The truth about the cross of Jesus

“Foolishness... Power of God...”BibleClass.com.au Teaching Series

Series: The CrossPart: #1 of 1

Main Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 2:1-2; Isaiah 53Teacher: Martyn Iles

Date: 11.11.2012

More Bible studies, with accompanying MP3 audio and learning guides are available from http://bibleclass.com.au/

Inline, direct scripture quotes are italicised. Block quotes are indented.The New King James Version is used unless otherwise stated.

This transcript has undergone minor editing to ensure readability.

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Paul & the Church at CorinthThe book of 1 Corinthians in our Bibles is a letter, written by the Apostle Paul to a church in the city of Corinth, which is in modern day Greece. He wrote in 55AD, which was a time in history not long after Jesus Christ had finished his work here on earth and had returned to heaven. The Christian church was spreading like wildfire. It was taking Europe by storm. Apostles like Paul and Jesus’ 12 disciples were joined, increasingly, by other gifted, converted Christians in the preaching. The good news about Jesus Christ – who He really was, what He was really doing – had begun to spread with vigour and power.

Corinth was one of the places that Paul had visited with the good news and he actually founded this church. Through the work of himself, Aquila, Priscilla, Timothy and Silas, God saved a sizeable group of Christians who formed this church to which the letter is addressed.

In chapter 2, Paul is talking to them about the time when he first came to them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Meeting Paul would have been a great experience. He has written a huge chunk of our New Testament and he was used by God to spread the gospel of Jesus in a really incredible way, all over Europe. One of the notable things about Paul was his incredible intellect. He was not a man you wanted to argue with, because you would lose. His writings are amongst the finest examples of argument and reason in existence – and don’t take my word for it – ask a university. Paul has long been recognised in philosophical and legal circles as having a truly great mind.

So you can well imagine, as he travelled to these places with the truth about Jesus Christ, he could penetrate the minds of these people with searing intellect. He could grip their hearts with his incredible conviction. He could demolish every argument. He could use the finest words and the best speeches…

The MessageBut... Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-2:

“I brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declar-ing unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

Well isn’t that interesting. The fire in Paul’s message, the power of Paul’s message, the power to convert all those people… It didn’t in fact come from Paul at all. It was in the message itself! Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That’s what did it! That’s all Paul says was worth talking about! Therein is the power! That’s the issue! This is the point!

But you say, “Well that’s odd, why did he only talk about the crucifixion of Jesus? What about the rest of the information about Him?” Paul isn’t saying that that’s all he talked about. He certainly did tell them all the information about Jesus Christ, but the point is this: Paul, the intellectual, came with the message, in which there was saving power, which concerned this unknown Saviour of the world… even though He was crucified!

Crucifixion

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A curseWhy is that significant? Because crucifixion was utterly shameful. To meet your death via crucifixion was the most degrading, taboo and unutterably low way to end your life. The Bible itself says, in the Old Testament, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” [Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13], referring to death by crucifixion. Crucifixion was a great spectacle for the foulest members of society. They would be lashed, mocked, beaten in public. Scorned, laughed at. Jesus was spat on, his beard was ripped out, he was clothed in a King’s robe and bowed to as a mockery, He had a crown of thorns pressed onto his head... And so it goes on.

Crucified people would first carry their own cross upon which they would die right through the city, completely naked, with their crimes on a placard around their neck. They would struggle, normally having been beaten and whipped beyond recognition - often their inner organs were exposed, even spilling out - up to a designated place (a hill called Calvary, for Jesus), and then they would be lifted high up above everyone on their cross, fixed their by enormous spikes or nails that were driven through their wrists and ankles. Everyone could see them. Everyone saw their open shame. Then they would die, in disgusting and vile humiliation. Often death would take days, ultimately caused by suffocation (breathing was a tremendous effort due to the positioning of a body on a cross) or exposure. Then, the corpses would be left to hang there as the birds and scavengers quite literally ate their flesh, to add to the ignominy of it all. Eventually, what was left of them was thrown on the city rubbish dump - a place that burned year-round.

Crucifixion was so shameful that civilised society never spoke of it. Cicero wrote, “The very word, ‘cross’ should be removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from His thoughts, His eyes, His ears.”

