Loved by God (isaiah 53)

In Charles Dickens’ novel, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, two men love the same woman.  Charles gets her, and Sydney misses out.  But this story is set during the French Revolution, and Charles happens to be arrested.  It is the night before his execution, and Sydney happens to make his way to Charles’ cell. The two men look alike, and so Sydney has a plan.  ‘You have a family and children, so let me die in your place.’  Charles won’t have any of it.  No way.  So, Sydney knocks him out and has some men take him away.  He then dresses to look like Charles.

As it happens, a young woman who knew Charles was also in prison awaiting execution.  She seeks out Charles (who is now Sydney) and starts to reminisce with him.  She realises this is not Charles!  ‘Are you going to die for him?’  Sydney replies in a hushed tone, ‘Yes.  And for his family and children.’  The woman looks at him and asks, ‘Can I hold your hand, because if someone as brave and loving as you will hold my hand, I think I will be okay?’

Dicken’s has picked up on a gospel theme.  Love that is willing to die for another.  The amazing thing is that none other than the Son of God died that people might be brought into relationship with God.  Theologians call the ‘substitutionary atonement’.  To atone is to make up for a wrong, and it is substitutionary because Jesus does this in our place.  This is what is pictured in the passage before us.

The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is among the most remarkable words ever written.  These words were given to the prophet more than seven hundred years before Jesus’ death, yet anyone who reads the gospels can see that they are describing the crucifixion.  They are words that have offended some and comforted others.  They tell us that Jesus’ death was violent, voluntary and vicarious.

Jesus’ death was violent

These words are about a man referred to as God’s servant.  He is an ordinary man who ‘had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him’ (53:2).  His life was no bed of roses.  ‘He was despised and rejected by people, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ (53:3a).  He was a good man who ‘had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth’ (53:9b).  Yet this man was subjected to the most brutal death imaginable!

He was pierced and crushed.  He was ‘disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness’ (52:14).  Read the gospels and you will see Jesus being lashed with a whip that would have had bones or metal inserted into its tip.  His flesh would have been torn off his back.  He was so weakened by this ordeal that he could not carry the beam of his cross to the place of his execution.  Recently, I watched a friend recoil at the sight of blood after a teenager had been hit in the face by a ball; well Jesus became ‘as one from whom people hid their faces’ (53:3b).

The gospels inform us that the physical suffering was not the worst thing that Jesus had to endure.  God the Son, who had enjoyed eternal intimacy with the Father cried out, ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’  (Mark 15:34).  It is no wonder that those who saw him considered ‘smitten by God and afflicted’ (53:4).

The was a voluntary death

In the same month that Mel Gibson’s movie ‘The Passion of the Christ’ was released, Newsweek magazine filled its front cover with a close-up of actor Jim Caviezel as the bloodied and battered Christ, with the blaring headline below asking, 'Who really killed Jesus?'  Isaiah tells us that God did!  It was the will of the Lord to crush him, he has put him to grief (53:10a).

People have objected to this.  They have thought it cruel, and unworthy of God.  But you must see how the servant co-operates.  ‘Like a lamb that is lead to the slaughter, and like a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth’ (53:7b).  The servant goes to his death willingly and uncomplaining.  Read the gospels and you will see Jesus standing silent before the Jewish ruling council in fulfilment of these words (Mark 14:61).  Jesus could even say, ‘no-one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord’ (John 10:18).

The death was vicarious

But why would the Father crush his Son?  The answer lies in the fact that this was a vicarious death.  The word ‘vicarious’ refers to something that is done for another.  Jesus died for us!  He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities (53:5a). 

None of this makes sense if you think of yourself as essentially being a good person.  ‘Why would Jesus need to for my guilt?’, you might ask.  ‘My guilt is no big deal!’, you protest.  The Bible has a more sobering verdict.  ‘We all like sheep have gone astray.  Each one turned to his own way’ (53:6a).  We have rebelled against our creator.  We have thrown off his loving rule.  We offend his perfect holiness.  We have been unthankful and profane.  We deserve to be separated from him forever.  Justice demands that we be punished for our sin.

But God has always reached out to sinful people.  In the Old Testament there was a series of animal sacrifices.  These sacrifices taught the people that our sin deserves death, and that God was willing to have a substitute die in our place.  These sacrifices pointed ahead to the servant, who is our guilt offering (53:10).  ‘The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (53:6b).  Jesus dies for my guilt so that I, the guilty one, can be made right with Holy God.

This little series of talks is entitled ‘who am I?’  If you are trusting your life to Jesus, the answer is that you are someone the Father loved so much that he gave his Son for you.  ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (1 John 4:10).  ‘The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20).  Scottish theologian, Sinclair Ferguson, writes, 'When we think of Christ dying on the cross, we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to Himself.  We should almost think that God loved us more than He loves His son.  We cannot measure His love by any other standard. He is saying to us, “I love you this much.” …  God has done something on the cross which we could never do for ourselves.  But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross.  He persuades us that He loves us.'

This portion of Scripture actually ends with a note of victory.  Death is not the servants end.  His days are prolonged (53:10).  Knowledge of him makes people righteous (53:11).  He is lifted up and exalted (52:13).  The dying Christ was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, is seated by the right hand of the Father, intercedes for his people, and will return in glory!  

Conclusion

A number of years ago, a famous preacher by the name of Billy Graham was being interviewed on Australian radio.  He was asked, ‘Mister Graham, how confident are you of going to heaven?’  There was absolutely no hesitation in his answer.  ‘I have absolutely no doubts.  I am completely confident that I have a place waiting for me in heaven.’

The telephone switchboard started to light up as people rang in to give out.  Caller after caller expressed outrage at the arrogance of a man who could be so sure that he was right with God.  But those who knew Billy Graham would tell you that he was not an arrogant man.  Billy Graham did not believe that he was going to heaven because he was good enough for God.  He believed he was going to heaven because his best friend, Jesus Christ, had paid the price for him to go.

What does the idea of substitutionary atonement do for you?

Are you like playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who once was listening to a talk about Jesus dying people’s sins and angerly interrupted, ‘I’ll pay for my own sins.’  Those who reject God’s offer of forgiveness and life will one day pay for their own sins.  They will have their way when Jesus comes back as their judge!

Or are you like Billy Graham, humbled, thankful and confident?  Humbled by the fact that my sin is so serious that nothing short of the death of Jesus can make me right with God.  Thankful that this is exactly what God has done for me in love.  Confident because Christ’s death is of an infinitely value that can make the most wretch of us right with God!

Prayer:

Father, these words confront me with an uncomfortable truth.  I am not okay without you.  Without you I am lost and condemned.  But you offer me the death of your Son.  In Him I can be counted righteous and free.  Humble me to see my need.  Give me the faith to trust in you.  Fill me with gratitude for you limitless love.  Amen.