The Gospel & Salvation: The Prophecy of the Savior

The Prophecy of the Savior

Isaiah 53

 We are continuing our study on the gospel and the work of salvation. Last week we took one final look at Genesis 3. Our time in that very instructive chapter helped us understand how the problem of sin began, (the first couple did not love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength) and what the consequences of sin would be to mankind. (spiritual, relational, natural, generational, and eternal) All this helped us see how desperately we need a solution to the problem of sin. We saw the origins of man-made solutions to the problem of sin. These are solutions which do not work. They are fig leaf solutions whereby man attempts to cover his sins and by some means of human achievement attain to a right standing before God. We know that even after Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves, they still felt the need to flee from the presence of God.

We also saw the promise of God’s solution. The gospel includes the good news that there is a solution to the problem of sin. And the gospel is the good news that the solution to sin is provided by God. I have been referring to the only gospel that truly saves as the religion of divine accomplishment. The false religions of human achievement can’t work. The religion of divine accomplishment is the only true religion that can save sinners from their sin.

Last week we saw the promise of the solution in the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of Satan. This is what Jesus Christ accomplished for us at the Cross. Through His death for sinners, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. He fulfilled the promise God gave in Genesis 3:15. Genesis 3:15 is rightly called the “protoevangelium” or the first gospel. Immediately after the man and woman sinned, God announced the solution which would come from the seed of the woman.

We also saw the first participants in the work of God to rescue sinners. Eve was rescued when God sovereignly intervened and overruled her loyalty to Satan. God put enmity between Satan and the woman. She was turned back from devotion to Satan and made to be a participant in God’s salvation. Adam also gave evidence of his conversion by naming his wife Eve, meaning life. He declared that she was the mother of all living and that from her would come the one who would give life.

Then God pictured His sovereign work of salvation by making clothing for the first couple. God made the clothes from the skins of animals. In doing so, God taught the first couple the principle which underlies the religion of divine accomplishment. An innocent substitute had to shed blood and die so that an adequate covering could be provided for the sinner. This became the picture we see throughout the Old Testament. Righteous Abel brought the acceptable sacrifice in Genesis 4. He brought the firstling of his flock. He understood the requirement of the shedding of blood of an innocent substitute to atone for his sin. This is pictured throughout the Old Testament in the requirements of the Law that demanded an endless slaughter of animals, all of which were innocent substitutes. All of these animal sacrifices pointed to the perfect sacrifice to come. Colossians 2:17 tells us that the O.T. requirements were only a “shadow of what was to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

The Old Testament is full of pictures that point to Jesus Christ. Noah’s ark was a picture of Jesus as the true Ark into which sinners can go to be kept safe through the waters of divine judgment. The ram caught in the thicket that was offered as a substitute by Abraham in the place of Isaac. The Passover Lamb was the lamb that provided deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Jesus died on Passover as the fulfillment of that wonderful picture. Jesus was the manna from heaven provided in the wilderness, He being the true bread of heaven. The serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness in Numbers 21 represented a picture of Jesus being lifting up in crucifixion. These are some of the more prominent pictures in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is full of the truth we looked at in seminal form last week. There are not only the pictures, but there are also many prophecies. Christ made this clear. He rebuked the religious leaders of His day. They thought they had all the answers from the Old Testament but Jesus told them clearly that the O.T. spoke plainly of Him. After His resurrection Jesus walked with two of His disciples along the road to Emmaus. These men were distraught. They had believed Jesus to be Israel’s Messiah, but when Jesus was crucified their hopes were dashed. They had not seen the picture of Genesis 3:15, nor had their understood the words of the prophets. Jesus said to these two men in Luke 24:25-27, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in the Scriptures.”

Moses gave us many pictures, and the prophets gave us the prophecies. The wonderful value of the prophecies is that they give us much more detail with which we can paint a much more complete picture of God’s promised solution. There are many prophets who give us many details, but none gave us a more thorough description, or more comprehensive prophecy than Isaiah. For example, Isaiah gave us in Is. 7:14 the prophecy regarding the virgin birth. Is. 9:6-7 describe Messiah’s ultimate role as the ruler who reigns – the government will rest on His shoulders, His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. He will rule on the throne of His father David in righteousness and justice.

Perhaps the most pertinent and important prophecy of Isaiah is found in Isaiah 52:13-53. Please turn to this passage. Isaiah’s name means “the Lord is salvation.” This is a fitting name for the O.T. prophet who would proclaim the good news of salvation in remarkable detail. And he would do it approximately 700 years before the prophecies would come to pass.  Isaiah is one of the prophets of whom Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:10-11, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquires, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was testifying as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.”

More than any other prophet Isaiah predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. Jerome, a fourth century theologian and historian, who is best known for translating most of the Bible into Latin, said of Isaiah, “He should be called an evangelist rather than a prophet, because he describes all the mysteries of Christ and the church so clearly that one would think he is composing history of what has already happened rather than prophesying what is to come.” 

