Isaiah 1:18

New International Version (NIV)

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.

For Meditation

He emptied his desk as friends came by to wish him well and tell him they were going to miss him. He finally took his final steps through the corridors he has traversed for the past twelve years. He knew he had been foolish. The company had been good to him in many ways, but he had been stubborn. Why on earth would anybody act so recklessly in a contractual negotiation?

He handed his badge to security at the gate and said his final goodbye. “What am I going to tell my son who just got admitted to college?” George said to himself. As the crossbar lifted for his final exit, an officer slipped a note to him. He took a cursory look at it and began to ease off the brakes. He slammed the brakes just outside the gate and reread the note. “Let’s resolve this matter over lunch at my ranch on Saturday at half past twelve.” It was from the owner of the company.

That’s the way God has dealt with us in Christ Jesus. He is our final invitation for reconciliation and restoration to personal relationship with Him (Jn. 3:16). God has laid our charges against us (Rm. 3:23). Our sins have reached full measure and we have no plea (Rm. 5:6). Neither can we do anything about it. God has pronounced the final judgment – eternal separation from Him (Rm. 6:23). But before we drive off into eternal damnation, He has graciously slipped a note to us. It reads:

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

It speaks to the lost and to the wayward saint. It spreads the aroma of Christ to everybody, everywhere. To the dying, it is the smell of death, but to those who are being saved; it is the fragrance of life (2 Cor. 2:1516). To the wayward saint, it calls for renewal to fellowship (1 Jn. 1:9). What God seeks in either case is a willing heart.

1. Will you take this offer today?
2. You are helpless anyway, so what do you have to lose?
3. If there was a better way to your predicament, wouldn’t you have found it already?
4. What has the world given you without asking for something? God asks for nothing from you, but your heart (Eph. 2:8-9).
5. What do you say?

I pray you’ll remember that by this invitation, God has “set before you life and death”, and He asks you to choose life and live (Deut. 30:19).

So: May you repent and be saved (Acts 2:38); and may eternal life embrace you in the courts of the Most High, as you respond to His invitation through Jesus (Jn.3:16).

Every invitation has a closing date.

Shalom