Maybe I\u2019m the product of overexposure, but at this point I\u2019m willing to argue it out with anyone: Isaiah is the greatest piece of literature that has ever been written.<\/p>\n
More pointedly, Isaiah has what British evangelicalism needs: a thoroughly classical doctrine of God, which undergirds a vision of salvation that\u2019s as sweeping as creation and would stop us putting our faith in powerful men.<\/p>\n
Unique By His Very Nature<\/strong><\/p>\n Isaiah\u2019s doctrine of God is breathtaking, presenting us with a God who is genuinely incomparable. Here\u2019s an example: \u201cTo whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?\u201d \u2500Isaiah 40v25.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t just an attack on the number of gods in paganism, it\u2019s an attack on the nature of the gods in paganism. The gods of paganism are many, but that isn\u2019t the deepest problem that Isaiah identifies. The deepest problem with the gods of paganism is that it\u2019s possible to compare them with one another: they are relative. Pagan gods are comparable and relative because these \u2018gods\u2019 can exist in varieties: you could tweak and change any of them\u2500add some grace and power, remove some wisdom\u2500and they\u2019d become different gods, but they\u2019d still be \u2018gods\u2019. No pagan god exists in a category uniquely its own, truly and totally independent from everything else, absolute and unchangeable by definition.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s where the rubber hits the road: if no pagan god is truly and totally independent, that means that no pagan god could ever be truly and totally dependable. If you throw the weight of your life at one of these gods, you\u2019ll quickly find that they are themselves leaning on something else: whoever or whatever has been determining how much grace and power and wisdom they have.<\/p>\n Not so the God of Isaiah.<\/p>\n Isaiah\u2019s God is unique by his very nature.<\/p>\n There are two categories: God, and everything that God created. He isn\u2019t relative, a variation on a theme. As Steven J. Duby puts it in God In Himself<\/a>, \u201cThere is no impersonal form of life, wisdom, or love \u201cout there\u201d from which God must draw in order to be what he is.<\/em>\u201d If it was even possible for this God to change, He would cease to be God. He isn\u2019t \u2018the most\u2019, He is \u2018the only\u2019. Isaiah\u2019s doctrine of God isn\u2019t that \u201cthe most powerful\u201d also\u2500fortunately\u2500happens to be \u201cthe most gracious\u201d. It\u2019s that God is incomparable and unchanging, truly and totally independent and therefore truly and totally dependable.<\/p>\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Prophet Isaiah, 1512, Raphael # Art pic.twitter.com\/nGP429iJBR<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ellis (@BresciEli) December 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n