Scripture Reading: Isa. 42:1-7; 49:5-9; Matt. 3:17; Luke 4:18a; Heb. 7:22; Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:15-17; Col. 2:9; 1:19; John 1:4, 9; 8:12; 9:5; 1 Pet. 1:23; 2:9b; Acts 26:18a; Zech. 12:1; Rom. 1:16-17; 5:18b; Titus 3:7; Luke 4:18b; Col. 1:13
In this message we want to see more concerning Christ as the Servant of Jehovah. As the Servant of Jehovah, He is a covenant to the people and a light to the nations. Christ is the very covenant given to us by God. He is not only the covenant but also the light. The covenant was given to God's chosen people, Israel, and the light was given to the nations. Both Israel and the nations are fully qualified to inherit Jesus Christ as the covenant and to enjoy Him as the light.
The covenant is a matter of righteousness according to the law. Every covenant is something legal. A covenant actually is a kind of legal agreement. It fulfills the requirement of the law. If there is no fulfillment of the requirement of the law, the covenant means nothing. The covenant is also a matter of righteousness.
Paul said in Romans that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (1:16). Unto salvation means for salvation. To do anything we need power. The power of electricity is for all our electrical conveniences. The gospel is the power of God for us to be saved, for our salvation. This is because in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed (v. 17). God has saved us not only by His love and not only by His grace but also by His righteousness. His righteousness binds Him, and His righteousness gives us the ground, the standing, to say, "God, You have to save me." If God did not save us when we repented and believed into the Lord Jesus, He would not be righteous. God's Son, our Savior, died for us to fulfill all the requirements of God's righteousness. That was according to the law, so the law has been fulfilled. The legal requirements of God have been fulfilled by our Savior according to God's righteousness. Thus, God has to save us according to His righteousness. He has to justify us.
Before the death of our Savior, God could condemn us. We did not have any ground to claim any kind of justification, forgiveness, and salvation. But now His death has accomplished all the requirements of God's righteousness according to His law, so this death gives us a righteous ground. Now God has to forgive us, justify us, and save us.
In the early years of my Christian life, I was not this bold. I was always begging. I was afraid that God might regret that He made a mistake in saving me. If He were to change His mind, my salvation would be gone. Later I came to know that God saved me not only by love and not only by grace but also by righteousness. Whether we are good or bad, God has to save us because our Savior died for us to fulfill all of God's righteousness.
The justification, the forgiveness, and the salvation God renders to us have all been "covenanted." In Matthew 26 the Lord Jesus enacted a new covenant, saying, "For this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (v. 28). The new covenant is the Lord's blood, and His blood signifies His death. He died for our sins and transgressions. The symbol of His death is the blood. The blood was the very means by which He made for us the new testament with His Father. Thus, redemption, justification, forgiveness, and salvation have all been covenanted by Him through His blood. Today our salvation is a covenanted salvation.
We can use the buying of a house to illustrate this. We may say we have bought a house, but we need the title deed as a proof of our purchase. The deed is an agreement, a covenant. The house has been covenanted to us, and the guarantee of this covenant is the title deed. Our purchase has been covenanted. It has been legalized. In a sense, we may say that the title deed, the covenant, equals the house. The title deed to the house is the covenant, and the covenant is the house.
Isaiah says twice, in 42:6 and 49:8, that God has given Christ to us as our covenant. This means that God's salvation, God's blessings, and all of God's riches have been covenanted to us, and this covenant is just Christ. Just as my title deed equals my house, Christ equals all of God's salvation, blessings, grace, reality, and riches. All of this has been covenanted to us. Our covenant is Christ. God's salvation, God's righteousness, God's justification, God's forgiveness, God's redemption, God's riches, and all He has and will do have been covenanted to us.
