Four Great Deeds Of
Grace By Our Great Savior
Isaiah 53:12
Isaiah 53:12 is a summary of Isaiah's
remarkable 53rd chapter. If Isaiah 53 is a prophetic sermon on the
substitutionary work of Christ, verse 12 is its conclusion. Here the prophet of
God shows us four great deeds of grace by which the Son of God has secured his
everlasting glory as our Savior and the everlasting glory of all God's elect in
him.
1. "HE POURED OUT HIS SOUL UNTO
DEATH." Death is the penalty of sin. "The soul that sinneth, it shall
die." "The wages of sin is death." When Christ poured out his
soul unto death, he did so as a Divine substitute for God's elect, bearing the
just and righteous penalty for their sins so that the holy Lord God might be
both just and the Justifier of all who trust Christ. When Isaiah says, "He
poured out his soul unto death," he means for us to understand that the
Son of God actually died for us, that his death was his own deliberate,
voluntary sacrifice, and that his sacrificial death for us was a complete
sacrifice of himself upon the altar of Divine justice, by which he made
atonement for our sins.
2. "HE WAS NUMBERED WITH THE
TRANSGRESSORS." He was not and never could be a transgressor. Christ had
no sin, knew no sin, and did no sin. Yet, he was numbered with sinners in his
incarnation, by the tongue of slander, in the opinions of men, and in the
courts of earthly justice. However, it was in the court of heaven before the
bar of God himself that the Lord of glory was numbered with the transgressors
that he might redeem us from all iniquity, transgression, and sin.
3. "HE BARE
THE SIN OF MANY." This is the reason of our Savior's death. He was made to
be sin for us! "He bare our sin in his own body
on the tree!" He did not bare the sins of all, but of many. The many sins
he bare, he bore away forever (Heb. 1:3;
4. "HE MADE INTERCESSION FOR THE
TRANSGRESSORS." "Not merely in a petitionary way, but by presenting
himself, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, pleading the merits of these
and calling for, in a way of justice and legal demand" (John Gill), the
complete salvation of all his people.
Don Fortner