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Scripture Reading: Isa. 53:1-10-12c; 1 Cor. 1:24; John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 2:5b; Heb. 2:14-18; Matt. 1:21; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Matt. 26:57, 59, 65-68; Luke 23:1-12; John 18:33-38; 19:1-16; Luke 23:32-33, 34a; 45-46, Matt. 27:59-60; Heb. 9:14a; John 10:17-18; Heb. 9:12; Acts 10:43; 13:39; Rom. 5:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:9b; Phil. 1:19b
Prayer: Lord, how we thank You that You have gathered us again into Your name. Today the whole world is busy, yet You have separated us unto Yourself that we may come here to know You through Your word. We want to be clear about You, about Your steps, about Your stages, about what You are and what You have done. Lord Jesus, be with us tonight. Cover us with Your prevailing blood against all the frustrations from the dark one. Lord, we trust in You that You will come to anoint every one of us, to anoint every action in this meeting. And Lord, we do tell You that we love You. We desire to live You. So we want to know You in every detail. Lord, defeat the enemy, and be merciful to each one of us. Amen.
In this message and the next two messages, the subject will be "The All-inclusive Christ in His Four Stages according to God's New Testament Economy." If we desire to know Christ according to Isaiah 53, we must realize that Isaiah 53 speaks clearly concerning Christ in four stages. The first stage is the stage of Christ's incarnation; the second, the stage of His crucifixion; the third, the stage of His resurrection; and the fourth, the stage of His ascension. In this message we will consider the first two stages, and in the next two messages we will see the last two stages.
Isaiah 53 is a very significant chapter. This chapter is a confession that will be made by the household of Israel who will be saved at the Lord's coming back. Zechariah 12 tells us that when the Lord Jesus comes back, the household of Israel will be saved on the same day and even at the same time. Zechariah tells us that the Jews will return to their fathers' land (8:7-8). At the beginning of the last week, the last seven years of this age, Antichrist will make a covenant with Israel, and in the middle of that week he will change his mind (Dan. 9:27). Then, for three and a half years he will persecute the Jews to the uttermost. According to Zechariah 13:8, two-thirds of the Jews will be killed by him; only one-third will be left. Those who remain will probably be mostly in the area of Jerusalem. After killing that many Jews, Antichrist will still not be satisfied. According to Zechariah 14:2, he will capture Jerusalem, and half of the city will be exiled. Those who remain will constitute only about one-sixth of the Jews who return to their fathers' land. At that juncture Antichrist will attempt to devour, to destroy, the entire race of Israel, but the Lord will come down to defeat him, and the remaining Jews will see Him and recognize Him as the One whom their forefathers pierced. Then they will all repent and wail (12:10-14). By so doing, this remnant will receive Christ. They will all be saved in a household salvation. At that time they will recount Isaiah 53, and that portion of the Word will be full of taste to them.
Isaiah 53 was written nearly twenty-seven hundred years ago. Although throughout these twenty-seven centuries the Jews have read this chapter again and again, they do not know what it talks about. Today nearly all who read the Bible appreciate Isaiah 53, but they may not truly understand this chapter. I have discovered that the best way to make this chapter clear to you is to help you to see the four stages of Christ revealed in this chapter.
Christ was in the first stage, the stage of incarnation, for thirty-three and a half years; He was in the second stage, the stage of crucifixion, for approximately six hours; and He has been in the third stage, the stage of resurrection, for two thousand years already. The stage of Christ's resurrection will have no ending; it will last for eternity (Rev. 1:18). After His resurrection, Christ entered into His ascension. He ascended in resurrection. It is impossible to separate Christ's resurrection from His ascension. Today Christ is in both resurrection and ascension. He was incarnated and He was crucified, but now He is in ascension and resurrection. He is in ascension based on His resurrection. His resurrection issued in His ascension. These two can never be separated. Now He lives forever in both resurrection and ascension. He is not only the resurrected Christ, but also the resurrected and ascended Christ.
The first stage of Christ, the stage of incarnation, was not a part of His redemption. Christ is our Savior, and He did redeem us, but His incarnation by itself was not His redemption. Isaiah 53:2 says, "For He grew up like a tender plant before Him, / And like a root out of dry ground." Christ's being like a tender plant and a root out of dry ground was not part of His redemption. Likewise, His not being esteemed (v. 3) was not part of His redemption.