In Greek the word for covenant is also the word for testament. Every proper covenant eventually becomes a testament. Before the person who enacted the covenant dies, it is the covenant. After he dies, that covenant becomes a testament. A testament in today's terms is a will. What if your father had a will which said that you were entitled to ten million dollars, twenty houses, and fifteen commercial ships. Would you not be happy? Our Father in heaven has given us a lot of things. We have a will full of hundreds of bequests. My heavenly Father has given me all these bequests, and they have been covenanted to me as a testament. That is the new testament. We have the New Testament of the Bible in our hands, but this is not the reality. The reality of all the hundreds of bequests in the New Testament is Christ. Without Christ, the Bible is empty, so the real testament, the real will, is Christ. Christ is our title deed, and this title deed is in our spirit as the all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, consummated Spirit.
Christ as the Spirit is one with us, so we are one with Him as the testament. We know that we have been forgiven, justified, redeemed, and saved because the Bible tells us so. The Bible is God's covenant, and after Christ's death this covenant has become a testament, a will. But without Christ the Bible is empty. Actually, Christ is the covenant, and this Christ who is the covenant is in our spirit and has become one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17).
This covenant is altogether according to God's righteousness. It is not a matter of love. A will is a legal matter that does not depend upon love or grace. It depends on the law, and the law is a matter of righteousness. Christ has been given to us as such a legal covenant. He is our forgiveness, our justification, our redemption, and our salvation. This is not my word. This is Paul's logic. Paul said that the gospel is the power of God to save because the righteousness of God is in the gospel. First Corinthians 1:30 tells us that God has made Christ our righteousness. This righteousness is wrapped up with God's covenant. God's salvation today is a covenanted salvation. Today the very salvation and redemption we have received is covenanted by Jesus Christ. He Himself actually is the covenant.
Christ, the Servant of Jehovah as a covenant to the people of Israel and a light to the nations has a source, an origin. This source is in His divinity, in His deity, in His being God. He was God from eternity past, He is still God today, and He will be God in the future, so He is the One who was, who is, and who shall be. This is Jehovah. Christ's capital is His deity, His divinity, His being God. If one is going to do business, he needs the capital. Christ's deity is the basic capital for Him to do business. Jesus, the Servant of Jehovah, is God, and He came from the source of God. His source is in His divinity. Some people may boast about their source, about where they are from, but actually our source as human beings means nothing. In ourselves we are nothing, and we may even say that our source is nothingness. However, the source of Christ being the Servant of God is God Himself.
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ was chosen by Jehovah (Isa. 42:1b; 49:7b). Our president has been selected and chosen by the people, but this cannot be compared to being selected and chosen by God.
Christ was also formed from the womb by Jehovah to be His Servant (Isa. 49:5a). To form something requires the material, the elements. A stand on which to place things may be formed with two elements — steel and plastic. With what did Jehovah form Jesus? Isaiah 49:5 does not say that Jehovah created Jesus but that He formed Him. To create is to make something with nothing, but to form is to work with some elements. Genesis 2:7 says that God formed man's body of the dust of the ground, and He formed a spirit within man with His breath (Zech. 12:1). The Hebrew word for breath in Genesis 2:7 is neshamah. This is the same Hebrew word for "spirit" in Proverbs 20:27, which says that the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. Thus, the breath of life is man's spirit. This is how God formed man. The divine revelation shows that God formed Jesus to be His Servant in the womb with His divinity saturated and mingled together with His humanity. Thus, when He came out of the womb of His mother, He was a God-man.
He was also called in righteousness by Jehovah (Isa. 42:6a). We need to consider what "in righteousness" means. This means that in every aspect, in every way, in every direction, and on every side, the calling of Jehovah rendered to Jesus was right. Every aspect was in righteousness.
For example, the trainees in the full-time training have all been accepted by the training in righteousness. Suppose that one of the trainees had only studied for two and a half years in college, but on his application form he said that he had completed four years. This would mean that his acceptance into the training was not righteous. The glasses I am wearing were purchased by me, so my having them is altogether in righteousness. If I had stolen them, I would have them in unrighteousness. God called Jesus altogether in righteousness. The Pharisees' claim to be the servants of God was in unrighteousness. During Jeremiah's time there were many false prophets. Jeremiah was one of the few genuine ones. All those false prophets were not prophets in righteousness, but Christ was called by God in righteousness.
