W K Tweedie
Isaiah 45:22. Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
If it had been said, Torture yourselves and be saved, all would have understood, and many would have obeyed. Or if it had been said, Give the fruit of thy body for the sin of thy soul, that also would have been plain, and, revolting as it is, many would have hastened to present the offering. Or had it been said, Go on some weary pilgrimage, compass sea and land, climb rugged ascents upon your bare knees, and be saved, again all would have understood the saying. Self-righteousness would have been gratified and then, at all hazards, men would have complied.
But merely to “look and be saved” is what man cannot comprehend. “Heaven’s easy, artless plan” of suspending eternal life, and the favour of God, on a thing so simple or so unearthly, transcends the wisdom of man, and the difficulty is increased when it is said, “Look, ye blind,” as if salvation involved at once impossibilities and contradictions.
But, O my soul, let us exalt God’s name together, because our salvation is so easy and so simple: Look and live; come unto Me and live; believe and live. Behold the first principle of the Christian faith – a principle which, like the first link in a perfect chain, draws all the others after it. Rejoice that it is not some great sacrifice, but simply a look of faith, that God the Saviour asks; and then, looking to Him as our God, besides whom there is none else, you may delight in the abundance of peace.
And do not say, I cannot look, as if God was mocking us when He invites us to draw nigh. Do not plead inability, as if God did not know or did not pity our helplessness. Surely you may come, or you may look, as a sinner! Surely you may cast yourself upon His mercy as one of the ungodly. That is your character, as God describes it. To you, in that character, is this salvation sent. Away then with all doubts, all delays and hesitation, that the soul may at once be saved and blessed.
1Taken, with editing, from Tweedie’s volume, Glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace.