Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 54: The Sufferings of Christ and the Glories to Follow. Pretty loooong....

Believer, did you know that God's prophets of old sought to know more about the salvation that you and I have in Christ today? 1 Peter 1 says of them:

10 "Regarding this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace [of God] that was intended for you, searched carefully and inquired [about this future way of salvation], 11 seeking to find out what person or what time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glories [destined] to follow."

Isaiah was one of such prophets. He prophesied about the sufferings of Christ (in Isaiah 53) and the glories that will follow (in Isaiah 54.)

Isaiah 53 is where we get the popular verses:

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."

Just to digress a little, the translation (NKJV) of "bruised" here doesn't really do justice to the original Hebrew text "Dakah" which means "crushed." Christ wasn't just "bruised" in the sense of a bruised apple. He was "crushed" for our iniquities. Also verse 4. "Griefs" and "sorrows" make one think that Christ just bore our feelings of sadness but it goes deeper than that. The two words were translated from the Hebrew words "Kholee" and "Makob" which mean "sickness" and "pain" respectively. The YLT translates it thus:

"4 Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains -- He hath carried them, And we -- we have esteemed Him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted."

Isaiah 53, which prophesies Christ's suffering for us, ends thus:

11 "When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish,

He will be satisfied.

And because of His experience,

My righteous Servant will make it possible

for many to be counted righteous,

for He will bear all their sins.

12 I will give Him the honors of a victorious soldier,

because He exposed Himself to death.

He was counted among the rebels.

He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels."

Notice verse 11: "....My righteous Servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins."

All was "accomplished by His anguish" when Christ cried "Finished!" at the cross. Because of His anguish, His experience, His shed blood, His suffering, He has made it possible for many to be counted righteous. The wages of sin is death (sickness, pain, depression, all earthly ills are all "death begun.") Christ died our death. We see this also in Romans 5:19-

"By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

Also check out what Romans 5:9 says of believers' standing with God because of the finished work of Christ for us:

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

This is the crux of the gospel: Righteousness by faith in Christ.

Believing in Jesus is believing that we are made righteous in God's sight, get to escape His wrath (including death, up to death in hell) and enjoy every single one of His blessings, not because we obeyed the law, fasted or did anything at all to deserve His goodness but because Christ suffered and shed His blood for us.

Remember Isaiah prophesied about the sufferings of Christ for our salvation (in Isaiah 53) and the glories that will follow in the very next chapter ( Isaiah 54)? ALL of these glories abound freely in the lives of all who believe and confess Christ as: "The Lord our Righteousness."

So what are these glories that we have as a result of Christ laying down His life for us to make us righteous and whole? So much wonder here, but let's examine the more popular glories from this chapter. One of my favourites is Isaiah 54:17-

17 "No weapon formed against you shall prosper,

And every tongue which rises against you in judgment

You shall condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,

And their righteousness is from Me,”

Says the Lord."

Notice that this blessing is not earned by obeying the Ten Commandments, fasting, sowing seed, or any work done in order to be godly or get God to bless. It is an inheritance (heritage) for those whose righteousness is from the Lord, not their efforts at keeping the law or trying to curry His favour with seasonal good behaviour and fasting to be more presentable. This is why we who believe have this promise:

"This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,

And their righteousness is from Me,”

Says the Lord."

This blessing is for all those whose righteousness is from the Lord; all who are made righteous by Christ's obedience and not their own puny efforts at obeying the law which can never make any righteous in God's sight- "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." Romans 3:20.

Believing that Christ suffered for you to make you righteous (Isaiah 53) is why "No weapon formed against you shall prosper....." (Isaiah 54.) Believe it. Confess it and See it!

Backing this verse up with seeds, days of fasting and puny/seasonal attempts at obeying the law (aka human effort at getting the promise) in order to "purify" oneself before God or better position oneself to receive His promises is saying that what Christ did at the cross is not enough to make us righteous in God's sight. This is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ spoke of in Revelation 3. This is trying to obey the law in order to get right with God. But Christ laid down His life to make us righteous in God's sight. What then is the purpose of Christ's death in the life of such? Following this "neither cold nor hot" doctrine has dire consequences:

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace." Galatians 5:4.