Christ was not only called but also held by the hand of Jehovah (Isa. 42:6b). There may be a distance between a called one and the calling one, but God held Christ by Christ's hand. The Holder is Jehovah, and the held One is Jesus.
He was also upheld (sustained) by Jehovah (42:1a). We need to consider the difference between the words hold and uphold. When someone is standing, we may hold him, but when he is falling we need to uphold him. To uphold is to sustain someone, not letting him fall, but keeping him standing. This is what God was doing related to Christ.
Christ was also helped by Jehovah (49:8b). Helped may be a small word in our understanding, but actually Jehovah's helping Jesus was His doing everything for Jesus. God did everything for Jesus. Jesus could not raise the dead by Himself apart from God. God did it for Him and through Him.
He was kept (preserved) by Jehovah (42:6c; 49:8c). To keep is to preserve.
In Him Jehovah delights (Isa. 42:1; Matt. 3:17). God delighted in Christ Jesus as the Servant of God. In Him God is happy.
Upon Him Jehovah has put His Spirit (Isa. 42:1; Luke 4:18). Actually Jehovah's Spirit is Jehovah. When Jehovah put His Spirit upon Jesus, that meant He gave Himself to Jesus.
He was glorified (honored) in the sight of Jehovah (Isa. 49:5c). Although He was despised by people, abhorred by the nation of Israel, and subjected to tyrants, He was respected by kings and worshipped by princes (49:7). Christ was glorified, honored, in the sight of Jehovah. Tyrants here, no doubt, refers to the Roman officials. Pilate and Herod were the tyrants who mistreated Jesus, and Jesus was subjected to them. The Gospels tell us that Pilate had Jesus beaten and delivered Him up to be crucified (Matt. 27:26). That was a severe mistreating. Even though He was mistreated by and subjected to tyrants, He was still respected by kings and worshipped by princes. After His resurrection until today, many kings have respected Him, and many princes have worshipped Him. He was not only glorified, honored, by God but also respected by human kings and worshipped by human princes.
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ was also strengthened by His God (Isa. 49:5c). God was His strength.
Now we need to see His qualification in His humanity. In His qualification, He is in humanity. In His qualification, Isaiah said that He did not break a bruised reed or extinguish a dimly burning flax (42:3a). Because the plants in the Old Testament are types of Christ in His humanity, Christ is also typified by a reed and flax. In Exodus 30, Moses used the plant life and its extracts to signify Christ's humanity. Christ is the myrrh, the cinnamon, the calamus, and the cassia (vv. 22-25). His qualification is not depending upon His divinity but upon His humanity. How could Jesus Christ be qualified as a Servant of God? Look at His human virtues.
In His humanity, He did not cry out, lift up His voice, or make His voice heard in the street (Isa. 42:2). To be quiet indicates a kind of victory. If a person is condemned and scolded, and yet still remains quiet and does not argue, that is a victory. If I do not lift up my voice, that is a victory. This kind of victory is a qualification. Generally speaking, young people want their voice to be heard by everyone. Isaiah tells us, however, that Christ in His humanity did not make His voice heard in the street.
Isaiah 42:3 says that Christ did not break a bruised reed or extinguish a dimly burning flax. The Jews used to make flutes of reeds. When a reed was bruised, they broke it, because it could not give a proper sound. But Jesus Christ never breaks any bruised reed. Some of the Lord's people are like the bruised reed that cannot give a musical sound, but the Lord will not break these bruised ones. He is kind and sympathetic.
He does not extinguish a dimly burning flax. The Jews made torches with flax to burn oil. These burning torches were used as lamps. If the flax in these torches was unsuitable and was smoking, it would be extinguished and thrown away. But Jesus would never do this. Some of the Lord's people are like the smoking flax that cannot give a shining light, yet the Lord will not extinguish these smoking ones.
