Sunday 6 October 2013

is53v10

READING ISAIAH 53:1-12 TEXT: v10
  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied...
 


 
This little phrase "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him" is perhaps one of the deepest statements found in the whole/Scripture. If full understanding was a condition of being saved, then we must ask: Who then can be saved? and we would answer: None. This is one of those things which even the angels of God desire to look into (1 Peter 1:10) and yet cannot fathom the depths. Please remember that an angel/God came to strengthen Christ as the crushing of His soul began in the Garden/Gethsemane when He shed as it were great drops of blood (Luke 22:43-44). Yet even though present at such close/practical quarters, yet there is a bafflement in Heaven among them as to the depths of these words. But if we cannot enter into a full understanding, still let us hope for and seek for some understanding. These things would not be revealed if we could not meditate upon them and enjoy some benefit from them.

The scene is at the Cross - Christ is wounded for our transgressions (v5). He is stricken and smitten/God (v4). The LORD lays on Him the iniquity of us all (v6). Again, the sufferings undertaken cannot be adequately portrayed and we are left with making do with what we can understand - although we can understand enough in order to be saved. Saving faith does not know everything - but it knows Him who does. He that does tells us that it pleased the Lord to bruise His Son while He hung naked on the Cross of Calvary. 5 vital lessons we can learn from this text:

1) SUCH PLEASURE DENOTES THAT THE LORD WAS IN SOVEREIGN CONTROL AT THE CROSS

A/ It is this that makes the message/cross so glorious.
Had Christ been kidnapped against His will or had God planned something else, but managed to make the best of a bad job etc., then much of the wonder of it is lost completely -but this is not so.
We know: the Cross (like everything God does) was carefully planned.
Being carefully planned - it was so from all eternity:
O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. (Isaiah 25:1)

These old counsels i.e. from eternity, included the bruising of God's Son:
For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. (Acts 4:27-28)

B/ God's pleasure (indicating His control) seen again in that He SAID it would be done: 
Passage at hand  is adequate proof along with other clear Messianic references including Psalm 22 but especially Genesis 22.
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:8)
Spoken 100's/years before the actual event, indicating that the Lord was pleased to do all that happened at Calvary.

C/ God SENT His Son into the world with this express purpose in mind:

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
Word "sent" is literally "apostle" - one deliberately sent on a specific mission - Nothing accidental about it or general, hence:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; (Hebrews 3:1)
The Shadow/Cross loomed over the crib/Bethlehem and over every last thing the Lord Jesus ever did before He was finally crucified.

D/ God STRENGTHENED His Son especially as the Cross drew near
Already referred to Luke 23:43-44.
An angel came and strengthened Him when 12 legions could easily have come and delivered Him (Matthew 26:53) Note the wording:
Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Reference to the Father here is significant - This was been done in full accordance with the Father's will - it really did please the LORD

2) SUCH PLEASURE WAS NOT A CRUEL, HEARTLESS  PLEASURE:

A/ God is not a sadistic Being who gets His kicks watching others suffer
Not down there with Himmler/Saddam etc., who delighted in torture
Wrong to view this text that way

B/ God reveals Himself:  
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. (Psalm 103:8) 
David said elsewhere:
"Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Psalm 18:35)

C/ Even towards the wicked/unrepentant - whose participation at the Cross was marked by such cruelty:
Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. (Psalm 22:13-14)
God does not delight in their deaths either: 
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)

D/ How much more will such cruel heartlessness be missing when it comes to His only Son - whom He calls His well beloved Son - the Son of His Love - and the darling/His bosom with whom he is well pleased?

E/ All very well, relating what these words do not mean, but we must get some kind of understanding of what they do mean:

3) SUCH PLEASURE WAS FOUNDED IN NECESSITY OF HOLINESS:
 
In other words, the reason why it was necessary for Christ to die upon the Cross and be punished by the Father was not cruelty, but the demands of the Holy Law of God

A/ Sound theologians have debated over how necessary the Cross was i.e. could God have saved by some other way and whether or not He is bounded only by His own laws etc., Deep stuff!