Isaiah 53:1b-3 refers to Christ's incarnation. Verse 1 says, "Who has believed our report? / And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed?" The arm of Jehovah is a figure of speech signifying Jehovah Himself in His power. Thus, the arm of Jehovah is God Himself in His saving power. This arm of Jehovah has been revealed. Two thousand years ago, when the Lord Jesus came out of Nazareth to preach the gospel, that was the unveiling of the arm of Jehovah. Christ as the arm of Jehovah was revealed to many, but they did not realize that He was the arm of Jehovah. They did not see that He was Jehovah Himself coming in power to save them.
Based on this revelation of the arm of Jehovah, the apostles reported (1 John 1:3). But who has believed their report? When the Lord Jesus comes back, the remnant of Israel will all repent and wail. At that time they will recount Isaiah 53:1: "Who has believed our report? / And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed?" Then they will go on to recount, "For..." The word for at the beginning of verse 2 is a great word. Why did no one believe the report and receive the revelation concerning Christ? Because He grew up not like a king but like a tender plant before Jehovah. Because of this they did not believe the apostles' report. A number of times in the four Gospels the Jews despised the Lord Jesus, speaking words such as, "Can anything good be from Nazareth?" (John 1:46) and "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Matt. 13:55). If Jesus had come out of Bethlehem, out of the city of the royal family, perhaps many Jews would believe in Him. But they have not believed, because He grew up like a tender plant before Jehovah, and like a root out of dry ground.
Isaiah 53:3 begins, "He was despised and forsaken of men, / A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." In verse 1 Christ is referred to as the arm of Jehovah, and in verse 3 He is called a man of sorrows. The arm of Jehovah is Jehovah in His power, and the man of sorrows is Jesus. When these two are put together, they equal incarnation. One day Jehovah, the very Elohim, became a man by the name of Jesus. In Isaiah 53 Jehovah is signified by the arm of Jehovah, and Jesus is called a man of sorrows. This is incarnation.
As the complete God, signified by the arm of Jehovah, the power of God (v. 1b; 1 Cor. 1:24), Christ became a perfect man, signified by a man of sorrows (v. 3a; John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 2:5b). The Old Testament term is the arm of Jehovah, whereas the New Testament term is the power of God. First Corinthians 1:22-24 says, "For indeed Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." In these verses Christ crucified corresponds to the man of sorrows in Isaiah 53:3, and the power of God equals the arm of Jehovah in Isaiah 53:1. Thus, in these two portions of the Word, incarnation is clearly mentioned.
As a perfect man, Christ lived a lowly and sorrowful human life. His birth was lowly, and His family also was in a lowly state. His living was also full of sorrow.
First, He grew up like a tender plant (like a small, delicate person) before Jehovah (Isa. 53:2a). The plant here actually refers to a sprout, which is very tender, small, and delicate. Christ did not grow up like a large tree, but like a small, delicate sprout. Because He was such, no one would pay any attention to Him. He also grew up like a root out of dry ground, meaning that He was born of a poor family. His mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph, lived in a despised city called Nazareth, in a despised region, Galilee. It is true that they were descendants of David, but David reigned approximately one thousand years before Jesus was born. When Mary and Joseph came into being, the royal family had become insignificant. In Isaiah 11:1 the royal family of Jesse was likened to the stump of a tree. From that stump a sprout, Christ, came out. Hence, His birth was very lowly.
Second, the Lord Jesus had no attracting form nor majesty that men should look upon Him, nor beautiful appearance that men should desire Him (53:2b). If Jesus had been very handsome and attractive, very majestic and powerful, everyone would have been attracted to Him. But Jesus had neither an attracting form nor majesty, nor did He have a beautiful appearance. Instead of majesty, He had poverty, and instead of a beautiful appearance, He had a visage and form that were disfigured (52:14).
Third, Christ was despised and forsaken of men, like one from whom men hide their faces and whom men do not esteem (53:3). Often when the Jews saw Him, they hid their faces. When He was hanging on the cross, many hid their faces from Him. Furthermore, they did not regard or respect Him. This was Christ's human living.
Fourth, Christ lived as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (53:3a). As a man in His human living, Christ did not have riches; rather, He had sorrows. Moreover, He was acquainted with grief. He knew nothing but sorrow and grief. This was not for redemption; rather, this was part of Christ's qualifications for accomplishing redemption.
Christ's being such a man and living such a lowly and sorrowful human life fully qualified Him to be the Savior to save fallen men from four things: Satan, sin, death, and self (Heb. 2:14-18; Matt. 1:21). All the foregoing items have nothing to do directly with redemption or salvation. These are only the qualifications that qualified Christ to be our Redeemer and our Savior.