Morons, idiots & foolsTo speak of someone who died in this way was taboo. To exalt someone who died in this way was ridiculous. To claim a crucified man was God’s chosen king, God’s Son, Lord of the universe… That’s outrageous! “Paul, the intellectual, you’re an idiot! You’re a moron!” - That’s what many said, you know, and you can see it now, can’t you?

If you go and visit a place called Palatine Hill, near Circus Maximus in Rome, you’ll see there in a guardhouse some ancient graffiti. The graffiti depicts a man with the head of an ass, being crucified, and there is a figure bowing before him. The inscription reads, “Elexa Manos worships his God.” I don’t know who Elexa was, but this mockery directed against Him and the Lord Jesus Christ is an enduring testimony to the unutterable shame of crucifixion. They were saying, “Manos! You’re a moron!”

Maybe you’ve noticed what it says above my head, “We preach Christ crucified.” Same thing. “Martyn, the fledgling preacher standing under that banner… Maybe you’re a moron?”

Have you noticed that the symbol of Christianity, as it has spread throughout every nation on this earth, is the cross of Christ? That cross is a proclamation of Christ… Crucified... Many a skyline in this world is dominated by a cross. Are the churches supporting those symbols populated by morons as well?

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Rio de Janeiro is a stunning city. It’s built on a bay of blue ocean and white beaches, and behind it is a backdrop of soaring mountain ranges. Right up on the highest peak, almost hanging over the city on a finger of rock is one of the largest statues in the world – Jesus Christ the Redeemer. That statue depicts the Lord Jesus overlooking the city. What pose is He in? His arms are outstretched in the shape of a cross. Overshadowing that city, the people build a reminder of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Morons?

Power of GodPaul says, this message of the cross, yes, it’s true – to the world, it’s foolishness. But actually, it’s the power of God! [1 Corinthians 1:18]. And here comes the explanation for my choice of vocabulary: that word, “foolishness” from the original Greek is, quite literally, “moron” (moria). The idea of worshipping someone who has been crucified was moronic. It’s moronic to the world. But it’s actually the power of God.

Looking past the misconceptionsI think this misconception, in some small measure, is a significant problem today. We’ve all seen crosses, crucifixes and portrayals of Jesus Christ suffering and dying in horrendous shame. Maybe it has, over time and just from sheer exposure, got into your mind that that’s all there is to Him? The Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed so often as this dead or dying figure of helplessness, overcome by his enemies and extinguished in His mission by a death which was out of control and seems to have proven that He was a nobody. A man, shamed. A man, broken. A man, destroyed. A man, accursed, hanging on a tree. We are encouraged to see little else except some mystic, poetic or humanitarian purpose in there which makes it somehow beautiful in all of its ugliness...

How much do we really know about this business of Jesus Christ crucified?

I hope to explain what that crucifixion was really all about. What was really going on. Why it really happened, and why Paul could say, “This is the only message worth talking about. Don’t come to hear my cleverness. Come to hear about Christ and Him crucified.” And this is why we say, in 2012, all over the world, “We preach Christ and Him crucified” and we put up crosses all over the world and we say, come and hear about this man who was put to an open shame, in whom we trust and in whom is all the truth of God Himself and His great salvation!

The Song of RepentanceIn order to complete this assignment of ours, we must read from the book of Isaiah, chapter 53.

The book of Isaiah takes us back in time a bit further. Paul began his ministry in the early AD’s. Isaiah, the author of this book, began his in 739BC. Paul was a preacher; Isaiah was a prophet, which is a similar sort of thing but in a different time period. Preachers tell people God’s message which is contained in the Bible (although, as an Apostle, Paul had some further authority which we’ll ignore for present purposes). In 739BC, when most of the Bible didn’t exist yet, prophets told people God’s message because God actually spoke to them directly.

God has given Isaiah, His prophet, a rare look into the future, beyond the days of prophets, to a time that will be characterised by the coming of Jesus Christ Himself. Sound familiar? When

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prophets will be no more, as we’re told in Hebrews 1, but when God will speak through Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Via this method that is foolishness – moronic to those who don’t believe, but actually this is the power of God.

In chapter 53 of his book, Isaiah has written this glimpse of the future in a song. Within this song, there are two things:

Firstly, there are a number of statements made by God Himself, where He is definitely the speaker. They are at the end of chapter 52 and again at the end of chapter 53.