You will see why Jerome said this as we read this passage. Let’s stand in honor of God’s word and read Isaiah 52:13-53.

This is a prophetic passage that describes none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. It describes His suffering on the Cross in so much detail. It is fitting for us to look at the sufferings of Christ today. This is the Sunday before Resurrection Day. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Resurrection. Today is Palm Sunday. This day on the religious calendar commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. This is the first day of the week in which the same people who proclaim is praises on Palm Sunday, will be the  people turn against Him by Friday. He will be betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, unjustly sentenced to death, beaten, crucified, and rise from the dead. Unfortunately, the church’s calendar moves from Passover Sunday to Resurrection Day. It would be a good idea to have church every day of the week to come so we could devote attention to all the details of that week.

Things being as they are, we will focus on the suffering of Christ today and His resurrection next Sunday. To focus on His death we could go to any one of the four New Testament gospels. They all contain informative, insightful, important accounts of the events at Calvary. The New Testament gospels describe the account from the perspective of the authors who penned those gospels. Isaiah gives us the description of the Cross from God’s perspective. In doing so Isaiah helps us understand what God was doing at the Cross. We can read the gospel accounts to learn what the Jews, or the Romans, Jesus, or even the disciples were doing. Isaiah is helping us understand what God was doing.

This passage gives us the keys to unlock the answers to some of life’s most relevant questions. These verses tell us how and why the religion of divine accomplishment saves sinners. This chapter reveals to us the answers to the question concerning just how man’s sin can be fully and finally dealt with without eternally condemning the sinner. This chapter explains how a just and holy God could redeem sinners without sacrificing or compromising His absolute, perfect holiness.

Everything we have been learning about sin and its consequences has left us feeling the unbearable burden of sin. My intention has been to make you feel the weight of your sin so that when we got to this truth you would be ready to rejoice to learn of the One who would suffer in your place, and willingly be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. This passage details what God has done to punish the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to Himself in salvation.

The context of Isaiah 53 is also important to understand. Isaiah is prophesying something which has yet to be understood by the Jewish people. The Jews do not yet recognize Jesus as their Messiah. To the Jews, the fact that Jesus was crucified was proof enough that He was cursed of God. This could not possibly happen to the Messiah. But someday, when Jesus returns, Paul tells us in Romans 11 that Israel will be saved. Zechariah 12:10 tells of this day. It says, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look upon Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”

On the great and glorious day of the Lord, the people of Israel will look upon Jesus and they will see the truth. Isaiah’s words in these verses describe what they will come to understand. The Jews will look at Jesus and humbly acknowledge, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows he carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”

This indicates an abrupt reversal of how Israel has historically viewed Jesus. Since the time of His early life and death, the Jews have believed the fact that Jesus died on the Cross was proof that He was a fraud and a failure. But this is a confession of a people who will come to see the truth they have long denied. They will confess that their Messiah was, in fact crucified, but not because He was a failure, but because He was put to death as a substitute. They will see Him as the sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the people.

While the understanding of this is yet a future reality for the Jews, it is, at the same time, a beautiful description of the Cross from God’s perspective. This is Isaiah’s description of how the sin of the sinner is ultimately atoned for. This is Isaiah’s explanation of how a holy and just God has chosen to exercise His righteous wrath on sin, and still be able to save the sinner.

Verse 5 explains that the righteous servant of the Lord dies like a sacrificial lamb, suffering for sins he did not commit, and bearing away the guilt of his people. “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him.” Verse 6 says, “But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” The sufferings described the outpouring of God’s wrath. This is God’s righteous retribution for the sins committed against Him. The sin-bearer was “smitten of God, and afflicted,” Listen, it was not our sin that killed Jesus. It was God who killed His own Son as an act of divine retribution. The language is punitive. Jesus bore the punishment that sinners themselves deserve. He endured the full measure of God’s wrath.

The griefs and sorrows He bore for His people are not merely sin’s temporal consequences. Jesus died as a substitute and sin bearer for his people. He shouldered the guilt and took the punishment that rightfully belonged to us. The word translated “chastening” in verse 5, “the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,” has the connotation of divine punishment. I’m not sure we fully appreciate the truth of Hebrews 10:31. It tells us that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Romans 1:18 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” God’s divine wrath was poured out on His own Son because of our sin.

Jesus was the perfect sacrifice to satisfy the demands of God’s justice. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21) Galatians 3:13 tells us that Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” 

How could one man endure the wrath of God for so many? A mere man could not. Only an infinite being could endure infinite suffering for a multitude of those God has and will save. Jesus was the infinite One. He was God in human flesh. Jesus was unique as to His being and able to absorb and endure the infinite wrath of God in the place of so many.

It is important that we see the how this becomes a personal issue for the sinner. I said that this passage foretells of an attitude change concerning Jesus as the Messiah. The Jews themselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. They assumed it was because this is what He justly deserved. But please note the change in attitude reflected between verse 4 and 5. “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, (not His) He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

The good news of the gospel is a message for us as individual sinners. It was for our transgressions, not His, that He was pierced through. It was for our iniquities, not His that caused Him to be crushed. In reality, it was for my transgressions that He was pierced through, and for my iniquity that He was crushed. The chastening for my well-being fell upon Him. By His scourging I am healed.

