Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 31 – The essence of God – Righteousness. Isa 6:1-.Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 31 – The essence of God – Righteousness. Isa 6:1-.
The righteousness of God is available to anyone who believes in Christ, Rom 3:22.
Grace – the ability for a sinner to accumulate doctrine, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to live in and execute a perfect plan by means of the indwelling +R which justifies the believer in Christ.
Once a believer begins to truly understand what grace is He will discover that grace is his point of contact with God, for how else could a redeemed man who continues to sin, ever follow the righteousness of Christ if it wasn’t 100% reliance on the divine provisions imputed to the believer through Christ?
So then, during this process man cannot contribute his own energy or works in any way or grace is no longer grace.
Rom 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
The believer must receive by means of grace and be sustained and kept alive by means of grace so that he may attain maturity and fully realize the righteousness of God.
Logistical grace: The justice of God blesses the righteousness of God in the believer while He sustains the believer with everything he needs so that he may grow up to spiritual maturity.
Divine justice blesses His own righteousness imputed to us at salvation. This is logistical grace blessing. The principle of logistical grace avoids compromise of the attributes of God, and is compatible with the integrity of God.
grace pipeline
In logistical grace God gives everything it takes to keep us alive plus blessing. This logistical grace is given to winners and losers alike.
There is nothing you can do to be sustained or blessed by the grace of God. The grace of God comes from faith in Christ which forever satisfies divine justice and righteousness. God found a way to bless us as believers totally apart from any system of works, human righteousness, or Christian service.
Those believers who freak out over the details of life still have those details covered by the Righteous God who blesses His Righteousness in them. By this we conclude that “freak outs” were just a waste of time and energy, but also a revelation to the one who lacks faith in God’s logistical grace.
Once we understand grace then we can constantly adjust our lives through rebound [alert to the filling of the Spirit], faith rest [alert to the promises of God], and doctrinal orientation [alert to doctrines that are pertinent to apply in any given situation] and that adjustment is to His will.
When our free will lines up with His sovereign will then imputed righteousness and grace have done what God designed them to in bringing us into divine relationship with Him, what the NT calls abiding in Him.
John 4:23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Therefore, what the righteousness of God rejects, the justice of God condemns. Our Judge never feels threatened.
God has an absolute standard by which all judgment is made – His perfect righteousness.
But the believer has been justified and so there is no condemnation. Divine discipline is not judgment or condemnation in the slightest, and so the believer who finds himself under discipline can adjust back to God through rebound, faith rest, and doctrinal orientation.
What the righteousness of God accepts, the justice of God blesses. This is the reason for logistical grace. And yet there is a greater grace for the positionally righteous believer who is humble under the grace plan of God.
We receive the righteousness of God at salvation, and from then on we receive logistical grace support blessing from God. If we adjust to His sovereign will in our Christian lives through the FHS and inculcation of Bible doctrine then a greater grace is experienced in the life of the believer. This adjustment is impossible for the unbeliever since he does not possess the perfect righteousness of God.
At the moment of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God is imputed to each one of us.
Imputed +R means we can live with God forever because we are as good as God is.
Illustration of the righteousness of God in relation to believers in the prophet Isaiah, Isa 6:1-13.
This is a pretty unusual call from God, but then again the Bible was not even close to being fully completed and Isaiah, being one of the greatest and most significant prophets of Israel, would see many amazing things, including this.
What is not unusual is the call. God calls His believers one by one and the called must come to know God’s personality and be able to face His infinite perfection as well as fulfil what He has desired though continuing to be very finite and imperfect.
Isa 6:1 In the year of King, Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
Uzziah also named Azariah was a king of Judah who ruled well for a time and then rejected the word of God and was smitten with leprosy until his death. This occurs around 740 BC.
“I saw the Lord,” no one can function in their spiritual gift unless they are occupied with Christ.
Isa 6:2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
He sees what the apostle John saw in Rev 4, Jesus Christ sitting on His throne, His headquarters, and seraphim which we may assume there are four of them as in John’s Revelation.
This is no doubt the person of the Lord Jesus Christ: John 12:41 These things Isaiah said, because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.
Verse 2 – Lucifer has been replaced by four seraphim (angels of burning light).
As we have seen in Ezek 28, the original attendant in this scene was Lucifer, the star of the morning.
Isa 6:3 And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."[this could refer to the Trinity or specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, and king.]
Verse 3: God alone is holy. The four seraphim acknowledge what Lucifer rejected.
Isa 6:4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
Verse 4 – If the perfect, heavenly temple shakes at the name of the Lord then so should His people.
If the temple in heaven shakes at the announcing of the name of the Lord then so should the people, as they did at Mt. Sinai, however, Israel, the northern kingdom is not shaking at all and they are heartily worshipping false God’s and mocking the Lord and in 20 years they will be destroyed by the Assyrians and be carried away, never to return.
