Open the Gates of the City

We continue to look at this wonderful picture of the heavenly city. In the second verse of the chapter, Isaiah commands us to "open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith."

The gates of the heavenly city are opened in but one way: through the proclamation of the Gospel. Jesus commissioned his apostles to preach the gospel to every creature. The book of Acts records multiple examples of what happened when the Gospel was preached and the Lord opened hearts. Paul came to Corinth resolving to know nothing among them except "Jesus and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). Paul meant just what he said. When he preached, he declared the crucified Christ who gave his life as a sacrifice of atonement for dead sinners who could not possibly stand in the holy presence of God based on their own works.

Christ in his sacrifice perfectly satisfied the righteous demands of God's holy justice by offering full payment for all the sins of all the people of God, all the inhabitants of the strong city. Only this message opens the gates of the city to desperate sinners who, once convicted of their sins, come to seek refuge in its eternal security.

And the righteous nation enters. Interesting to note that God deals with us as a nation. He is here speaking of covenant, as he always has dispensed his blessings by way of covenant to a people. And though we are saved individually, one by one, God views us as his righteous nation.

And the righteousness is complete. He does not speak of a partial righteousness attained by the best efforts of man. Even Jesus said that our righteousness would have to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20). Man's righteousness is not only incomplete before a holy God who demands perfection, but the same writer, Isaiah, described all our righteousness as nothing but filthy rages (Isa. 64:6).

Thus the righteousness of which Isaiah speaks would be that righteousness which would be proclaimed in the message: the perfect righteousness of Christ with which we, as inhabitants of the city are clothed.

But how clothed? How saved? If we were to read a somewhat parallel account of God's declaration of our righteous state, our justification, in Rom. 3-5, we would note again and again that Paul says it is only by faith. Here Isaiah says that the righteous nation who enters "keeps faith." We are justified by faith, but we keep living by faith; that becomes the hallmark of the Christian.

Paul put it this way, and it is really the fulfillment of Isaiah's words: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'" (Rom. 1:16-17).