Just to digress a bit again, Satan's ministers behind some pulpits will tell you that sin is what makes a believer fall from God's grace, contradicting God's Word. Such tell you to do things like restitution in order to be godly and get back into God's good graces. Judas, who was remorseful for his sin, tried this approach and he died, cut off from Christ. Peter also committed a similar sin of betrayal, but he didn't try to restore himself. He realised how weak he was; same as all of us. By grace, he waited on Christ to restore Him and, filled with the Holy Spirit, the one who denied Christ with his mouth three times ended up preaching a sermon where three thousand people got saved- with the same mouth and in full glare of the Pharisees and teachers of religious law that made him so afraid before. This story of Judas and Peter is Romans 5:20 in action:

"Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God's grace increased much more."

Try to obey the law to be godly/righteous and sin will have dominion. God's grace does not increase much more where sin increased so that we can continue to sin. His Grace stops sin- akin to quenching a lit matchstick with a zillion gallons of water. Believer, not only will Christ save you from your sins, He will restore you and cause you to do exploits for Him, even using your weakness to show His glory in your life, just as He did with Peter.

Yet another of the glories that follow Christ's suffering for all who believe is Isaiah 54:14-15:

14 "In righteousness you shall be established;

You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;

And from terror, for it shall not come near you.

15 Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me.

Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake."

Some "prophets" come with all sorts of visions of people planning for bad things to happen to you and even give you a list of things to do (that only they can prescribe) in order for you to escape the coming danger, e.g. fasting, sàárà, bring your son's picture, bring sand from your office for "special prayers," etc. Believer, their "prophecy" of "people planning for you" is nothing new! God said it first, not them: "Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me." Their aim is to make you afraid and keep you scurrying from pillar to post looking for the Rest that we who believe have as our birthright in Christ. With Christ as our Righteousness, "Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake." The Lord said so. This is our confidence: His Word. They fall because of Christ's suffering for us and not because of things done by the arm of flesh (human effort) that will fail.

Yet another of the glories from Christ's sufferings for us is Isaiah 54:13-

"All your children shall be taught by the Lord,

And great shall be the peace of your children."

With Christ as our righteousness, we and our children have the Lord as our Teacher. "Peace" here is "Shalom" in Hebrew. It encompasses "completeness, soundness, welfare, peace." Here, we can rest assured of perfection in every area of our lives. Christ paid the price for ours and our kids' future to be secure. He is our eternal Security. He teaches us in the way we should go and He doesn't need us to pay for Him to do His work or else we will boast that "The $1000 that I sowed is why my son became successful in life." Notice no more Jesus Christ's suffering for our success in this equation? This is akin to my son trying to pay me to get me to bless him. My son's generosity is a function of the training he receives from me. How much more when the Lord Himself is our Teacher? With Christ, our heavenly Father gives us ALL things FREELY and not because we obeyed the law or sowed seed to make sure that our kids turn out well:

"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32.

Back to Isaiah 54:14-"In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you." Proverbs 12:25 says:

"Anxious fear brings depression,..."

When you are established in God's righteousness, knowing that your salvation (even from sins) is through what Christ has done and not what you have to do to get right with God and escape every evil, there is no longer any fearful expectation of bad things happening to you. Believer, God's Word said so:

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

By grace, believe in your heart that you are righteous in God's sight through the blood of Jesus and confess with your mouth your righteousness in Him that you believe and you will experience His glories. This is the message of the cross: Righteousness by faith in Christ:

9 "And what is God’s “living message”? It is the revelation of faith for salvation, which is the message that we preach. For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will experience salvation. 10 The heart that believes in Him receives the gift of the righteousness of God—and then the mouth gives thanks to salvation."

Even salvation from sins.