This article is intended to be the last article on the "introduction to the Old Testament" in The Firstborn Sonship series. The next and perhaps last "set" of articles on The Firstborn Sonship of Christ will begin with Genesis 1 and will be concerned primarily with the early covenants (last will and testaments). Special attention will be given to the tabernacle, the sacrifices, feasts, and numerous ceremonies, types, and mysteries of the Old Testament in which the new birth is purposely cloaked. God's purpose in cloaking much of His Word is to hide the true understanding from the "wise and prudent" of this world who are careless and dishonest with Him and His Word, Mt 11:25; 13:9-17.

      1 "Ho! Everyone who is thirsting, be you coming to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price," Isa 55:1.

      A. Everyone who is thirsting. Our spirit (our mind) is constantly thirsting and hungering: reaching out for something to satisfy this craving. Our sinful flesh nature is also hungering, thirsting, and seeking to be satisfied by earthy things that are contrary to God's righteousness, Rom 7:7-25. The inevitable result is, if we are not urgently and persistently feeding our minds on the Word of God, Mt 4:4; Jn 4:14,32; 6:63; 7:37-39; Heb 4:12-16, we will make shipwreck of faith with an evil conscience in departing from the living God, 1Ti 1:18-20; Heb 3:12-14. Therefore we must wage a fierce warfare in our minds against the concretely entrenched strongholds of our flesh nature, 2Co 4:3-6. The warfare takes place in our minds, where the Holy Spirit is striving, through the Scriptures (the sword of the Spirit), to strengthen and fortify our minds against these passionate drives of our flesh body:
      17 "For the flesh is lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit (is striving) against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish."
      Here is a mental and emotional condition that must exist in the mind of the covenant people. "Blessed are those who are constantly hungering and thirsting after righteousness..," Mt 5:6. This state of mind and emotion that is formed in us, by the Holy Spirit using the Word of God, must be characteristically maintained by the covenant people, Heb 4:12 (3:1 thru 4:16).
      For this to be so, we must be scrupulously dedicated to prayer, Bible reading, Bible study, church attendance, witnessing to others, edifying one another, etc., on a continuing and urgent basis. We must not spend our affections, time, energy, and money on things which destroy rather than build up a heavenly account in view of the day of judgment, Mt 6:19-21; Rom 2:16; 1Ti 6:12,17-19. This constant, persevering pursuit is as necessary for us as it was for Christ in order to obtain the resurrection birth into that divine oneness state of being with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 2Pe 1:4; Jn 17:21-23; et al.

      B. A continuing repetitive process. The invitation is for us to be coming or going to God on a continuing never ceasing basis. The call to come to God is a command: imperative voice. It is a requirement that must be urgently obeyed in order to enter the kingdom and enter it more abundantly, Heb 3; 4; 12; et al.

      C. Oneness with God in sharing His divine life and majesty. God's eternal desire and purpose is to share His divine fullness with His faithful covenant people. He has placed us in a compulsory covenant disciplinary training status throughout this life in order for us to qualify and receive His divine nature, 2Pe 1:4 (3-10); Heb 12. The faithful covenant people will forever be finite, but will be endowed with the full range of the divine attributes, Jn 17:21-23; Eph 1:22-23; 3:19; Col 2:9-10. And in the ages of ages to come the saints will forever be growing (increasing) in at least many of those attributes such as knowledge, love, joy, thanksgiving, worshipful service, creative ability, etc.

      D. "First-faith" perseverance. This "oneness" of divine life with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is not a mere "first-faith" provision. We will not be "partakers of Christ" unless we "hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end," Heb 3:6,14. Here was Israel's failure: they did not urgently and steadfastly continue in God's goodness, Rom 11:11-22; 1Co 10:1-12; Heb 3. To the contrary, they selfishly rebelled against God by forgetting His commandments and going their own way many times over, and were continually, as individuals, being cut off from Christ, their Messiah. Thereby they were gradually but surely forfeiting God's promise of the unsearchable riches of His divine nature, 2Pe 1:3-10; Eph 1:22-23; 3:8,19; 5:31-32; Col 1:19; 2:9-10; Jn 10:30-36; 14:8-11; 17:21-23.

