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Daniel Barta
Dec 15, 2023
God, the LORD, would exalt and glorify His Servant with full joy by crushing Him, afflicting Him, and putting Him to grief (Is 53:7, 10). He willed that the Servant prosper, that He would succeed, and that He would rise to a place high and lifted up in the world. So He willed to bring the Servant low in humiliation, that He would suffer, that He would be smitten, rejected, and despised.
This revelation of God as the one who wills to crush the Servant raises a crucial question - How does the suffering of the Servant produce the glory of the Servant?
The answer lies in several instances in our text that give the reason for the Servant’s suffering.
He Carried Our Sorrows
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; (Isaiah 53:4 ESV)
In His suffering, the Servant, in a mysterious way, would step into man’s grief and sorrow and carry them. He put Himself in man’s place. He entered into man’s suffering. The affliction He received was man’s affliction. The rejection He experienced was man’s rejection. His grief was man’s grief.
God’s Servant would come from His glorious place in heaven. He would humble himself by taking on the form of a servant, and then with grace He would lift off the burden of man’s sorrows and griefs and place them on His own back.
He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; (Isaiah 53:5 ESV)
6 …the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6 ESV)
8 …who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? (Isaiah 53:8 ESV)
11 … he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:9 ESV)
12 …he…was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, (Isaiah 53:12 ESV)
One cannot escape the connection the LORD makes between man’s sorrow and grief and their guiltiness. The Servant would bear man’s grief and carry man’s sorrow by taking on man’s guilt. The people would reject the Servant thinking that God struck Him on account of His own sin and guilt, but they would be wrong.
4 …we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4 ESV)
Indeed God the Lord would strike the Servant, not because of His Sin, but on account of the sin of man. This Servant would take on the guilt of the men and women He served. In doing so, He would subject Himself to the crushing weight of the LORD’s justice leading to the experience of all forms of sorrow, grief, and affliction. He would take on the sin accounts of the whole world and then He would serve their sentence.
So that Many Would Be Accounted Righteous
The result of the Servant’s work would be an unrighteous people made righteous, a guilty people declared not guilty. His life would be offered up as a sacrifice for man’s sin. By His blood He would accomplish a clearing of their accounts. He would satisfy the demands of justice. He would quench the righteous wrath of God. His being crushed would not simply serve as a demonstration of love or a model of selfless service. His being slaughtered would take man’s real guilt and remove it.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11 ESV)
Accounted as righteous, these men and women would once again know communion with the LORD. Through this Servant, those who were once cut off from the presence of God would regain access through the Servant who would continue to stand as their Mediator. He, Himself,
12 …makes intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12 ESV)
Through the Servant, many would be reconciled to the LORD. By Him, many would become adopted Sons (Isaiah 53:10).
How did the crushing of the Servant bring about His glory and joy? It did so by creating a people who know and enjoy the LORD as their Savior from sin, guilt, and death. He would create a people who share in His love and joy by creating a people who know Him as their Savior. God the LORD exalts the Servant as the Savior of His people from their Sins.
God Exalts His Servant, Jesus, As the Savior of Sinners
When Jesus, the Servant eventually arrived as promised, He could not have made His purpose for coming more clear. His very name declares His intent.
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 ESV)
John the Baptist shouted this purpose from the very beginning of His public ministry.
29 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29 ESV)
The night of His arrest and execution, Jesus broke bread and gave wine with His disciples telling them that these pointed to His body which was about to be broken and His blood which was about to be shed. This suffering He would endure at the cross would be for them.
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:19-20 ESV)
At the cross Jesus was “offered once to bear the sins of many” (Heb 9:28). By His obedience even unto death for their sins, “the many [are] made righteous” (Rom 5:19). These made righteous will one day gather around the throne of God and they will joyously worship this Christ on account of His saving them from their sins.
11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev5:11-12 ESV)
God willed to crush His Servant for the sins of man so that one day sinners will, with Joy, worship Him on account of His rescuing them from their guilt. This is the Servant’s joy, man’s joy, and the joy of the Father.
Believe with Joy
What then must you do to be saved from your sin, delivered from your guilt, and brought into the joyful fellowship of the LORD? You must believe in Jesus. You must stop trusting in yourself. You must stop attempting to scrub the guilt off your own hands, and you must come trusting that Jesus, by His blood, has made you guilt free. That He has carried your sorrow and guilt and shame and put an end to it. You must trust in His work and not your own.
Receive Jesus as your Savior. Come to Him as your Rescuer. Then go to God trusting in Jesus as your Mediator and Intercessor. Times of refreshing and joy await all who draw near to the LORD. Don’t tarry. Christ has provided all you need to come to the LORD with confidence. Come trusting in Him.
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. (Psalm 32:1-2 ESV)