What a deal!

Deals make the world go round.  In our culture we have respect for people who can bring two or more parties together to a solution that is described as win-win.  Trust is implicit in a deal and most of the time, those of us in the western world are suspicious and looking behind the obvious to figure out if we are getting a good deal or not. When it comes to God, however, the cards are stacked against us. We are doomed. Since the sin that entered the garden, we have been at a disadvantage. One only needs to hear God's quote on sin in Genesis 4:4-7 to get an idea of how insidious and awful sin is in its effect on us. But thankfully, God has provided an answer to sin by sending His Son. How about this fact? It's not a fair deal. We deserve to die as it says in Romans 3:23. Romans 3:24 gives us a hint at what a good deal this is.  Most of us think that we are ok and not that sinful, but according the the Scriptures, we are not able to help ourselves. Jeremiah commented on this so eloquently with his statement in Jeremiah 17:9. Isaiah was in an interesting situation as the Southern Kingdom of Judah was the remaining country after the Northern Kingdom had been deported by the Assyrians. In Isaiah 1:1-17, he lists the activities of humans that are anything but righteous. But the DEAL is in Isaiah 1:18.

Consider the winner and the loser. God gets our sin, we get salvation. He chooses to exchange the ugly for the beautiful, the profane for the righteous, and the dirty for the clean. Paul says it so beautifully in Romans 15:16:
"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many."
What Isaiah prophesied became real in the New Testament. Come NOW! says the prophet, "Let us Reason together! Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow, though they are red as crimson, they shall be as wool!"

​What Isaiah saw some 700 years before Christmas, we get the deal some 2000 years later. Come Now! Let Us Reason together! Praise God! 

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