B/ For all intents/purposes, let us grant the necessity/Cross as revealed (where it matters) in the word/God itself. Bible is clear: 
Without shedding/blood, there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22)
The alternative to the sacrifice of the Innocent in order to clear the guilty seems to be the following:

[i] Totally lawlessness where there is no punishment for sin.
A holy God could not be pleased to sit back and let this happen.

[ii] Abandon the guilty to their deserved punishment/sin.
While God could've rightly done this and none complain, yet mercy and grace are in His attributes too and they proposed differently.

[iii] Propose that the sinner fund His own salvation by making atonement for His own sins, past, present and future.
An unworkable idea, effectively leaving the sinner to perish, just as if there was no salvation provided for him.
Sinner is always found wanting when weighed/the balances (Daniel 5:27)
He is always the unprofitable servant (Luke 17:10) accruing more debt.

C/ The only way which God could rescue doomed, bankrupting ever recurring fresh debt sinners was to provide (as seen earlier) Himself a Lamb - A sacrificial Lamb without blemish and without spot i.e. Christ.
God Himself must be the originator, executor and finisher of salvation.
Most be entirely 100% of God, without human contribution of any kind.

D/ God then came up with the plan (in His counsels/old) whereby Christ would take the sinner's place, bear their sins, and secure salvation.
Hence all these substitutionary verses: v5/v6/v8/v10 (text)/v11/v12
This is in one chapter alone - whole of the NT is built on this doctrine.
Paul used it to define the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

E/ When it says that it please the Lord to bruise His Son, (second time in the passage where the word bruised is used: v5) then it means that it pleased the LORD to provide the needed sacrifice that would answer the demands of the Holy Law and so redeem sinners

F/ It is interesting that the word "bruise" appears elsewhere in Isaiah 1:6 where sinners are said to be full of wounds, bruises etc.
Christ was bruised for us because He became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Another reference to bruising comes in Isaiah 42:1 where Christ will not break the bruised reed - again, because He Himself was bruised.
What an encouragement to sinners to come and seek Him - they  will find a totally sympathetic Saviour who is willing/able to save them.

4) SUCH PLEASURE WAS SUCCESSFUL IN ITS TASK:

A/ It pleased the LORD to bruise His Son in order to redeem sinners.
Did He succeed in redeeming sinners? Yes!
Testified to in this very passage: v11 Shall see travail/soul - satisfied.
Testified  again: 
By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many (v11)
Again: 
He shall divide the spoil with the strong (v12)
 Why? Because He poured out His soul unto death.
Notice that much of the language of this prophetic passage is in the past tense
Amazing for a prophecy! 
Why is this? Because when God says He will do something, it is so certain, that His prophets often put it into the past tense as if it were already done, signed and sealed.

B/ Before our Lord went to the Cross, He left us the Memorial Feast.
Same spirit as prophesying in the past tense - This is the blood/the NT - He was going to set up another testament and He wanted it to be remembered, not as a valiant but unsuccessful attempt - but as an accomplished act wherein He achieved all that He set out to do.

C/ We do not believe the Lord Jesus merely made salvation possible.
That is only half the story which gives the sinner a reduced hope.
He actually secured salvation for the many whose sin He bare(v12)
They are the many who are justified, because their sins are actually borne away on His body to the tree (v11)

5)  SUCH PLEASURE WAS SHARED BY THE ONE WHO WAS BRUISED:

A/ Have concentrated on the willingness of the Father to bruise the Son
This is the emphasis of the text, for it is the Father in view as the Bruiser and the Son is in view as the One bruised.

B/ But let us not lose sight of the willingness/Son to be the Sufferer
"Here am I, send me!" (6:8)
Listen to this verse:
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
This is why we love Him, serve Him and remember Him and urge all men (especially sinners) to seek Him while He is to be found

THE END


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