“And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness”. Isaiah 35:8

I really don’t think we understand
Holiness…at least not as God means us to understand it. The context of this verse in Isaiah 35 is amazing. Listen to some of the blessings of God’s grace that precede the verse on holiness.

” The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom”. 35:1 . That doesn’t sound mournful does it?

Listen to excerpts from a few more in chapter 35

” Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way”
“Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong, do not fear”
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf I stopped “.
” Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy”.
“Water will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert”.
” And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness”.

In the next blog I will talk about the dual purpose of the Highway of Holiness.

Today, please think about all the preceding verses to this incredible Highway. They speak of matchless grace! But I am liable in speaking of the incredible blessings of grace to forget there was a cost to God in giving me this grace. I am saved by grace and kept by His matchless grace! He promises to never leave me or forsake me because of His grace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes eloquently about what he calls “cheap grace” and “costly grace”. Let me quote him: ” Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field for which a man goes and sells all he has to buy it. It is the call of Jesus Christ, at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him. In cheap grace no repentance is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin.

Grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light”.

And I would just add, the only reason we can follow is because “Christ lives in us”.

I hope you get the point! When we enter into His grace and the cost, we follow and where He leads us is to the Highway of Holiness.

Terry