We tend to blame the Jews for what they did in betraying Jesus and employing the help of the Romans to kill Him. Indeed they did kill God’s Son. But Jesus did not die on that Cross because they betrayed Him. Jesus died on that cross to endure the wrath of God. It was by the predetermined plan of God. Yet, at the same time my sin nailed Jesus to the cross. Your sin nailed Jesus to the cross.

Jesus was pierced through for our transgressions. He was pierced through His hands and feet and His precious bleeding side. He was crushed for our iniquities. He endured beatings at the hands of the Sanhedrin and the Romans. He was chastened for our well-being. The idea is that He was punished. He was unjustly indicted, endured a sham trial, received a rigged verdict, and was sentenced to death. He was scourged, which left his body severely marked with raw wounds. 

The healing spoken of in verse 5 is not the promise of immediate physical healing from any physical ailment. The context demands that we understand this to be a spiritual healing. It is healing from the effects of our transgressions, iniquities, and our sin. The sickness Isaiah has in mind is far worse than any physical disease we might have. Sin brings forth death and is utterly incurable apart from the remedy provided through Jesus Christ. Because Jesus endured the wrath in our place, we can receive a spiritual healing that provides the benefits of life eternal. Far more valuable than any physical healing that might simply prolong life on this earth is the spiritual healing that gives eternal life in glory.

It should be clear to us that in the religion of divine accomplishment there is no place for pride, or attitudes of self-righteousness, or any expression of worthiness on the part of the sinner. In fact, there must be a total abandonment of self achievement and an acknowledgment of our wretchedness and total unworthiness before a holy and just God. We must come to see what Isaiah said the Jews would come to see when they learn the truth about Jesus. This realization is expressed in verse 6. “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”

This is an appropriate description of the condition of humanity. Adam and Eve, like sheep, went astray. They both turned away from God and turned to their own way. God turned them back. We saw that last week. The metaphor of verse 6, comparing humanity to sheep is telling. Sheep are helpless, hopeless, and prone to wander and die, unless they are helped and protected and the shepherd intervenes for their well-being. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Our wandering, straying, determined rebellion to walk our own way would lead us to destruction if it were not for the Good Shepherd.

It is no accident that sheep are used for this metaphor. More than any other class of livestock sheep require constant attention and meticulous care. Sheep are stupid animals. They stick their nose to the ground and start eating and wander from the others and find themselves in grave danger. They are defenseless against predators and completely incapable of taking care of themselves. People are no different. By nature we are sinners prone to go astray from God, and turn to our own way. We are inclined to ignore His guidance and care and choose rather to follow the path of sin.

This is not just an indictment of the Jews. This is the declaration of the word of God regarding all of us. Turn to Romans 3:10-18. Read the indictment against mankind. This is the description of humanity. The problem with us lies in our very nature. We all have a sinful disposition that produces the sinful thoughts and actions that plague us. We must all see in ourselves the truth Jeremiah proclaimed. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9) This is an indictment of our fallen human nature. It describes the sickness that infects the whole human race.

This is a problem every sinner must come to grips with. Our problem is not just a matter of the wrong actions and attitudes we manifest. The real problem is who we are. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.

But the good news of the gospel is that the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Look again at Isaiah 53:6. There is my favorite word again. The word “but” seems to always point us to the message of hope. We are like sheep who have gone astray. We have all turned away from God to our own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

God caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Jesus Christ. How could we conclude anything other than the fact that this is the religion of divine accomplishment? This is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. An innocent victim died in the place of the sinner. The promise of a seed from the woman who would crush the head of Satan was fulfilled. Jesus was the promised One. The picture of the innocent substitute of Genesis 3:21  foreshadowed Christ.

In closing look at verse 10. “The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering.” Verse 11 includes, “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 man; as He will bear their iniquities.” My friends you can’t make up a story that contains better news for sinners than the message of Isaiah 53. God sacrificed an innocent substitute to bear His wrath. His Righteous Servant was none other than His own Son.

No other could have been qualified to be that substitute. Every other man is a sinner. If God kills anyone else in payment for sin, that person, being a sinner would have had to pay for his own sin. Jesus knew no sin, but God made Him to become sin, and the sinless Son of God bore the wrath of God in our place. The innocent substitute died for the guilty. That is good news.

It is only good news if you believe it and embrace it and turn to Christ in faith. If you have heard this truth and do not trust in Christ, this only makes matters worse for you in the day of Judgment. You will not be able to say, “I never heard the gospel.” Your judgment will be worse. 

Respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If God is convicting you of sin and righteousness and judgment and calling you to respond by turning from your sin and trusting Christ, follow Him. Don’t leave this place without speaking to me about what God is showing you concerning your need for a Savior.