- God Exalted and Sanctified
Isaiah 5:16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
This verse is a prophecy about God, what will happen with Him, and what He will do: God will be exalted in judgment and sanctified in righteousness. But it becomes a promise for us in that what God will do is a benefit for us. When God judges at the end of the age all sin and evil and everything opposed to God and our good will be finally judged and gone forever. When He is sanctified in righteousness the Lord will put everything to rights what is and has been wrong in our life. When God is vindicated, we are vindicated; what we believed would be shown to be right and good, and all the blessings of God come to His believers.
God is exalted in judgment. The proof and vindication of God, His Word, and His Promises will exalt the Lord before the entire universe of visible and invisible creatures. Judgment sounds bad, but it really is a great good for those who believe in Jesus Christ. The judgment is against all that is harmful and deleterious to us. Sin is judged and forever confined to the lake of fire. Death and hell are judged and forever confined to the lake of fire. The Devil is judged and forever confined to the lake of fire. These three enemies will never, ever, again be present in life to disrupt and destroy the perfect life God has planned for the people He created and loved. For this final and absolute judgment God will be exalted. He will be proven to all that He was right all along; and we are the beneficiaries of God’s exaltation.
God is sanctified in righteousness, God is holy already, but now His Holiness will be evident and obvious for all to see. No one will ever doubt or wonder again whether God will do the right thing. Nothing can ever again doubt that God is good. Vindication for the Lord and His believers has been won in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but when God is sanctified in righteousness all will be resurrected, and believers will be sanctified in righteousness; they will live with the Lord in pure and abounding love forever. This is the guarantee of this beautiful promise.