Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
As you pass through your weekend, no matter what is on your schedule, may I ask you to spend some time reflecting on events of one year ago. Life was normal in early October 2023 in Israel. In fact, I had been there only one month earlier with a group of 45 friends on a spiritual pilgrimage, visiting Biblical sites as far south as the Dead Sea area and as far north as Dan near the Lebanon border. There was no indication a horrific attack by Hamas was being planned which has shaken our world for this past year.
This weekend, while thinking about the pain and suffering of so many people over this past year, we also conclude our look at the pain and power of Isaiah 53. The final verse to this remarkable message, God spoke to Isaiah, is this: “Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Is. 53:12) Oh my what a remarkable statement with so many significant elements. So, let’s take it one brief statement at a time. Are you ready?
“Therefore”…it’s the first word and as always, we know it points to what happened before, and yesterday we looked at the power of Is. 53:10,11 which declares three very important, foundation truths about Jesus:
First, that it was God’s Redemption Plan which sent Jesus to the cross and the outpouring of God’s Justice wrath for the sins of humanity which Jesus had taken upon Himself, which was the ultimate brutality of the crucifixion death of Jesus.
Second, Jesus absolutely would be resurrected after His death, thereby victorious over death and sin and even Satan! Therefore, Jesus would return to His supreme reign in heaven able to save completely any repentant person who would trust in Him.
Third, through His atonement death and victorious resurrection, Jesus would save, from sin condemnation, a huge number of repentant human beings through all time, and thereby the Kingdom of God would be populated not only by holy angels but by redeemed people from all generations and ethnicities of people, Jews and Gentiles!
All of that and even more is wrapped up in that one word, “Therefore” which begins Isaiah 53:12! Now let’s look at what God said next to Isaiah: “Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great…”. Who is the person making this statement and what authority does He have? Almighty God the Father is making the statement, and He has ALL authority as Creator and Sovereign over all. Here God is declaring that the resurrected, ascended Jesus will be considered among the greatest of all time.
In fact, God said in Philippians 2:6-11 that Jesus would be the GREATEST of all time! Paul wrote Jesus is “in very nature God” but He humbled Himself, as we know the Christmas story, leaving heaven to be born in Bethlehem, in very humble surroundings, and Jesus grew up in a peasant human family with Joseph and Mary, in Nazareth, in the first century. Furthermore Jesus, God the Son, “…humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:8) “Therefore God exalted Him to the HIGHEST place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.“ (Phil. 2:9-11)
Did you notice the close similarity to the way Isaiah wrote almost exactly the same words God gave him about Jesus, but while Paul wrote his words in about 60ad, Isaiah wrote his in about 700bc. Now friends, don’t let that just be numbers… that represents more than 750 years of time, yet eternal, unchanging God was saying exactly the same thing about Jesus, God the Son! Isaiah used these words describing WHY Almighty God would declare Jesus the greatest of all time: “because He poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Is. 53:12b)
Do you see it was Jesus’ obedience to the Father and Jesus’ willingness to pay our full sin price of death and Jesus’ willingness to carry all our sin that earned for Jesus the right to be the only SAVIOR for all repentant humanity! Also, it earned for Jesus the right to be an eternal High Priest, but unlike the Old Testament High Priest who could only enter the Most Holy Place once per year, on the Day of Atonement, to intercede for the people of Israel before God; (Leviticus 16:11-17) oh no, for Jesus He has earned the right to be continually in the Father’s presence, ALWAYS interceding for all repentant people! (Romans 8:34 & Hebrews 7:25)
Yes, my friends, that means Jesus is interceding for sinners who are repenting for the very first time as His atonement death payment is applied by God the Father to their sin and they are forgiven by God and then God declares them justified. (Romans 5:15-18) It also means God is interceding for you and me, people who have already been forgiven and adopted into God’s family but sin again and therefore that sin needs to come under the shed blood of Jesus as having been paid for by Jesus in His death on the cross! (1 John 2:1,2)
This is again one of the uniqueness’s of true Christianity: One Redeemer Jesus Christ; one death and resurrection to pay for the sins of all humanity; one time salvation from our sin as God applies Jesus’ payment to the sinfulness of a repentant person; and ONE intercessor who stands before God on behalf of repentant sinners.
Now watch this my friends, it’s crucial we understand this:
1. ONLY Jesus can intercede with God the Father pleading HIS shed blood as full payment for our sin.
No one else can do that. Not a Pastor or Priest or Imam or Mary or those some might call ‘saints’ or any human being from any time past, present or future. And that’s because ONLY Jesus paid the full price of atonement death & resurrection earning the place of the Only Intercessor with God.
2. You and I and any person can pray directly to Jesus, at any time, repenting of our sin and asking that He intercede with the Father and that His blood payment be applied to our sin.
We never need to ask another person to pray that repentant prayer for us. Repentance is made directly to Jesus our High Priest and intercessor by the sinner seeking forgiveness. While we ask forgiveness from a person whom we have wronged, we ask only God for God’s forgiveness for our sin because our sin is against HIM and He is only able to forgive our sin because Jesus paid the full sin debt price for us on the cross! (Hebrews 10:19-23)
My friends, we’ve spent almost a full week seeking to glean wonderful, life changing truth from Isaiah 53, one of the most powerful portraits of Messiah Jesus and His suffering to earn our salvation. I hope it’s been enlightening for you and has brought you to a place of being overwhelmed by God’s great plan for the Redemption and eternal relationship Jesus has earned for you and me with God!
Let’s spend some time praying and praising God right now…and then live in the glorious majesty of being a son or daughter of Holy God!
Let’s worship with this song recorded at a gathering of worshipers who are in awe of Jesus Christ! What words would you use to describe all Jesus has accomplished for you?
Today’s Scripture: Is. 53:12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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