Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). So it is a colossal truth that Paul presents when he says that in Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). But nothing less than this will suffice for our salvation.
Can God be known? Yes, He can. God has, in Jesus Christ, made it possible for us to know Him (John 1:18; 17:3). Sin robbed us of the truth about God, but in His Son we can regain that knowledge — and knowing our Creator, we may truly live.
The portrayal in Isaiah 53 of Jesus’ silent, lamb-like suffering is part of the depiction of what would happen to the Messiah as He underwent the punishment for our sins. Nothing else like that death has ever taken place in the history of the world.
All of the phrases in Isaiah 53 say what many other Scriptures affirm: the Messiah’s death was vicarious. He suffered FOR us — substituting Himself on our behalf at the bar of God’s justice and agreeing to take the penalty for our sins.
When God entered the world as a human being, He did so in very lowly circumstances. He wanted those who would be attracted to the gospel to be people who were looking for forgiveness — rather than “niceness” as the world perceives niceness.
Immersion in water wouldn’t produce the forgiveness of sins if somebody did that in a rote, mechanical way, with no genuine penitence or faith in Christ. Nevertheless, Peter says that baptism saves us — and we need to understand what that means.
In Acts 8:34-36, the Ethiopian saw that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53. Then he concluded that Jesus, as the Messiah, was his Savior. Next, he listened to how the gospel must be obeyed. And then finally, he asked to be baptized, and then rejoiced!
We don’t know why God linked baptism to the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16) — nor why He required faith and repentance. But those are the requirements that He has decided on, and we must reverently trust His chosen means for saving us.
If we believe our hands can achieve anything our minds can conceive, we’re telling ourselves a horrible lie. We’re not invincible, and and we’re not the masters of our destiny. If we think we are, we’re being not only foolish but self-destructive.
While life lasts, we are free to change paths (and that’s what the gospel implores us to do), but when we die, it will be too late. God’s judgment will be His unalterable ratification of the choice that we have made. We will reap what we have sown.
