How does a person born with a sinful nature secure a relationship with God who is absolutely holy? You offer a divinely ordered substitutionary sacrifice to appease God’s wrath against your sin and cover and cleanse your evil in His holy presence. In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, God gave Israel four specific blood sacrificial offerings to accomplish this worthy goal. The Burnt Offering made payment for sins in general (Lev. 1), the Peace Offering demonstrated how a blood sacrifice established peace between God and man (Lev. 3), the Sin Offering provided payment for unintentional sins and uncleanness (Lev. 4). In contrast, the Trespass Offering provided compensation for injured parties (viz., between one person and another or between a person and God) to restore the relationship (Lev. 5). Therefore, entrance into a relationship with God couldn’t have been more straightforward: Restoration with God calls for the prescribed sacrifice offered through the prescribed mediator, which was the priest.
From Hebrews 10, we learn how the Old Testament sacrificial system was inherently flawed insofar as it offered only temporary cleansing of sin through a human priest.
11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Heb. 10).
By definition, the sacrificial system looked for one who was the perfect eternal sacrifice and eternal priest. Prophecy pointed in this direction by informing us that the Messiah would be the God-man (Isa. 7:14; 9:6; Micah 5:1-2). The doctrine of God leaned in this direction as well. How so? Dr. Erwin Lutzer answers this question well:
“A sacrifice must be equal to the offense committed. Because our sin is against an infinite God, we need a sacrifice of infinite value. It follows that only God can supply the sacrifice that He Himself demands.”[1]
This type of sacrifice is what Isaiah 53 prophesied some eight hundred years before the birth of the Messiah. Here God spoke through Isaiah to inform us how the prophesied messianic God-man would be the perfect sacrifice and the perfect and eternal High Priest (Psalm 110). He, and He alone, was equipped and qualified to satisfy the Father’s wrath against sin and sinners through willingly offering Himself as the required and final sacrifice for sin. Now, sinners become saints when they recognize their need for spiritual cleansing and place their faith in the proper and perfect sacrifice, Jesus, who was and is the complete fulfillment of Isaiah 53.
Before we dig into this tremendous passage for the third time, I would be remiss in my calling as a shepherd if I didn’t ask you a couple of questions. Have you come to God utilizing the proper sacrifice, which is Jesus? Or are you attempting to gain a relationship with God on your terms, be what they may? If this is so, I will remind you how prophecy, procedures, and divine provision for sin matter significantly to God, for combined, it all serves to show the only way for sinners to become saints.
As we have seen, God’s prophetic plan for establishing coverage and cleansing for our sins couldn’t have been more shocking and unpredictable. From what we learn from this ancient, precise prophetic word . . .
Salvation Is Grounded On The Servant’s Degradation And Exaltation (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
Jesus fulfilled every aspect of this ancient prophecy.
- The Mystery Of The Servant, Jesus (Isaiah 52:13-15). Did Roman soldiers beat Him until He was unrecognizable? Did He secure exaltation after His resurrection? Yes. He fulfilled both prophecies completely.
- The Rejection Of The Servant, Jesus (Isaiah 53:1-3). Did His people reject Him because He was not what they anticipated in the coming Messiah? Yes. Yes. He fulfilled both prophecies completely.
- The Atonement Of The Servant, Jesus (Isaiah 53:4-6). Did He bear our sin as a perfect sacrificial lamb so He could wash away our sin at the moment of faith? Yes. He fulfilled the prophecy completely.
- The Submission Of The Servant, Jesus (Isaiah 53:7-9). Did He quietly submit to the most horrendous treatment when He bore our sin? Yes. He fulfilled the prophecy completely.
All of this attests to the fact Jesus was, and is, the prophesied Suffering Servant from the Davidic line (Isa. 9:6). But there is more to the precise prophecy.
The Exaltation Of The Servant (Isaiah 53:10-12)
The Spirit of God builds the prophecy to a climax in this section by finalizing the inclusio format first presented in 52:13-15. Hence one last time, the Spirit drives home the truth about the prophesied degradation of the Servant, culminating in His ultimate and glorious exaltation. God arrests our attention here by altering the expected word order. Instead of beginning the sentence with a verb, God wedded the connective “and” (waw in Hebrew, where the “w” is pronounced like a German “w” wherein it sounds like our letter “v”) to a non-verb, viz., Yahweh ( וַיהוָ֞ה). Grammatically, this construction not only causes you to stop and think about what is said, but it expresses a high degree of shock:
10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
The prophesied mistreatment of the Suffering Servant at the hands of hostile, ruthless sinners had God’s providential and loving fingers all over it. When it says God was “pleased to crush Him, [resulting in] putting Him to grief,” it doesn’t mean He was/is sadistic. No way. On the other hand, these words signify that the Holy Father was pleased because He knew His Son’s selfless sacrifice would bear humanity’s sin so atonement could be possible. Verses four and five echo this substitutionary atonement motif. Therefore, the Servant’s substitution would lead to the prospects of our absolution of sin at the point of faith (Acts 4:10-12; Rom. 10:9).
How God providentially planned to do this entailed making the divine-human Servant the ultimate guilt offering. This particular blood sacrificial offering, which is called asham ( אָשָׁם ) in Leviticus (Lev. 5:16; 6:4), focused on securing restitution either between God and man or man and man. Of course, the former is in view here. The Servant would do what no substitutionary animal sacrifice would do. He would perfectly pay the ultimate price to forgive the debt of sinners so they could freely enjoy a restored relationship with God (And you thought God didn’t care about you nor want a relationship with you. You need to reconsider this misinformed notion). He could and would do this because, as I have said, He alone was qualified as the sinless God-man to pay the debt of all debts to give sinners the only path to sainthood through faith in His person and work.