The Lord Himself does not faint (burn dimly) nor is He discouraged (bruised), until He has established justice in the earth (Isa. 42:4a). The Hebrew word for "faint" is the root of the word for "burn dimly." That means He was a torch made of flax who did not burn dimly. To burn dimly is to faint. Christ never fainted. He does not extinguish the dimly burning flax, but He Himself never burns dimly. To be discouraged means to be bruised. Christ was never discouraged.
He will never faint or be discouraged, until He finishes His commission to establish justice in the earth. Justice here refers to salvation as the result of judgment. Our salvation, the salvation which we have received, is the result of God's judgment on Christ. Christ as our substitute was judged by God according to His righteous law, completely fulfilling all the requirements of that law. The result was salvation to us. To establish justice in the earth means to establish God's salvation, which is the issue of God's judgment on Christ. His commission was to establish such a salvation in the whole earth. Christ will come again when He finishes the establishment of God's justice, God's salvation, in this earth.
Justice is righteousness passing through judgment. A person may be righteous without justice being exercised with him. When he is brought to the court, the judge makes a judgment that he is just. Thus, justice is the issue of righteousness through judgment. In the Recovery Version of Isaiah, 42:1 says that "He will bring forth judgment to the nations." Verse 3 says that "He will bring forth judgment in truth," judgment in reality. Verse 4 says, "Until He has established justice in the earth." Judgment and justice are the same Hebrew word in these three verses.
Justice is righteousness under judgment. When righteousness has been judged, it becomes justice. Justice is the verdict of the judgment on righteousness. I may have righteousness, but if I have never been judged, I cannot have justice. After my righteousness has been judged, the result of that judgment is justice. The justice in Isaiah is equal to salvation. To establish justice on this earth is to establish God's salvation in this earth. To bring forth justice is to bring forth God's salvation to the earth.
Justice is the salvation of God and the verdict of the judgment of righteousness. Righteousness is the fulfillment of God's law. If you have any item that does not fulfill the law, you are not righteous. If your being and your behavior fulfill every part of the law, you are righteous. If this passes through judgment, your righteousness becomes your justice, and this justice is your salvation. Without such a justice, you will be condemned. Today we can proclaim that on the whole earth there is justice! This justice is the verdict of God's judgment over the righteous One, Jesus. The declaration of this justice is the preaching of the gospel.
Salvation in God's gospel is very lawful and very just. I did a lot of preaching fifty years ago in China. The Chinese are very logical. Some would ask me, "Do you mean that if I were a bank robber, I could be saved? If so, your God is not righteous." This is quite logical. How could a bank robber be saved? If you said Confucius could be saved, that might be logical to these Chinese, but what about a bank robber? I answered them in the following way. A bank robber should be sentenced to death. But this bank robber has a Savior, and the Savior died for him. This Savior not only died for him but also paid back all the things he had stolen from the bank. Now the judge must forgive the robber. Is this not righteous? This is not just righteousness, but also justice declared by the verdict issued by the judge in the court. My explanation did much to convince these logical Chinese. They were convinced that the God whom I preached is a righteous God, a just God, a God who carries out judgment.
Sinners have been redeemed by One who is qualified to die for them and to repay all their debts. Based upon Christ's death, God forgives all of us, the believers. This is logical and just, and this forgiveness is a kind of justice. If God would not forgive us now that our debt has been paid by Christ, there would be no justice. We may say that this justice is forgiveness and salvation. Now the salvation, or the gospel we preach, is this kind of justice that comes out of God's judgment over Christ's righteousness.
Now we come to the all-inclusive Christ's commission as the Servant of Jehovah.
Christ's commission is first to raise up the tribes of Jacob (Isa. 49:6a). At the time of the prophets, all the tribes were put down. They were down, but Christ received the commission from God to raise them up. We were in the same situation. Before we were saved, we were put down. We were very low, but Christ came to raise us up.