But there is also a section in between where some other people are speaking. See, this middle part is actually a song of repentance. This is a song of repentance that will be spoken in the future by a whole group of people (the nation of Israel, again only marginally relevant for our present purposes) who suddenly and dramatically realise:

1. Who Jesus Christ really is; and 2. What Jesus Christ was actually doing when He was crucified.

This song says, in a dramatic and powerful way, “OH! NOW WE GET IT.” We know the truth about Jesus Christ, even though he was crucified and put to an open shame! We get it that something more was going on. God was in this. This was God’s doing and this was the most amazing work that God has ever done!

So the truth is, therefore, that these people made the very discovery which we’re searching for right now.

Although the song begins in chapter 52 verse 13, we’ll just look at chapter 53.

53 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth;

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He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

A key theme here is repentance. Repentance and lament that comes out of a dramatic realisation of who Jesus Christ really is and what He was really doing. As a part of that theme there is this consideration of Christ’s suffering. Absolutely horrific suffering.

Who is Jesus Christ?Who was Jesus Christ? Well, to begin to answer that question take a look at the first statement of the entire song in 52:13 - “behold, my servant.” That’s God the Father speaking. Jesus is God’s servant. That is to say that the Lord Jesus Christ did not exercise His own will when He was in this service we’re going to read of – not in a robotic way, but in the sense that He purposed to and in fact did do God’s will only. The gospels, which give His life story make many statements to this effect:

The most dramatic of which occurred before He went to the cross, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed “Oh Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” – take this suffering from me – “nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Matthew 26:39.

And vitally, the next statements in verse 13 include the same three Hebrew titles as are used to describe Isaiah’s vision of God on His throne in chapter 6. Jesus was the Son of God, ie equal with God, ie the second person of the Trinity, ie He is God. That is vitally important. But this one became a man, in the service of God the Father, to do the Father’s will.

How far did this dedication to the will of God take Him? Well, let’s see…

What was He Really Doing on the Cross?

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Question: This horrific suffering. Did He deserve it?

Verse 11 says, “My righteous servant.” Verse 9 says, “He had done no violence, neither was any deceit found in His mouth.” The Bible tells us that what comes out of the mouth is a reflection of the heart of a person. The perfect God Himself also declares that He is righteous. Incredible.

Answer: No. He did not deserve it.

Question: So, if He didn’t deserve it, did God try to protect His righteous sufferer?

Verse 10 tells us, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief.”

Answer: No. God did not protect His righteous sufferer. In fact, it was His will and plan that He should suffer at all.

Question: So, is that consistent with God’s righteousness? If it was His will to see His righteous, perfect servant crushed and put to death?

Verse 5 tells us, “HE was wounded for OUR transgressions” (emphasis added).

This is vicarious suffering! What does that mean? It means that He did not have His own sin to die for. None of it. He died for the sins of others! He died for the sins of you. He died for the sins of me.

Note that the speakers have a dramatic moment of realisation. This “surely” moment… Suddenly they get it. Suddenly they see what was happening…

Surely HE has borne OUR griefs And [HE] carried OUR sorrows... ...HE was wounded for OUR transgressions, HE was bruised for OUR iniquities; The chastisement for OUR peace was upon HIM, And by HIS stripes we are healed... ...The Lord has laid on HIM the iniquity of US ALL. [Emphasis added]

Answer: Yes. This was consistent with God’s righteousness. He stored up all that wrath that was ours because of our sin against Him and he unleashed it, dropped it, released it, exhausted it… On Him… His righteous servant… Our substitute.

He had no sin of His own to die for. He died for the sins of others.

Question: Why would He do that?

Verse 12 tells us, “He poured out His [own] soul unto death” (Clarity added).

Answer: Because He was willing.

What an amazing thing. What an amazing person.

Perhaps at this point, you’re getting a glimpse of what was really going on when Jesus Christ was crucified. To review some key statements: My righteous servant… It pleased God to bruise Him… The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all… He poured out His own soul unto death…

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Question: What’s the point?

Verse 11 says, “By His knowledge,” - in other words, by people coming to the knowledge of Him - “shall my righteous servant justify many.”

Answer: Because those who know Him as their Lord and Saviour – they shall be justified. They shall be made righteous before God, meaning that God cannot punish me, because it was laid upon His Son – how so? It’s repeated right there, just in case we hadn’t already gotten the message - “For He shall bear their iniquities.”

