From the shadows of the Old Testament, Christ is clearly seen in so many ways. From the prophecy concerning the “seed of woman” in Genesis 3:15 to the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel, we see that the entirety of the Biblical record reports the testimony of God concerning the redemption of Christ under the covenant of grace.
The ministry of Isaiah had as its objective the revelation of God’s message of judgment to the nation of Israel for persistent and willful rebellion against Him, as well as to make known the future redemption under the advent of the Messiah (9:6-7; 11:10-12). His words were given to the southern kingdom of Judah when the northern kingdom was about to be taken captive. He warned Judah, who was following in the wicked footsteps of her sister, that judgment was imminent, not by Assyria, but by Babylon, which had not yet even risen to power.
Concerning Christ, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah’s prophesy renders thus: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Jesus is the one who would “come up from the root of Jesse” on whom “the Spirit of the Lord” would “rest.” His absolute perfection was predicted for “he will delight in the fear of the Lord” (Isa. 11:3) and “righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist” (Isa. 11:5).
Nothing greater can be said about Christ than the fact that He is absolutely perfect in every way. The news of His perfection is a note of gladness to the heart of the sinner; God is looking to exchange the unfaithfulness which marks our lives with the perfection of Christ.
The New Testament teaches that “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8), which is what Isaiah was talking about when he said that the “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). The substitutionary atonement of Christ, in which He “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24, NKJ) that “by His wounds” we may be healed (1 Pet. 2:24; Isa. 53:5), “was the Lord’s will” (Isa. 53:10). It was God who was willing to “crush” Jesus “and cause him to suffer,” thereby making “his life a sin offering” (Isa. 53:10). This is how the scheme of redemption was carried out, wherein God was able to make “Him who knew no sin to be for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
The death of Jesus was the complete and total price that had to be paid for man’s redemption, because “after the suffering of his soul” God would “see the light and be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11) that payment for sin had been made in full. God’s “righteous servant” justified “many” when He bore “their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11) and “and poured out his life unto death...bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12). Because God was completely “satisfied” (Isa. 53:11) with the death of “the lamb without blemish” (1 Pet. 1:19), Jesus could cry “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30) when He “suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh” (1 Pet. 3:18).
The satisfaction of God “after the suffering” of Jesus (Isa. 53:11) that Isaiah spoke of is the New Testament doctrine of reconciliation. Paul says that “we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” even “when we were God's enemies” (Rom. 5:10) and therefore, “having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life” (Rom. 5:10). Isaiah was predicting a salvation that would be perfectly accomplished at the cross, for “now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death” (Col. 1:22). God gets all the credit for it, because “all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ” (2 Cor. 5:18) who was the “priest” who “offered for all time one sacrifice for sins” (Heb. 10:12). And after His death on the cross, in which Jesus “had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 1:3).
Through Isaiah, God revealed what the sacrifice of Christ was all about. No wonder he would sum it all up by saying, “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isa. 61:10).
Bryan Dunaway
Grace and Peace Ministries
www.gandpministries.org |