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Majesty in Meekness: The Peculiar Glory in Jesus Christ 219
age. It is a stunning picture: the false gods ride on carts; the true God is
the cart. This is what I meant above when I said that the unifying mark
of God’s glory is that the majestic heights of God are glorified especially
through the way he stoops in lowliness to save the weak.
Isaiah drives home again the truth that God’s utter uniqueness lies in
his unparalleled willingness to be merciful to the undeserving:
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:7–9)
What is the reason God gives here for why sinful and repentant people
may turn to him and find the hope of pardon? Note the word “for” at
the beginning of verse 8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways.” In other words, God is not only utterly different
from the gods; he is also different from men. And that difference lies in
this: he will abundantly pardon. To support this, God does not say, “For
my ways and thoughts are lower than yours.” He says, “For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and
my thoughts than your thoughts.” In other words, “I glorify the heights
of my ways by condescending to pardon unworthy sinners.”
Again Isaiah presses this vision of God:
Thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isa. 57:15)
The unique glory of the God of the Bible is that he is the highest
of all beings in transcendent holiness, and this height and this holiness