Recognising the Truth of the CrossNow let’s spend some more time considering these amazing things. We’ll go through the chapter from the beginning.

The second stanza, opens with these words, “Who has believed our report?” – Which report is that? Well, in the context, would you believe it, the report is the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This very thing we’ve been talking about. But who believes it? Actually, not very many. Compared to the teeming billions on the earth… Not that many. In fact, the numbers have been in drastic decline in the western world for decades now. Australia’s church attendance is 7% - that’s how much it matters to us. Who has believed? To whom has the power of God been revealed? Not that many…

Why? Because they don’t get it. They haven’t had their “Surely” moment and they never do. Why haven’t they ‘got it’ – why haven’t they ‘clicked’ – well, there’s two reasons here.

1. Firstly, they misunderstand the event. 2. Secondly, they don’t apply the event.

They misunderstand it, because they see crosses, crucifixes, depictions of Jesus, and they hear the story and they say, “He was despised… rejected... shamed… defeated….” And they esteem Him not, as it says here. That means that He is just considered to be nothing. Not important to my life, not important to 21st century society, clearly a sad story, clearly a historical relic. Not really worth an ounce of consideration... And if He’s worth and ounce, then that’s all He’s worth.

What about when He was actually here on earth? Well, it says here that they saw Him like a root out of dry ground – his origin was like dry ground, it wasn’t nice, it wasn’t special, it was the sort of origin that you wouldn’t expect a root to come out of at all, much less a tender plant, which is the next description there. Remember He was born to poor parents and his first bed was a feeding trough in a stable. When one of His first disciples met Him, he said “Oh… Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” [John 1:46]. Nazareth was where Jesus grew up. When the Pharisees heard Him teaching, they said, “Where did this man learn these things? Is not this the carpenter’s Son?” [Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3]. And even though they acknowledged His power, they were offended by Him. They had such disdain for His origins that they accused Him of being born of fornication [John 8:41].

And so He became rejected by men and women, it tells us in verse 3. Just as He still is rejected. He became a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… What a description for the Son of God from heaven, God’s righteous servant!

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And, of course, His end was even contemptible. We saw all that when we talked about crucifixion. To this day, Jewish Rabbi’s refer to “the Tolui” – meaning ‘the hanged one’ – because, remember “cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.”

So they misunderstood the event. The event of His coming, His life and particularly His death.

Applying the Truth of the CrossBut the really important thing is that they did not apply the event – they did not apply it to themselves - and this also is the greatest scourge of Australia in 2012. Really, it is. You apply this event to yourself when you realise that the whole thing occurred for you, because of you. When you realise that, in a sense, you put Jesus Christ on the cross. Your sin sent Him there.

This is what is happening when this “surely” moment occurs in verse 4. Notice the complete change of language and perspective. Over and over again, it says, “HE did it… for ME.” Not just for me, but specifically, because of my sin! Surely He did not die for His own sin, but surely He died for my sin!

Recognising our sinNow you will never say that until you actually understand that you are a sinner. As you hear this echo of “we” “us” and “our” over and over again, you see all the descriptions of what you are – an iniquitous, sick, transgressor with no peace in verse 5. An iniquitous, ignorant sheep in verse 6.

And let’s see what that sin did to Him by examining the words used here. Note that they are specific, not general words. They actually happened.

• He was “stricken” - meaning He was struck violently.• He was “smitten” - meaning beaten, even to the point of death – and Jesus was indeed

beaten horribly.• He was “afflicted” - which refers to degradation and humiliation – we’ve seen that. I don’t

even need to mention the details again. • He was “wounded” or “pierced” - and the Hebrew word there is actually an immensely strong

expression used to describe the process of a violent death.• He was “bruised” or “crushed” - which means being battered to any degree up to being

trampled to death.• He was “chastised” - this was the Hebrew term to express punishment. It’s a legal term. Jesus

was indicted by false witnesses at trial and He was executed.• His “stripes” - refers to lashing with a whip. He was whipped at Pilate’s command.

To confess that all of those things belonged to us, but actually fell on Him is about the strongest confession that a person can make that they are indeed a sinner who deserves eternal hell because they have sinned against God.

