SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
12/4/2013 8:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Vindication: the Satisfied Servant
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
53:10-12
Message
of the verses: “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. 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.
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.”
In this brief, but very powerful
section, we see the cross from the viewpoint of God the Father. Acts 2:22-23 says “22 “Men of Israel, listen
to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles
and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as
you yourselves know- 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,
you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” God was offering His Sacrifice for the sins
of the world, and Jesus Christ was that Sacrifice.
We see the phrase “He will prolong
His days,” which speaks of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the
dead, the Firstfruits of all who have come to know Him as Lord and Savior. Christ conquered every enemy, including death
with His resurrection. Satan offered Him
a glorious kingdom, but that would mean He would have to bypass the cross, but
Jesus came to do the will of the Father, which meant His suffering, death,
burial, and resurrection from the dead which were accomplished by Him.
Let us now look at the phrase “He
will see His offspring.” This statement
means that Jesus Christ will have many spiritual children. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Isaiah’s statement about
Isaiah’s natural family (8:18) is quoted in Hebrews 2:13 and applied to Christ
and His spiritual family.”
Next we look at this statement from
verse eleven: “He will see it and be
satisfied.” Who was satisfied with
Christ’s death on the cross? First of
all the Father was satisfied for Jesus said in John 8:28 “I do always those
things that please Him (The Father).”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The heavenly
Father did not find enjoyment in seeing His beloved Son suffer, for the Father
is not pleased with the death of the wicked, let alone the death of the
righteous Son of God. But the Father was
pleased that His Son’s obedience accomplished the redemption that He had
planned from eternity (1 Peter 1:20).
‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).”
Let us look at this phrase in verse
eleven: “He will see it and be satisfied.”
What we are talking about is what the Bible calls “propitiation,” and in
the pagan couture of the Greek speaking people this meant “to offer a sacrifice
to placate an angry god,” however in our Christian meaning it goes much deeper
and much richer. Dr. Wiersbe writes “God
is angry at sin because it offends His holiness and violates His holy Law. In His holiness He must judge sinners, but in
His love He desires to forgive them. God
cannot ignore sin or compromise with it, for that would be contrary to His own
nature and Law.
“How did God solve the problem? The Judge took the place of the criminals and
met the just demands of His own Law! ‘He
was numbered with the transgressors’ and even prayed for them (Isa. 53:12; Luke
22:37; 23:33-34). The Law has been
satisfied and God can now graciously forgive all who receive His Son. Grace is love that has paid a price, and
sinners are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8-9).”
The Law of God demands justice, but cannot produce salvation, and so the
Lord Jesus Christ lived a perfect life keeping all of the Law for us. By doing this God can declare us just when we
receive the forgiveness that Christ offers, see 2 Cor. 5:21 and
Romans5:17.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary
on this chapter of his book by writing “On the morning of May 29, 1953, Sir
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquered Mt. Everest, the highest mountain
peak in the world. Nobody has yet
‘conquered’ Isaiah 53, for there are always new heights to reach. The important thing is to know personally
God’s righteous Servant, Jesus Christ, whose conquest of sin is the subject of
this chapter. ‘By his knowledge [i.e.,
knowing Him personally by faith] shall My righteous Servant justify many.’”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
thankful for this wonderful 53rd chapter of Isaiah, for in it we see
before it ever happened what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ as He purchased
my salvation on that cruel cross.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord with the problems that I am facing.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible Question: “A lad’s
lunch” (John 6:1-9).
Today’s
Bible Question: “Who said ‘Repent, and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ’?”
Answer
in our next SD.
No comments:
Post a Comment