Isa 5:18 Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood [deceiving others as well as themselves with small cords which are difficult to see], And sin as if with cart ropes [strong attachment];
And then they mock God…
Isa 5:19 Who say, "Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it; And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near And come to pass, that we may know it!"
This is why they need a preacher who is occupied with the Lord, as all should be, so they can be warned and repent and not face this very intensive divine discipline. They have been told of the holiness of God and Isaiah will remind them, but they will not adjust to God’s righteousness and they will suffer for it.
Yet Isaiah, the called preacher, has his own problem. He sees his own sin and concludes he is unworthy of this call. This is a problem for every believer as he approaches the righteousness of God.
Isa 6:5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!, Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips;, For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
Verse 5 – Isaiah realizes that he has not lived in a manner worthy of such amazing glory as belongs to the Lord.
Isaiah realizes that he has not lived up to what he is seeing here. Even the seraphim cover their eyes. Is it no wonder that angels long to look into the things that we see, for we who possess the very righteousness of God can walk through the veil and do not need to cover our eyes, but rather have our hearts enlightened.
1 Peter 1:12 these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.
However, the believer must first, by means of the doctrines of the good news or gospel, be convinced that he is holy unto the Lord and can with confidence approach God’s throne. Isaiah has not done so as of yet.
Isaiah has preached, but now, after seeing the Lord in glory, he realizes the times when he didn’t want to, or didn’t teach because he was too tired, or didn’t do a good enough job of it. Once we see the righteousness of God, for us – through His word and not in such an experience, we often think of our past and wonder about our flaws, faults, and failures to do what is only deserving of this stupendous glory, and if we keep our eyes on that for too long we will be defeated.
We saw six woes in Isa 5 and now Isaiah is aware of the seventh woe and he applies it to himself, and he might be right if it were not for the work of Christ, in His finest hour.
The seventh woe is of the believer who sees the righteousness of God and then judges himself unworthy. All seven woes are turned to joy if the believer changes his thinking in reference to grace.
Doesn’t Isaiah confess in verse 5? “I am a man of unclean lips.” It always starts with confession.
The scripture says that no man can see God and live.
Ex 33:20 But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!"
Isn’t this so true? Forget physical death for a moment, and understand that none of us can see God unless we died to our old nature at the moment of faith in Christ.
Rom 6:6-7 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
Isa 33:14 "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?"
Without imputed +R at the moment of salvation, no one can see God, yet not only are we qualified to see Him, but even the depths of Him.
1 Cor 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
You know you’re a positive believer when you’re more impressed with the thoughts of God than you are with some glorious, blindingly, luminescent apparition of Him.
Isa 6:6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
Verse 6 – the coal from the altar represents the cross of Christ. 1 John 1:7 the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
He’s not getting saved here, but he is being visually taught and reminded that the Lord has taken away man’s sin and that whatever mistakes have been made or will be made may be confessed and they are forgiven.
The burning coal is literally a red hot stone, which we see around the throne that Lucifer walked around.
Ezek 28:14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
It would seem that the stones of fire, which represent the holiness of God’s throne, being built upon righteousness and justice.
Psa 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy throne;
Ezek 10:1 Then I looked, and behold, in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim something like a sapphire stone, in appearance resembling a throne, appeared above them.
Ezek 10:7 Then the cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire which was between the cherubim, took some and put it into the hands of the one clothed in linen, who took it and went out. [judgment of Jerusalem]
Ex 24:9-10 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet [foundation of the throne] there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.
Ex 24:17 And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.
The Law was God’s conditional covenant of righteousness and justice which could not be kept by any fallen creature and so within the Law were the Levitical offerings pointing to the person of Christ as the one who would be the recipient of the righteousness and justice demanded by God.
After the creatures had fallen the righteous stones would now become the stones of judgment, but not upon the creature, rather upon the very One who sits on the throne.
Isa 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried;
No one can write this, no man or angel can put this all together. Only God works in such orchestrated symphony of righteousness, justice, and love.
Isa 6:7 And he touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven."
The hot stone from the altar is a type of the brazen altar outside the tabernacle where the animals were slain and burnt, which is a type of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Lev 4:24 'And he shall lay his hand on the head of the male goat, and slay it in the place where they slay the burnt offering before the Lord; it is a sin offering.
Lev 4:25 'Then the priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
And now that the finished work of atonement is recognized by Isaiah, his tone changes completely.
Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
He went from woe and trembling at the +R of God to a confidence, not only before +R, but even in preaching it to others.
We certainly conclude here that +R will not leave a person the same. It will always change him to increase his fear or his peace.
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