Recognising our sinful natureBut how can you believe that? How can you believe it, in this day and age, amidst the self-esteem movement that tells us all we’re special people? How can you believe that? I have no doubt that there’s hardly a person who, certainly in my generation – generation Y – who wouldn’t say, at this

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point, “Sorry, but I am simply not that bad.”

But verse 4 has told us that we think wrong. Verse 5 tells us that we do wrong – we act wrong, but verse 6 actually goes further. Verse 6 tells us that we do wrong and think wrong because we are actually wrong in our very nature! It says we are like sheep who have gone astray, to turn every one to our own way… And therefore the Lord has had to lay on Him the iniquity of us all. We have a sinful nature, from which we cannot escape and because of which we will always, forever offend God and there is nothing we can do to stop it! See, what we do is just evidence of who we are. We sin… Therefore we’re sinners by nature. This is no more complex than 1 + 1 = 2!

The great lie of self-love

This is how stark the difference is: The world says, “You’re a precious, special person and you need to learn to love yourself.” Let me tell you straight out that is a lie! God says, “You’re a guilty, renegade sinner and you need to learn to hate yourself.” You must not fall for the lies of the world that seek to tell you you’re not a fallen human being but that you are some kind of superstar.

We love to minimise or totally overlook the truth of what it means to be a fallen human being. Oh yes, we admit that the world is full of vice and wickedness, and that human behaviour always seems to tend toward what is selfish and sensual… And we see innumerable instances of oppression, cruelty, dishonesty, jealousy and violence… And yes – we act this way even when we know better. We act this way even when we’re educated. We act this way even when we’re civilised. We act this way even when we know it’s wrong.

See, we agree on the basic facts… But everyone then says, “Oh, but people are basically good. I know it makes no sense, but I like to think that they are!” That’s outrageous!

Just think for a minute about the amazing capability of the human mind – we can invent, reason, make judgements, discern, understand, admire. Emotionally we can hope, fear, rejoice, mourn, empathise, love. We can exercise the will to be patient, endure.

If aliens from another planet were to observe us that would be utterly astonished at our amazing faculties and how we can use them! Surely our creator could delight in all the good we can do with them!

But, no… Let’s take a step back with the aliens and do a survey of how we have used these faculties throughout history. We’ll see human reason, confused. We’ll see human desires, twisted, we’ll see anger, envy, hatred, revenge persistently rearing their ugly heads. Ancient civilisations characterised by savage cruelty, brutality and a survival of the fittest mentality in struggles for power and territory. We see the 20th century characterised by world wars where hundreds of millions died, where Jews were gassed and tortured by the millions. We see a present age wherein a baby is aborted every 25 seconds in the USA alone - more than one per second in the entire world, where men and women turn away from God and live as if He did not even exist. Political strife, diplomatic disasters, divorces and busted families, sadness and sorrow and everything not as it should be and all things falling apart.

Oh but… “People are basically good!” What unutterable rubbish! Imagine this mess for a moment through the lens of perfect God, as He looks down on a creation that He made perfect so that it would serve Him all its days with all its might! What a disgusting morass of filth must confront

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Him! Imagine being able to see behind closed doors on a Friday and Saturday night in this city alone! Imagine being able to see the minds of every man and woman laid bare 24/7!

And yet we persist obstinately in loving ourselves, because our very thought process is all busted up by sin!

There is no other workable rationale for the state of and the history of this world.

Christianity and self-love

An especially great sadness with respect to all this is that some people have tried to turn it into a brand of Christianity, where it’s as if positive thinking is all we’ve got to offer. I did a book search on Amazon for so called “Christian” books for teenagers – and here are some of the titles I was confronted with:

• PerfectlyUniqueYou• AlwaysSisters:BecomingthePrincessyouwereCreatedtobe• DivineObsession:God’sIllogical,Insane,Incomprehensible,Impassionedloveforyou• Radiant:Discoveringyourbeauty• Andprobablythemostoffensive:Girlfriend,you’reaB.A.B.E!Babebeinganacrosticfor “Beautiful, Accepted, Blessed and Eternally significant”

This is false teaching. You must know, especially if you’re generation Y and below and this stuff is being rammed down your neck at school and so forth, that these are lies! These are lies, lies, lies and they are of the variety that will take you to hell!