Christ also was commissioned to bring Jacob back to Jehovah so that Israel would be gathered to Him (49:5b; 6a). Jacob is a negative title, and Israel is a positive title referring to the same person. Jacob was a supplanter, but Israel is the one who was transformed. Genesis 32 records that one night Jacob wrestled with God. Jacob would not let Him go until God blessed him. God touched his thigh and changed his name to Israel (vv. 24-30). Israel means a prince of God. God was telling Jacob that he was to be a transformed prince of God. Thus, Christ raised up Jacob and brought Jacob back to Jehovah. In this way Jacob could become Israel so that Israel could be gathered to God.
In a similar way, God raised us up and brought us to Himself. When we have been brought to God, we become believers, saints. Christ raises up sinners, brings them to God, and these sinners brought to God become saints.
Isaiah 49:6 says that these two items — Christ raising up the tribes of Jacob and bringing Israel back to God — are too small a thing; the greater things are to follow. What are the greater things? These greater things are all the things related to Christ becoming a covenant of the people of Israel.
Jesus Christ became a covenant to us (Isa. 42:6d; 49:8d). As a covenant, He is a surety of God being the inheritance to His people (Heb. 7:22). This covenant is a guarantee. It guarantees that God Himself is our inheritance. Ephesians 1:14 says that the Spirit is the pledge of God being our inheritance. Furthermore, the Spirit's sealing is to seal us as God's inheritance (vv. 13, 11). The Spirit put Himself upon us as a seal to indicate that we belong to God. God will inherit us. After this sealing, the Holy Spirit stays in us as a pledge to guarantee us that we have the right to inherit God as our inheritance.
We are God's inheritance not poor sinners. As mere sinners we have nothing and are nothing. We are His inheritance because we have been redeemed into Christ as the element. Because Christ is our element, we have been made excellent, a treasure to be God's inheritance. God Himself is also our inheritance. His divine attributes have become the unsearchable riches of Christ which we inherit. For this, Christ is a surety, and the Spirit is the pledge.
Legally speaking, we sinners, who offended God to the uttermost, could not inherit anything of God. But Christ fulfilled all the requirements of God's righteousness for us. This fulfilling of God's righteous requirements became a justice whereby we are forgiven and redeemed. Now we are no longer sinners, but saints. As saints, legally speaking, we are qualified. We have a righteous standing, a legal standing, to inherit all the things of God! Actually all the things of God are God Himself. God is life; God is love; God is righteousness; God is holiness; God is power; God is strength; and God is might. He is everything. We inherit Him, who is everything, as our inheritance. Christ is the surety, the guarantee, that we will inherit everything of God embodied in Christ.
Christ enacted the new covenant (which became the new testament — the will) with His blood for the redemption of the transgressions of God's people (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:15). Suppose that Christ did not die or shed His blood. Then He would have nothing based upon which He could make a covenant. But He died for us according to God's righteous requirements, and the blood He shed through that death was used to form a covenant. Even He Himself said that the cup of the Lord's table was a symbol of the new covenant in His blood (1 Cor. 11:25). He redeemed us back to God and qualified us to inherit everything of God. This is the new covenant. Actually, this new covenant is Christ Himself.
In resurrection Christ became the bequests of the new testament and the Mediator, the Executor, to execute the new testament (Heb. 9:15-17). This implies that Christ is the covenant. Suppose your father gives you a will which says that he will give you ten million dollars and much property. He has the deposit certificate for this money and also the title deeds to the property. If the will did not have these legal papers, the will would be nothing. Thus, in reality, all these legal papers are the will. The new testament is the covenant given to us by God. But what if there were no Christ? Then all the bequests in the new testament — the will — would be nothing. When God gave us the Bible as a will, this meant that God gave us Christ. Christ is the centrality and universality as the reality of the new testament. When Christ is given, that means He is the covenant. We not only have the items of the new testament in our mind, but we also have the reality of this covenant, who is Christ, in our spirit. Christ in our spirit is the reality of the new testament, so He is the covenant.
Christ, as the embodiment of the riches of the Godhead and as the crucified and resurrected One, has become the covenant of God to His people (Col. 2:9; 1:19). He is the covenant of God given to us, the reality of all that God is and of all that God has given us.
