For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [or repentance] and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling. (Isaiah 30:15 ESV)
God gives His people counsel in the midst of desperate circumstances, in which victory, success and even survival seem impossible. Six key words are here:
Return to God [a footnote suggests Repentance]
We are immediately convicted of having strayed away from God. God knows our hearts and that we are quickly and easily prone to trust in ourselves for salvation. To return to God requires desperation and brokenness over our own sin. God is inviting us to return because there is nowhere else we can turn. No one else can save us. Biblical repentance in view of free justification from imputed righteousness is needed. An inward turning against self-hoping, self-saving and self-glorifying is needed.
The first step to returning to God is to recognize, by the light of God's Word that we have turned away from God in our hearts. It's easy to become self-rationalizing and heart-hardening, in denial of our own coldness toward God and neglect of fellowship with Him. Break the denial, by the Word and the Spirit; open yourself to godly sorrow, and receive the Gospel meant to be applied to it.
Rest in God (the Son)
If we have practiced true repentance and thereby come close in fellowship with God, we must be able to rest in this state. To gratefully rest in the finished work of Christ on our behalf and use the divinely prescribed therapy of biblical meditation to comfort ourselves with the assurance of forgiveness and freedom. Having been cleansed in our consciences, we must stop any previous efforts to justify ourselves, or even efforts to display our gratitude toward God through good deeds.
We come to Jesus with the empty hands of faith, trusting His promise that we will find rest for our souls. Resting in God brings Him glory, ministers to our souls and reflects the humility that is appropriate for His saints. There is no genius, no cleverness, no human feat here: Only throwing ourselves fully on the mercy of God, so that He will bear us up. For a deeper discussion of rest, study Hebrews chapter 3.
Be Saved by God
These conditions of returning and rest, which are very much related, are descriptive of what it looks like to receive God's salvation. We cannot rest without returning, and we cannot return without resting. If either one is absent, we are not receiving God's salvation, but a counterfeit. Think of this as a command because we are commanded to repent and believe the Gospel, which is how sinners are saved. All people are by nature salvation-seekers, but we usually seek it in things other than God.
To be saved by God in Jesus Christ is in a sense impossible, because we have no natural inclination toward Christ. But when the Holy Spirit regenerates us and turns us toward Christ, we find it simple to be converted. Alienation and wrath from a loving, all-powerful God is what we needed saving from all along. So to seek salvation apart from God is to misunderstand our condition completely. But in salvation we find our original purpose of dwelling with and glorifying God in Christ.
Be Quiet before God
What kind of quietness does God want us to be in? Should we sit in our own worries, shame and self-pity? Certainly not. The quietness that God counsels is conditioned by our returning and rest. We have entered into His presence by faith and we are now called to be patient in the broadest sense. To wait for God, knowing that our self-help impulses are Satan's jiu-jitsu to use our own fleshly weight against us. Salvation that comes from self-help is steering us further away from the healing, transforming presence of God. But the sin-battling salvation that comes in the midst of quietness and trust submits us to God. It is written in James 4:7 (ESV): "Submit yourselves therefore to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you." Don't keep an open mind to worldly solutions. Don't gossip about your relational struggles. Don't wallow in self-pity. Don't grumble against God. Don't browbeat yourself into being smarter and tougher with scolding words. Instead, be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to endure patiently in quiet faith.
Trust God
What does it mean to trust God? Does it mean, if I can't figure it out, He's Plan B? He's the backup, the way out if all else fails? Does it mean I have to expect things will turn out exactly how I want them to? Does it mean that I just have to wince and work up more trust in God somehow, so that I can make it?
As conditioned by the previous words, this trust is not just a Plan B, backup. It's not an expectancy that everything will turn out how I want. Trust God means stop leaning on your own understanding and acknowledge Him in all of your behaviors. Whatever happens, He is sovereign and He will work it for good according to His purposes, His definition of good.
God is objectively trustworthy. It's not that our lack of trust stops God from rescuing us. God is often more interested in growing our trust than fixing our circumstances. Trust is simple but impossible, unless we have promises with content and the Holy Spirit's power. Trust is not an end in itself, as if God looks at us as either a truster or non-truster and His job is just to make us a truster and leave. Trust is a means of intimacy with God. If we trust Him, we let Him provide for our deepest needs, which is what we were made for. Trust is not loud, proud, busywork. It's quiet, humble resting in Christ. If we have not trusted God, we are fooling ourselves into thinking we can trust ourselves. But if we have trusted God, we can no longer pretend that we are capable of saving ourselves.
Be Strengthened by God
Let's not think of spiritual strength as instead of or in addition to salvation. Strength is an aspect of the full biblical concept of salvation. How do we receive God's strength? The Holy Spirit empowers us so that we experience the active, necessary and lifelong aspect of salvation called sanctification.
Concluding Prayer:
Father in Heaven, grant by the Holy Spirit that we would continue to repent of our sins, trust you for forgiveness and freedom, quiet our anxieties and humbly find rest in Christ, so that as we are restored and strengthened by you, you would be thanked and glorified by us.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
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