      E. Without Money and Without Price. "Ho! Everyone who is thirsting, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price," Isa 55:1.
      Emphasis is here placed on those who have no money to come and buy, and to buy without price. But how can we buy without money? We can buy by bartering, which the dictionary defines as "giving goods or services in exchange for goods or services." We give our mere flesh life for God's divine life. We give our human life (our daily life) to God in holy service till death we part this life, and God will share His divine life with us eternally.
      In Isa 55:1, God calls this a buying process: God is bartering with us. Instead of punishing us eternally for our sins, which sins in the light of God's holiness are exceedingly sinful, God is offering the fullness of His divine nature to those who properly recognize the worth of this otherwise unthinkably amazing offer of Himself. We purchase God's divine life by daily giving our lives to be transformed into His likeness.
      God is offering the full range of His divine attributes (Eph 1:22-23; 3:8,19; Col 1:19; 2:9-10; Jn 17:21-23), and the poorest of the poor can have this greatest of all gifts. It is the gift of God, by grace through faith, to all who will come and receive it, Rom 6:23. However, there is a paradox price to pay: it will cost us our lives. In our sinful flesh bodies we are infinitely unable to serve God and perform righteousness deeds. God does not want our sinful bodies and spirits, but He can and desires to transform our daily lives into His holy likeness:
      18 "But we all, with unveiled face, constantly beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord," 2Co 3:18.
      We must therefore, by the working of the Holy Spirit, forsake all that we have (Lk 14:33), present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2), and take up the cross in following Christ, Lk 9:23-26. Hence, with this living hope, we are daily bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord that the life of Christ may be manifest in and through us, 2Co 4:7-12; 1Pe 1:3-5; 1Jn 3:1-3; Rom 8:23-25.

      2 "Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance," Isa 55:2.
      Jesus became the bread of life by becoming a human, living a sinless human life, dying for our sins, then His human body being born into a divine state of being, Phi 2:5-11; 1Pe 2:21-25; 3:18. Jesus had no money, not a place to lay His head (Lk 9:58), yet He bought with His blood and became the Bread of heaven at a price too great to understand, 1Co 6:19-20; 1Pe 1:18-20. Jesus grieved within Himself throughout His life as He daily bore the sins of the world in His own bosom (in His own compassionate heart, Ps 89:49-51), and then on the cross was literally made sin and endured the wrath of the Father against our sins and all the sins of the world, Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46.
      When we have the true Bread of life, rich and abundant, why do we spend our money (our lives, our precious affections) on earthy things that will inevitably erode and destroy. The love of the world and the things of the world are quickly passing away, but the true Bread (the Word of God) of steadfast love and faithful devotion to God will abide forever, 1Jn 2:15-17.

3. Hear, and Your Soul Shall Live.

      3 "Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you – the sure mercies of David.
      4 "Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people," Isa 55:3-4.
      "Your soul shall live" (v-3), means more than "live" in this life. Compare with Deu 30 and Rom 10 and see that the divine life of the tree of life is held out before us. "Incline your ear and come to Me," is again not a mere "first-faith" once-for-all invitation: as the manna in the wilderness was a daily provision, and the covenant people had to gather it and eat it daily, Ex 16. The manna in the wilderness was a type of Christ and the Word of God as the true Bread from heaven, Jn 6:32-63. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life," Jn 6:63.
      "The sure mercies of David," (Isa 55:3) will perhaps be the title and subject of next month's article. These sure mercies of David require the new birth resurrection, as we will demonstrate from the Old Testament. The expression refers to kind deeds God worked through king David, but primarily to the Messiah (Christ) as the Seed of the woman (Gen 3:15), as the Seed of David (Isa 7:6-7), and as the divine Testator of the New Covenant who will crush the head of the serpent, Satan, Gen 3:15; Isa 55:3; Heb 9:16-17.