Five incredible prophesied results emanate from the Servant’s tremendous and gut-wrenching sacrifice.
10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
Result Number One: He who had no physical progeny (because He died in the prime of life) would have spiritual progeny. Concerning the fulfillment of this, the author of Hebrew remarks, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10). Note how not all are saved and head to glory. The only ones who are glory bound are those who, by faith, realize Jesus was the perfect and final sacrifice for sin. If you are bound for glory, give Him thanks this Good Friday. If not, it is time to stop saying, “Why should I place my faith in Christ,” and start asking yourself, “Why not?”
Further, you cannot read this particular result and not see the resurrection embedded in it. How could the Servant see His spiritual offspring if He were not alive? He couldn’t. Hence, the prophecy quietly informs us a resurrection must occur for the Servant to see offspring.
Result Number Two: He would give long life, really eternal life, to His children:
10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
Jesus said this man times.
40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. (John 6).
If you don’t have Jesus, you have sin and death about you. If you have Jesus, you have the life prophesied He would give you. No wonder, then, in Revelation 1, verse 8, Jesus, who is Yeshua, says, “I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever.” He who is life, therefore, is qualified to give you life. Who could not and would not want this?
Result Number Three: God’s redemptive plan concerning the Servant would be unstoppable.
10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
A Jewish crowd chanting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him” couldn’t stop it. Roman lictors couldn’t stop it with their whips. A ruthless and heartless Roman crucifixion detail couldn’t stop it. All the demons of hell amassed against Him couldn’t stop it. Why? The Holy Father’s word secured the Servant’s compelling redemptive mission. The Servant would bring justice and righteousness to the nations, as prophesied in Isaiah 42 and 40, and nothing or nobody would thwart God’s proposed destiny. Today we expectantly await the complete fulfillment of this when the Messiah, the Suffering Servant, appears as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19).
Result Number Four: He would see the fantastic results which would come after His terrible anguish caused by His unfathomable suffering.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.
The word “it” is not in the original Hebrew. What does it reference? I think it refers to the consequences of His redemptive work, meaning He will live to see everything concerning His redemptive work fulfilled to the letter.
- He would see sinners become saints.
- He would see many in the Israelite nation saved at His glorious return (Zech. 12:10-13:6).
- He would see the institution of the Church, an entity not seen in the Old Testament but prophesied by Him when He walked among us (Matt. 16:18).
- He would see Israel dwelling in the land under His leadership as the great Davidic king, resulting in all nations coming to Israel to worship and learn from Him (Isa. 2).
- He would see the creation of the new heavens and earth wherein holiness would dwell uninterrupted (Isa. 65-66; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).
- He would see heavenly homes He constructed filled with believers from all walks of life and ethnicities (Rev. 21:1-22:5).
Question: Will He see you in His heaven?
Result #5: He will legally secure forgiveness for sinners who desire to become saints employing faith in His redemptive work.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.
Because the Servant bore the sin of humankind, He is suited to declare the unrighteous as righteous in His courtroom when they evidence knowledge of His holy person and work. Paul, the converted Rabbi, wrote prolifically about this in his letter to the Romans. Summing up his argument in chapter five concerning the more excellent work of Jesus as the obedient Second Adam, he concludes in language reminiscent of Isaiah 53, verse 11:
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, (Rom. 5).
Underscore the fact that Jesus does not justify all but the many. Ostensibly, this means that not all will secure forgiveness and judicial forgiveness at the moment of faith in Him. Judicial forgiveness is only true of those who come to God on His terms, not theirs. What are His terms? You must embrace His prescribed sacrifice to end all sacrifices. His name is Jesus, the Savior. When you do this, His gavel comes down on His judicial bar of judgment, and He joyously declares, “You, my child, are righteous.” I can’t help but ask, What/who keeps you from making this decision, so God’s promise of judicial freedom is your reality?
In verse 12, which is the final verse of this spectacular prophecy, the Holy Father promises to give the Suffering Servant two unique gifts because of His hard, selfless, and courageous redemptive work:
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors (Isa. 53).
Gift Number One: He, who was not seen as significant in His day, would be great among every person who has ever lived. No one could ever outdo His redemptive accomplishment; therefore, it would validate why He would be, and is, the most remarkable man ever to walk the earth. He was the God-man who left glory, who endured suffering for our sin so we could be spiritually cleansed and given a new spiritual life. No wonder, then, He is called the Almighty, pantokrator, (ὁ παντοκράτωρ) throughout the book of Revelation as He prepares to bring His kingdom of holiness and true justice to earth (Rev. 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22).
Gift Number Two: He, who bore our sin, would become wealthy and share His wealth.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors (Isa. 53).
This prophetic statement fulfills Psalm 2, a messianic prophetic utterance, wherein the Holy Father promises the Davidic Son that He would inherit the wealth of all the nations of the earth, along with their land (Psalm 2:8). Daniel prophetically educates us on how this will occur when the Servant/King/Savior appears and destroys all worldly political systems and turns and establishes His long-awaited empire (Dan. 2:40-45). He also gives us a peek at the future when He prophecies concerning the Servant/King/Savior:
13 ” kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed (Dan. 7).
Talk about the ultimate rags to riches story. And to think He who made our salvation possible not only blesses us with spiritual treasure in the heavenlies (Eph. 1:3), but He can’t wait to share the wealth of His kingdom with us when He returns.
In light of all of this, the questions are twofold: One, “Are you His saint?” Two, “Will you rule and reign with Him as He promised” (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 5:10; 22:5). I pray this Good Friday you will permit His degradation and exaltation to become your exaltation to a new place in His heavenly family.
[1] Erwin Lutzer, Ten Lies About God (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), 35.
