Isaiah 43:14-28: a reflection

14The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. 15I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 16The LORD, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters, 17who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick) says: 18“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. 19Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 20The animals of the field, the jackals and the ostriches, shall honor me, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise. 22Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel. 23You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings, neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense. 24You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. 25I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins. 26Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare your case, that you may be justified. 27Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me. 28Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.”

In the middle of this chapter, after Israel's failures are laid bare, God says something startling in its grace: I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. He does not say, if you make it up to me, or once you have earned it. He simply declares that he himself wipes away their sins, for his own sake, out of his own grace, and chooses not to remember them.

Notice each part of that mercy. God blots out transgressions, wipes them away completely, as one erases a debt. He does it for his own sake, not because the people deserved it or earned it, but out of who he is, a God who delights to forgive. And he will not remember their sins, choosing, deliberately, not to hold them against his people anymore. This is grace at its purest: free, complete, unearned, initiated entirely by God.

That is the heart of the gospel, and it is meant to be received, not just admired. If you carry the weight of sins you cannot undo, hear what God says: I blot out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. He does not forgive because you have finally made yourself worthy; he forgives freely, for his own sake, out of sheer grace, and chooses not to remember what you cannot forget. In Christ, this is fully yours. Stop trying to earn what God gives freely. Receive the mercy of the God who blots out your sins and remembers them no more.

Lord, you say, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. What astonishing grace, free, complete, unearned, flowing from who you are. When I carry the weight of sins I cannot undo, help me stop trying to earn what you give freely, and simply receive it. Thank you that in Christ you blot out my sins and remember them no more.