      5 "Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you," Isa 55:5.
      The nations during the Millennium will initially be made up of servant son nations, and on the new earth the nations will all be made up of servant (slave) sons. Whereas, the faithful covenant people will make up the one heavenly nation of firstborn sons who alone will be conformed to the divine glory image of Christ.
      "He has glorified you," refers to the new birth. Glorification is the new birth from a mere physical body into a spirit, heavenly, deified body, Isa 48:9-12; Rom 9:4; 1Co 15:44-50; 2Co 3:18; 4:17; Phi 3:5-14,21; 3Pe 1:4. The Gospel in its shortest form includes the resurrection birth into a divine, spirit body, 1Co 15:44-50.

      6 "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
      7 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly, pardon," Isa 55:6-7.

      A. Again, this is NOT a "first-faith" only requirement. These verses, these chapters, and this book as well as the whole Bible was written to covenant people concerning their persistent daily attitude of heart and conduct of life. Of course, there is a beginning to the Christian life, and we can use this passage along with Jn 3; Rom 3; 5; 6; 10; etc., when witnessing to those who have not yet believed.
      We make a gross mistake, however, when we indicate that the believer receives the new birth with the divine nature at the first act of faith. The publican (Lk 18:9-14) and the thief on the cross (Lk 23:39-43) were already circumcised Jews, as all Jews were. All they needed was faith to be fully qualified covenant people. The thief died soon after, and the publican would have to live a life of progressive justification, as we have repeatedly shown in this series of articles. As the Scriptures reveal, Abraham was already a saved and faithful servant of God when God called him to leave his home country and go to a promised land, as referenced in Act 7:1-5 and Heb 11:8.
      Abraham was already a saved man and was an obedient servant of the Lord at that time: some reference books judge this to be when Abraham was about 60 years old. He left the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran until his father died, Act 7:1-4; Heb 11:8; Gen 11:31-32. The Lord then removed Abraham into the land of Canaan when He was 75, Gen 12:4. However, the first mention of Abraham being justified is when he was 85 years old, many years after he first believed and obeyed, Gen 12:4; 15:6; 16:3,16. Abraham's justification was progressive with every act of faith as he walked by faith. See also Rom 3:21 thru 4:25 on the progressive nature of justification. Some 40 years later, Abraham was justified again when he symbolically offered Isaac, Ja 2:21. Justification a is progressive process with God's righteousness being cumulatively reckoned (credited) with each act of by grace through faith obedience. Faith excludes flesh works, and conversely flesh works excludes faith; while grace works and faith always go together.
      We pray by grace through faith, preach by grace through faith, witness by grace through faith, patiently endure and overcome by grace through faith, and serve God in every way by grace through faith. Read and reread Heb 11 and observe how the faithful Old Testament covenant people performed many good works always by grace through faith.
      The Law Covenant in its first application required flesh works that we may understand our condemnation before God more clearly. But then, secondly, the condemned covenant person was required to bring the appointed sacrifice, which always preached the death of the Testator and to our faith in Him to remove that condemnation. The sacrificial lamb always pointed to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

      B. We can lose justification. Contrary to the teachings of justification we learned in the beginning, justification can be lost and be of no help at the judgment seat of Christ.
      20 "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand," Eze 3:22-21; 19:24; 33:12-13.
      These passages in Ezekiel are addressing the righteousness of justification. We have no righteousness that we should cling to: to the contrary, all our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we must turn away from them. It is the righteousness of justification that we must not turn away from. We are to be daily seeking the righteousness of justification (Mt 6:33), laying it up as treasures in heaven (Mt 5:19-21; 1Ti 6:12,17-19), and with the same urgency looking to ourselves that we lose not the things we have so diligently worked for, 2Jn 8; Rev 3:11.