As a God-man Savior, Christ died a vicarious death for sinners (Isa. 53:4-5, 8, 11c, 12c; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18a).
In His vicarious death for us, the sinners, Christ bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows (Isa. 53:4). It may seem that He did this while He was ministering on the earth, because at a time when He healed many sick ones, Matthew 8:17, quoting the word in Isaiah 53:4, says, "He Himself took away our infirmities and bore our diseases." Actually, Christ bore our sicknesses at the moment He was judged by God on the cross, in the hour when God put all our iniquities upon Him. He bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows when He bore our evildoings, wrongdoings, mistakes, transgressions, trespasses, iniquities, and sins on the cross.
In His vicarious death for us, Christ was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, and cut off out of the land of the living for our transgression, and He bore our sin, that we may have peace and be healed (Isa. 53:5, 8b, 11c, 12c). A well-known hymn by Charles Wesley (Hymns, #300, stanza 3) speaks of the wounds Christ bore for our transgressions. The Hebrew word translated wounded in Isaiah 53:5 is different from the word for pierced in Zechariah 12:10. Christ was wounded by the nails in His hands and His feet, by the spear that pierced His side, and by the crown of thorns on His head. He was wounded for our transgressions. You may feel that, because you have never killed anyone or robbed anyone, you are a good person. You may be a good person, but did you not lose your temper toward your mother at least once? Was that not a transgression? We do not count small transgressions, but God counts them. Whether we owe someone one million dollars or one dime, we are still debtors.
Christ was not only wounded for our transgressions, but He was also crushed for our iniquities, our evildoings. Furthermore, He was cut off out of the land of the living for our transgression. Not only our iniquities but even our small transgressions required that Christ be cut off for us. Not only so, Christ also bore our sin. John 1:29 says, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" In this verse sin refers to the totality of evildoings, iniquities, trespasses, wrongdoings, and transgressions. All these things are of one category, which is called sin. Christ bore our sin, including our wrongdoings, mistakes, iniquities, evildoings, trespasses, and transgressions, that we may have peace and be healed.
Since at the time of Matthew 8 Christ had not yet died to bear people's sicknesses, how could people be healed by Christ at that time? This could happen because with God there is no time element. God is eternal, and with Him everything is eternal. In the eyes of God, the death of Christ is eternal. According to human history, Christ was slain almost two thousand years ago. But Revelation 13:8 says that He was slain from the foundation of the world. In God's eyes there is no element of time; there is only the eternal fact. Christ's death is a fact that is eternal. Although Christ was not yet physically crucified, in Matthew 8 the fact of His crucifixion was there already. By such a death we could be healed and have peace.
In His vicarious death for sinners, Christ was oppressed, afflicted, and led to the slaughter like a lamb and sheared before the shearers like a sheep, with no reaction (Isa. 53:7). First, Christ was oppressed; then He was afflicted. Affliction is more serious than oppression. Then, third, He was led to the slaughter.
On the night in which He was betrayed, He was praying in Gethsemane. Then the soldiers came and arrested Him and bound Him. That was an oppression. As a man, Christ was entitled to certain human rights. He had done nothing wrong. Therefore, for people to come and arrest Him was an oppression. After being arrested, He was judged, first by the Jewish leaders according to their religious law, and, second, by the Roman officials according to Roman law. While they were judging Him, people spat on Him and mocked Him. These were afflictions. After all this, they made the decision to crucify Him. Then they led Him like a lamb to the slaughter and like a sheep to be sheared before the shearers. Christ was not only led to the slaughter; He was even sheared like a sheep by the shearers, the Jewish people. Yet, He did not react against any of this. He did not argue, vindicate Himself, or justify Himself; instead, He was silent. This surprised Pilate (Matt. 27:13-14).
Isaiah 53:8 says that Christ was taken away by oppression (of the hypocritical Jewish leaders — Matt. 26:57, 59, 65-68) and by judgment (of the unjust Roman officials — Luke 23:1-12; John 18:33-38; 19:1-16). First, Christ was oppressed; then He was judged. By these two things He was taken away. All these things are included in and issued in His crucifixion.
According to Isaiah 53:12c, when Christ was crucified on the cross, He was numbered with the transgressors (Luke 23:32-33) and He interceded for the transgressors (v. 34a). Christ was crucified between two criminals, one on His left and one on His right. Thus, He was numbered with the transgressors. In speaking of Christ's crucifixion, Isaiah's sequence proceeds from Christ's being oppressed to His being numbered with the transgressors. While on the cross, Christ interceded not only for His companions, the transgressors, who were beside Him, but also for those who were killing Him. He prayed for the transgressors.