2 Timothy 3:1-2 contains the following warning, “dangerous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves.” And what a danger that is. If you love yourself, then you will never see your sinfulness. You will never understand the cross and you will never apply the cross to yourself, and yes, you will go to Hell.

One of those book titles referred to the love of God. Do you know how the love of God has been manifested? It has been manifested in the way that, when we were without hope and without strength to save ourselves, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for us. And the Bible tells us, “greater love has no man than this, than to lay down His life for His friends.” And then we see the fullness of God’s love when we realise that He did all this purely so that we, who rejected Him, could know Him and receive eternal life once more. That’s God’s love! Isaiah 53 is God’s love! The gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is God’s love!

When you apply the cross to yourself, you will see the fullness of God’s love. You will also see the depths of your sinfulness.

Prophetic DetailThe next stanza contains astonishing prophetic detail about His arrest, His trial and His burial. Just astonishing. Down to the detail of the fact that He wasn’t buried with the criminals like normal, but that the rich man – Joseph of Aramathea would take His body and give Him a proper burial.

God’s Response

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The last stanza brings before us a really joyful moment. We are now into the section where God begins to speak and He says some wonderful things.

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

But wait! Isn’t He dead? No! Praise God He’s alive! He had no sin of His own to die for, so death was not His eternal punishment. God raised Him from the dead as a public and everlasting declaration of the fact that, “This is my righteous servant! He had no sin of His own to die for, He died for the sin of others! And I am satisfied with His work.”

God makes three declarations in this section:

1. Firstly, He declares that this confession of sin; this confession concerning what Jesus Christ was really doing on the cross is the true, accurate and correct confession. This whole song of repentance is confirmed by those final four statements, God says, “Yes! He poured out His soul unto death. Yes! He was numbered with the transgressors. Yes! He bore the sin of many. Yes! He made intercession for the transgressors.”

2. Secondly, and I just said this a moment ago, God declares that He is satisfied with the work that Jesus Christ has done. He is satisfied with Jesus’ sacrifice. We read, “He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.”

Why is He satisfied? He is satisfied because, now that the work is done, He can save sinners! And this is why He makes the third declaration that:

3. God loves to save sinners! We’re told there that God’s good pleasure shall prosper in His hand. What’s God’s good pleasure? We’re told that too – it’s to save sinners! The word used here is “justify”

It says here that, because God is satisfied, he will justify all those who come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ – that is to say, all those who are saved.

Wow!

And so, we can say – joy of joys, “Jesus is alive!” He rose from the dead 2,000 years ago and He still lives today and He is saving sinners 24/7, and it is His very delight to do it.

Shared TreasureOne more thing: what’s all this talk about a spoil and a portion – or treasure and booty if you like. And what’s all this talk about sharing it?

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Here is a really amazing thing. We’re told that He is sharing it with the great and with the strong. Those are saved sinners – sinners who have been made great by their association with Christ. Sinners who were weak, but know strength in the Lord… God is causing us – saved sinners – to share in all the blessings that belong to His glorified, exalted Son!

WOW!

See, this is how it works. All the things that He did: conquered death, dealt with sin, appeased God, rose to live forever in heaven, entered into God’s presence, received God’s blessing… All those things become ours as well through salvation!

We have got a portion, a share, a treasure in heaven itself. “Blessings in heavenly places” as the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians.

WOW!

That leads us into what it means when it says that He made intercession for the transgressors. It means that He is the bridge between the human race and God. Note also that it’s the only thing listed here that hasn’t been finished yet. It’s still happening. He is still making salvation possible. He is still channelling all those heavenly blessings to those who are saved.

He makes us right with God. He gives us eternal life.

ConclusionThe greatest truth about Christianity is that it has all been done for you. What’s left for you to do? Recognise the truth of that confession we looked at – you’re a sinner. Repent and turn away from sin. Hate it like God hates it. Then submit your life to the one who died to save you. Find that place in which you consider yourself as good as dead and you leave behind all that you are, in sin as a fallen human being without God, and turn to embrace the one who has made all the provision for you to find acceptance, forgiveness, righteousness, justification, heavenly blessings, eternal life.

If you haven’t done it, go to God. Pray to Him. Then live from now into eternity with that same testimony that Paul wrote in Galatians – “The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

No wonder Paul said, “I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” What a truth!

END

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