      C. Let the unrighteous man turn from his unrighteousness and seek the new birth into God's righteousness, Isa 55:7. The unrighteous man (all of us) must turn from our unrighteousness and fervently pursue the progressive righteousness of justification. This lifetime is a gestation period where we ourselves are being prepared for birth, Gal 4:19. Observe the word "righteousness" in Isa 53:11; 54:14,17; 56:1; and through the end of Isaiah, and consider its relationship to the new birth resurrection as "God's righteousness:" an attribute of God's divine nature.

      D. God will abundantly pardon and continue to pardon those who continue to diligently seek Him. Emphasis must be put on the call to be daily coming and diligently seeking the Lord while He may be found. God is offering Himself to all who will listen, hear, heed the call, and then persevere with the genuine seeking attitude in the spirit of humility and urgency.
      Blessed are those who are urgently and persistently hungering and thirsting after God's righteousness, Mt 5:6. "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..," Mt 6:33. The righteousness of justification is God's righteousness (Rom 3:21-26; Phi 3:9), and God's righteousness is one of the attributes of God's divine nature. We must come to understand that justification is the new birth at which time we receive God's divine nature.
      We do not actually have God's righteousness in this life: as an accounting term, it is only being "credited" to us upon each act of faith – reckoned, credited, or charged to our account. God does not bestow His righteousness upon, or vest or generate His righteousness within the believer until the resurrection: this is what Paul was constantly striving toward, Phi 3:9 (7-14,21; 2Ti 4:6-8). We are commanded to be seeking God's righteousness and His kingdom as a first priority and on a continuing basis, Mt 5:6; 6:33; Mt 25:31-46; 2Co 9:10; 1Ti 6:11; 2Ti 2:22; 4:6-8. This new birth will take place for all the faithful covenant people of the ages when Christ returns, as the above passages clearly reveal.

      8 "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD.
      9 "'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts,'" Isa 55:8-9.
      33 "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" Rom 11:33.
      At best, we can understand only as the Spirit teaches us, 1Co 2:10-16. May the Lord give us ears to hear and understand that the new birth will not take place until Christ returns: currently we are only reckoned (credited) in the metaphor as being the body of Christ. And as the body of Christ we are reckoned (counted) as bing crucified, dead, buried, and raised from the dead into the same divine state of being into which Christ's human body was born again in His resurrection. We have not really been crucified, have died, been buried, and raised into a divine body. But God, who gives life to the dead, is calling things which be not as though they were, Rom 4:17; 6:2-13; 7:4-6; 8:23-25; et al.

      10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
      11 "So shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it," Isa 55:10-11.
      These are very comforting and yet fearful words: comforting to the true believer, and fearful for the un-saved and the unfaithful. Our faith, our life, and our eternity lies within God's Word, for God's Word deals with every iota of our lives both now and for eternity. Our eternity is being determined by how we respond to God's word in this life. We will be judged by our "by grace through faith" response to God's Word throughout our entire current life.
      Review again 1Co 15:1-2,29-34, and 57-58, which reveals that we must faithfully persevere by grace through faith to the end of our lives in order to share in the new birth resurrection of verses 44 thru 56.

      12 "For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
      13 "Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off," Isa 55:12-13.
      These verses are beautiful, and we must tie them in with this following passage:
      18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
      19 "For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the (firstborn) sons of God.
      20 "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
      21 "Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
      22 "For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
      23 "Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body," Rom 8:18-23.
      Other passages, in Isaiah for instance, speak of wild animals having the curse of Gen 3:17-18 being removed so that animals, fowl, and fish will be harmless; and weeds, thorns, and harmful vegetation will all be gone, Isa 11:6-9; 65:25. Creation will have its new birth and all creation will be productive and beautiful, except for hell, the lake of fire, and local judgments (Zec 14:17-19) during the Millennium, and the lake of fire thereafter, Rev 20:14; 21:8.

THE SURE MERCIES OF DAVID