According to Isaiah 53:9, Christ was assigned a grave with the wicked, but with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. Those who crucified Him planned to bury Him with the two transgressors, the wicked ones; but eventually God in His sovereignty caused Christ to be buried in a rich man's tomb. After Christ died, a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, came to claim His body, and he put the body into a new tomb (Matt. 27:57-60). Christ had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth, yet people treated Him in a mean way. But God in His sovereignty came in to carry out His justice. After Christ died, God's judgment had been completed, so God immediately took Him away from any kind of suffering and put Him in a rich man's tomb.
All the aforementioned things were done by man. It was man who oppressed Christ, afflicted Him, judged Him, led Him to the slaughter, put Him on the cross, and crucified Him between two transgressors. After man had done all these things, Jehovah caused the iniquity of us all, who have gone astray like sheep and have turned to our own way, to fall on Him (Isa. 53:6). In Isaiah 53:6, the phrase us all refers to the remnant of the Jews at the time of the Lord Jesus' coming back. At that time all the remaining Jews will repent and will speak the words of this verse. Jehovah caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon the man who was oppressed, judged, afflicted, and crucified.
By reading the four Gospels carefully, we can see that Christ hung on the cross for six hours, from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon (Mark 15:25, 33-37; Matt. 27:45-50; Luke 23:44-46). During the first three hours, from nine o'clock until noon, all that Christ suffered was inflicted by man. Then, at noon God came in to cause all the iniquities of His chosen people to fall upon that dying One. Immediately the sky became dark. This was a sign of God's dealing with His chosen people's sin. Then Christ shouted, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). It must be a fact that at that juncture God forsook Him. God had been with Christ continuously until that time. In John 16:32 the Lord said, "I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." But at noon on the day of His crucifixion, God caused all the iniquity of His chosen people to fall upon Christ, taking Him as our Substitute, legally, according to God's law. God removed all the iniquities from us and put them on Christ, making Christ the unique sinner. Then God forsook Him because at that time He was our Substitute. Thus, Christ died a vicarious death, a death that was recognized and approved by God's law.
If a man dies while attempting to rescue someone who is drowning, that death can be considered a bold death but not a vicarious death. Something that is vicarious must be related to the law. The bold death of a rescuer is not a death that can be recognized by God's law. But Christ died a vicarious death that was legal according to God's law and was recognized by God. That death of Christ was recognized by God legally, according to His law, as the vicarious death of the One who was the Substitute for us, the sinners.
Some say that Christ was merely a martyr who was murdered because of His philosophy. They say that Christ's death can be considered only a martyrdom and that Christ is nothing more than a martyred hero. This is the talk of the so-called modernists, who do not believe that the Bible is wholly inspired, that Christ died on the cross for our sins and shed His blood for our redemption, and that Christ was resurrected both spiritually and physically. Acts 7:52 does say that Christ was murdered. As he was speaking to his persecutors, Stephen said, "And they killed those who announced beforehand concerning the coming of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become." To murder is to kill. No doubt Christ was killed, but His death should not be considered as only a murder for the cause of martyrdom.
Christ's death was much more than a murder. In one sense, in the eyes of God, Christ was not murdered; but in another sense, in Acts 7 when God came to condemn the Jews, He accused them of murdering the Lord Jesus. In the first three hours that Christ was on the cross, He was being killed by man, but in the last three hours He was not being killed by man but was being judged by God. God killed His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. Thus, that killing was not a murder but a vicarious death to accomplish redemption for us.
Furthermore, Christ's death was not a martyrdom. Christ was not killed by His enemies because of His philosophy or His teachings. Christ's death was something carried out by God Himself according to His law. Hence, His death was the death of One who was a Substitute for others; it was a vicarious death. This vicarious death was accomplished in the last three hours that He was on the cross. At that juncture He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Today we, as the sinners saved by Him, all must answer, "Lord, it was because of my sins. Because my sins were put on You, at that time You were counted by my God as the unique sinner; so God forsook You for my sake, because You were my Substitute there, dying a vicarious death for me that was recognized legally by God according to His law." Christ's death was not merely a murder, nor was it a martyrdom; rather, it was a death for the accomplishing of redemption, a redeeming death. We all need to know the truth concerning Christ's vicarious death.
