When we think about God, who He is and what He has done, we must give some thought to the Supremacy of His redemption. In reading through Isaiah chapters 42-45 one sees the number of times the Lord shares who He is and how He is the only One.
One of the first things He brings out in Isaiah 42 is that He will bring justice to the nations. Several times this is mentioned. Isaiah 42:1 “I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” Isaiah 42:3-4 “In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.”
To me an aspect of this redemption is bringing justice to the nations. It is a two-fold act that will achieve this. First, we have the first coming of the Lord where the Gospel is preached whereby people are given a chance to respond. Secondly, we have His second coming whereby “the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.” 1 Corinthians 15:24
When I think of all of the unjust things being done one cries out for justice, because there is no justice. However, one of the things that reformation brings around is an awareness of who God is and that He will not relax until justice is brought forth to the nations. “He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.”
Another very important aspect of His Supremacy in redemption is that He is the only One. There is no one else. Although our world is filled with many false hopes of redemption there is no one else but the Lord who can bring redemption. Isaiah 43:1 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you.” (verse 11) “I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.” (verse 13) “No one can deliver out of my hand.” (verse 25) “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 44:22) “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
It is obvious from these verses here in Isaiah that God and He alone is our redeemer. This is important because we do see from Isaiah 44 how a man will take a block of wood and use part to make a fire and keep warm, cook his food and what is left over – make an idol to worship and say: “Save me; you are my god!” Isaiah 44:17
In our Western culture we might be a little more refined than this man as depicted in Isaiah 44, but we still do the same thing. How do we use and look at money, for example? We use some to give us heat in the winter, to cook our food over our stoves and we store it up so that when a rainy day comes or problems come we can say to the money that we have put away: “Save me; you are my god.”
Reformation brings us back to who God is and what He has done and what He says He will do. We will begin to see afresh that Christ is the answer to all the world’s sin and troubles. We need only to look to Him and no other. Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”
Recognizing the Supremacy of Christ’s redemption will also give us a sense of urgency that this salvation message is the only hope for the salvation of the world. It will not come through our major religions either, or through any government that we so often hope in, but through the Lord Jesus Christ. ONLY CHRIST SAVES.