Wednesday, March 9, 2005
Isaiah 53:8 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.
THE CERTAINTY OF OUR SACRIFICE
Here in this verse, written over 700 years before Jesus' death on the cross, the Holy Spirit inspires the prophet Isaiah to tell that the Servant of the LORD would die for the people. It is interesting to see the tense that Isaiah uses in this verse. Notice in the English it is translated in a past tense. As we take a look at Biblical History we might say that it would have to be incorrect for Isaiah to make such a statement. How could Isaiah describe something that wouldn't happen for 700 years as something which has already happened?
The Holy Spirit often led the prophets to use the past tense to describe promises that God made to His people. The result is that we can be so sure that God will keep those promises, that they are described as being completed already even though they have not yet taken place. The Old Testament believers were to be confident that the Suffering Servant spoken of in this chapter would die as a sacrifice for them. They should never doubt it, but instead consider it a done deal already! We too can be confident that Jesus was "cut off from the land of the living." It is just as sure for us today as it was for the people who heard and believed these words of Isaiah for the first time almost three thousand years ago.
Why do we still remember the death of a man who was killed almost 2000 years ago? Why was Jesus' death so important that we still commemorate it every year on Good Friday, and talk about it in our churches every service?
Because through His death Jesus has destroyed the death grip that sin and the devil had on us. By His death, He has paid the ransom price for our freedom. Isaiah says, "For the transgressions of My people He was stricken." He was delivered to death for the sins of the people. The people of Abraham's day, the people of Isaiah's day, the people of Jesus' day, and the people of our day as well. Doubt it not, Isaiah and all of Scripture assures us of the certainty of our salvation through faith in Jesus' sacrifice! 