We have seen that during the last three hours that Christ was on the cross, Jehovah considered Him as the Substitute for sinners (1 Pet. 3:18) and forsook Him as the unique sinner at that moment (Matt. 27:45-46). How marvelous it is that in this universe there is such a Substitute for you and me!
According to Isaiah 53:10a, in Christ's vicarious death as the Substitute for sinners, Jehovah was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief.
Isaiah 53:10b says that Christ made Himself an offering for sin. This means that Christ volunteered to make Himself an offering for sin. In Hebrew the word translated Himself in this verse literally means "His soul." The composition of this verse can also have the sense of "When His soul would make an offering for sin." This implies that Christ volunteered to be an offering for sin. The offering here is not a sin offering but an offering for sin, referring to sin in its totality. Likewise, John 1:29, speaking of Christ as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," does not refer to the sin offering (although the sin offering is included there) but to an offering for sin in its totality — for wrongdoings, mistakes, trespasses, transgressions, evildoings, and iniquities.
Hebrews 9:14 says that Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. God is triune. At the moment the Father condemned Him and forsook Him, the Spirit was still with Him. If the eternal Spirit were not with Him, how could He offer Himself through the Spirit? We must not forget that in essence God is one, but in doing things, He is three. His being one God in essence is essential, whereas His doing things as three is economical, for His economy. In God's economy the Father condemned and forsook the Son, and the Spirit was with the Son to support and strengthen Him. When He was dying on the cross, the Lord Jesus was a human being with flesh and blood. Surely He felt a great deal of pain as He hung on the cross for six hours. He suffered there as a man, and therefore He needed to be strengthened. Thus, when the Father forsook Him, the Spirit came to strengthen and support Him.
Isaiah 53:12b says that Christ poured out His life unto death. The Hebrew word for life literally means "soul." Thus, the Lord poured out His soul unto death. This corresponds with the Lord's word in John 10:17-18: "I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment I received from My Father." In the Lord's death He laid down His life, and in His resurrection He received it back.
Christ poured out His human life to be an offering. Every offering, if it is a sacrifice, must be killed, and the blood must be poured out. No sacrifice that is still living can be an offering to God. Every sacrifice must be killed, and the blood must be shed. Then it can be an offering accepted by God. In His death Christ poured out His life in such a way.
Thus far, we can see that in Christ's crucifixion, man did something, God did something, and Christ Himself did something. Christ's crucifixion could not have been accomplished without the participation of any one of the three parties. Man did the murdering, the killing, but God carried out the legal judgment to kill Him as a legal Substitute that He might die a vicarious death for the ones for whom He died as a Substitute. Moreover, He Himself was willing to be such an offering. He made Himself that offering, and He poured out His life for that purpose.
Christ's crucifixion was for the accomplishing of God's eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12), that the believers in Christ may be redeemed (forgiven of sins — Acts 10:43, justified — Acts 13:39, and reconciled to God — Rom. 5:10) unto the life union in His resurrection, the reality of which is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:9b; Phil. 1:19b). Christ's redemption includes forgiveness of sins, justification, and reconciliation to God. As sinners, we all needed forgiveness and justification. We were not only sinners but also enemies of God; thus, we also needed reconciliation. Christ's redemption did all this for us. Christ's redemption accomplished the forgiveness of sins and justification for us, the sinners, and it also accomplished reconciliation for us, the enemies of God. These three things added together constitute Christ's redemption.
Redemption is unto a life union in Christ's resurrection. Romans 5:18 says that justification is "of life." This means that justification is for life, or unto life. We are justified that we may have life. This life is a life union in Christ's resurrection. In Christ's resurrection, which followed His crucifixion, we have life, and this life is a union. We enter into this union by being redeemed. Through Christ's redemption, we are justified unto this life union in His resurrection, the reality of which is the life-giving Spirit.
Christ's death was not merely a murder, nor was it a martyrdom; it was a redemption carried out by the Substitute for God's chosen people. It was Christ who bore our sin in total before God. Through such a death we were redeemed, forgiven of our sins, justified, and even reconciled to God. Such a redemption brings us into a life union in Christ's resurrection, and the reality of that resurrection is Christ Himself as the life-giving Spirit.
We all need to spend some time to know Christ in His four stages. Since we believe in Him as our Savior, have received Him as our Redeemer, and trust in Him as our life, we should know Him. Thank the Lord that there is a chapter, Isaiah 53, that tells us all these things concerning Christ, and thank Him that He has opened this chapter to us in such a way.