As such a covenant, He restores the land (Isa. 49:8e). Israel lost the land, and Christ came, in His commission, to restore it.
Christ's commission is also to be a light to the nations (42:6e; 49:6c). He is the light of life, the true light, to shine over the world and enlighten every man (John 1:4, 9; 8:12; 9:5). This light is the light of life to enliven man for regeneration (1 Pet. 1:23). He is the divine, marvelous light to deliver God's chosen people out of the darkness of death, the death-realm, the authority of Satan, into God's life-realm of light (1 Pet. 2:9b; Acts 26:18a). Christ as the covenant is for God's people to gain God with His riches as their inheritance; whereas Christ as the light is for God's people to receive God as life for their new germination. The covenant is for inheritance, the light is for life, and Christ is both. Thus, when we receive Christ, we have the surety of our inheritance and the life for our new germination. We have Christ as our inheritance and our germinating life.
For His chosen people to receive Christ as such a covenant and as such a light, God as the Creator of the heavens and the earth and as the One who gives breath to men, gives also spirit to them, that they may be able to enjoy Him, the Triune God, as their inheritance and life (Isa. 42:5; Zech. 12:1). Isaiah 42:5 says that God is the One "who created the heavens and stretched them out, / Who spread forth the earth and what springs up from it, / Who gives breath to the people upon it / And spirit to those who walk on it." This verse is a sister verse to Zechariah 12:1, which says that God stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him. Why did God, after creating the heavens and the earth, form a spirit in man? This was so that man could have a recipient, a receiver, to receive God who is the Spirit to be his inheritance and life. I did not understand until recently why verse 5 in Isaiah 42 was placed between verses 4 and 6. Verses 4 and 6 indicate that there are many riches for us to receive. But how could we receive these riches without a receiver? If there were a table full of food, yet we did not have a stomach, how could we take in the food? Our spirit is our spiritual stomach to receive all the riches of God embodied in Christ.
The commission of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is also to bring forth justice (the judgment of righteousness) for salvation in truth to the nations (Isa. 42:1, 3b; 49:6d). Justice — the judgment of righteousness — is for God's justification in His salvation based upon Christ's redemption through God's righteous judgment; the light of life is for God's impartation of life in His salvation. God's salvation has two aspects — the aspect of justification and the aspect of His impartation of life. First, God in His salvation justifies us. Then we have His righteousness. Then He imparts His life into us in His salvation. Now we have righteousness and life.
Righteousness in God's justice and life through God's light are the two basic factors of God's salvation (Rom. 1:16-17; 5:18b; Titus 3:7). Romans 1:16 and 17 say that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, for the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. Romans 5:18 says that the result of the one righteous act, the act of Christ, was justification of life to all men. Justification is in the covenant. Life is in the light. Thus, God gives Christ as the covenant to us for justification, and God gives Christ as light to us for life. Titus 3:7 says that having been justified, we have become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Justification brings us life, justification is by the covenant, and the life is by the light.
Christ was commissioned to open the eyes of the blind that they may see the divine and spiritual things concerning God's eternal economy (Isa. 42:7a; Luke 4:18b; Acts 26:18a). If our spiritual eyes are not opened, we cannot see God's economy. We need the spiritual eyes to see all the divine and spiritual things concerning God's eternal economy.
The last item of Christ's commission is to bring the prisoner out from the prison, those who dwell in darkness out from the prison house. I like one of Charles Wesley's hymns concerning being justified in Christ (Hymns, #296). In the first verse of this hymn, Wesley says, "And can it be that I should gain / An int'rest in the Savior's blood?" When we sing this hymn, we can say, "Yes, it can be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood." In this hymn, Wesley says that he was in a dungeon, in prison, and in darkness. But one day a quickening ray of light shined into him. He was saved and came out of prison to follow the Lord (see verse 4). Christ brings us out of the prison house that we may be released from the dark kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.
This message conveys to us the logic and the reality of God's salvation in two aspects — the aspect of Christ as the covenant for justification and the aspect of Christ as the light for life. We are justified unto life. This is God's salvation.
