we apply these messages to our lives and to the church and to the world today? How can we relate the times in which we now live to the messages God was giving to the people through Isaiah and through John?
In both cases these messages were spoken to people who professed to be of God, to be his people, but who were not living up to God’s standard of righteousness. So God was calling them to repentance, to have a change of mind and heart and behavior consistent with one who is following Jesus Christ with his life. This was a call to leave their fleshly lives behind them and to now live holy and morally pure and upright lives for the glory and praise of God and for genuine salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
In our world and church today this would be speaking of people who give lip service to God only but who do not follow him in walks of obedience to his commands and in holy living. Or they may be those of genuine faith in the Lord who have wandered from the truth, or who have fallen back into sin, or who have become spiritually lazy and slothful and nonchalant about their relationships with the Lord and their walks of faith and obedience to him. So they need a fire lit under them to bring back that passion for the Lord.
This is a call to full surrender of our lives to Jesus Christ, to walk in his ways and in his truth and righteousness, and to leave our lives of sin behind us. And this is a call to walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands and to no longer walk in sin or to play with sin, gambling that God will still let us into his heaven even if we live for the flesh and walk in sin and ignore him and his commands. And we need to take this to heart, for if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.
We, as God’s holy people, are to be those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and holiness, and who long for the Word of the Lord that we may walk in his truth. We are to be diligent in persevering in our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord and to not be slothful and nonchalant. Our lives are to be committed to walks of obedience to our Lord and to no longer walking in sin, and to letting the Holy Spirit lead us each day in his truth and in what our Lord would have us do in service to him for his purposes.
We should be passionate about God’s word and about obeying our Lord and about living the truth of the gospel and about sharing that truth with others so that they can come to know him, too. And that truth is that Jesus died and was raised from the dead that we might die to sin daily and walk in obedience to his commands in holy living. That is the essence of the gospel message, but it includes the fact that if obedience to our Lord is not our practice, but if sin is still our practice, we will not enter the kingdom of God.
Now, with regard to the words, “without price” or “without cost,” we should not take these words to mean that there is no cost to us at all if we decide to believe in Jesus Christ and to follow him with our lives. While it is true that Jesus Christ paid the price with his death on that cross for our freedom from sin, it is not true that nothing is expected of us or that there will be no cost to following Jesus with our lives. Can anyone of us come to faith in Jesus Christ of our own accord? No! Only as God the Father draws us to Christ.
But biblical faith in Jesus Christ means to be persuaded of God. And what does God persuade us to do? He persuades us to deny self, die daily to sin, and to follow him in walks of obedience to his commands. For, if we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity, regardless of what our lips profess. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self (lose our lives), die daily to sin, and follow him in walks of obedience to his commands, by the grace of God, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.
For Jesus and his NT apostles, all throughout the New Testament, told us of the cost of following Jesus with our lives. We will be hated and persecuted as Jesus was hated and persecuted. If truly we are obeying our Lord in doing what he says we are to do, as his followers, and so we are speaking the truth of his word to each other, in love, and we are telling all people that they must die to sin and obey our Lord, we are going to be rejected, cast aside as unwanted, and even killed for our faith.
For the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce (say ‘No!’ to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10)
[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Romans 3:23-25; Romans 5:1-2; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 2 Corinthians 6:1-2; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 6:24; Hebrews 10:26-31; Hebrews 12:12-17; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 3:4-10]
My Jesus, My Savior
By Michael W. Smith
My Jesus, My Saviour,
Lord, there is none like you,
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love.
My comfort, my shelter,
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship You.
Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing,
Power and majesty, praise to the King!
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar,
At the sound of your name!
I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqSQvoinDE4
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