In John 20, we read one account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. Peter walked into the tomb and saw only the linen shroud. He called John to see that Christ’s body was missing. John saw and believed. In 20:9, the narrative provides us an interesting detail. They, Peter and John, did not yet understand the Scripture (here referring to the Old Testament or Tanakh), that He must rise again from the dead. The Old Testament makes no explicit claim that the messiah would be raised from the dead. It does, however, necessitate such an event. Prophecy is some of the best evidence God has given us to show that the biblical narrative is reliable. In our time, nearly all the ancient prophecies have been fulfilled, and Jesus fulfilled the more than 300 specific messianic prophecies. It is almost as though God knew we would be skeptics and proactively gave signs so we would know that Jesus actually is the promised messiah. Isaiah, for instance, foretold the suffering of the messiah.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

Identity of Isaiah’s suffering servant (v. 1-3)

The New Testament writers identified Isaiah’s suffering servant as Jesus (cf. Matthew 8:17; Luke 22:37; John 12:38; Acts 8:32-35; Romans 10:16-17; 1 Peter 2:19-25). Jesus’s life looked exactly like what Isaiah described in Chapter 53. It’s nice to know how the New Testament writers, and First Century Jews, read Isaiah 53—as if it described one who would deliver Israel. I wonder how Isaiah, himself, identified the suffering servant. After all, that is how we read, we look for context clues in order to discern who the author meant to describe. In this case, we don’t have to go back further than Isaiah 52, which identifies the subject of Isaiah 53 as the one who brings good news (52:7) on the day of Israel’s redemption from captivity (52:3, 6). The captivity referred to is physical captivity. The redemption referred to is redemption through sprinkling, or atonement, by the marring of the redeemer’s appearance rather than with money (52:13-15). So, in Chapter 52, Isaiah foretold the coming of a redeemer who would finally liberate Israel by atoning for her sin with his own blood.

After dropping this revelation like a bomb, Isaiah asked:

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Who has believed our, referring to the prophets, message? Even while Isaiah was prophesying, many Jews did not believe the prophetic promise. The arm, or work, of the Lord had not been specially revealed to them. Why? Isaiah answers by describing in perfect tense the coming redeemer he foretold in Chapter 52. The redeemer would be a man with average appearance. He would be despised and forsaken of men. He would not be esteemed by the nation of Israel. In His flesh, Israel’s redeemer would be of humble origin—so humble that people would hide their faces from Him. Can anything good come out of Nazareth (cf. John 1:46)?

The redeemer’s atoning work (v. 4-9)

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

Isaiah then proceeded to describe the atoning work he foretold in Chapter 52 at length. the redeemer would bear the griefs and sorrows of the nation. As part of that work, He would be lifted up as stricken and smitten of God. He would be pierced through for Israel’s transgressions (cf. John 19:34), taking the divine justice due Israel for her sin upon Himself. He would be crushed instead of those who actually sinned—which is substitutionary atonement. Because the redeemer would take the wrath of God on behalf of the nation, the nation would be healed from the consequences of her own sin. Such is what this particular redemption would accomplish for Israel.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

Even though every Israelite had gone astray, the Lord would cause their iniquity to fall on the redeemer. Their transgressions and unbelief would be imputed to the redeemer. Thus, the redeemer would take the oppression and affliction of His sinful people upon Himself. He would not complain about being oppressed and afflicted. He would take the iniquity, oppression, and affliction of Israel upon Himself willingly to suffer under divine wrath on behalf of the people. He would present Himself like the sacrificial lamb.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

After having the oppression and judgment of the nation imputed to Him, the redeemer would be taken away by that oppression and judgment. His own generation I Jews would consider Him cut off from the living because He would take upon Himself the transgression of Isaiah’s people, who deserved to die because of their sin. The redeemer would die on behalf of Israel in a way that wicked men die (cf. Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32-43). Why? Because the redeemer would take the iniquities of all Israel upon Himself and die like a transgressor. Since He actually would do no injustice or lie, having fulfilled all righteous, the redeemer would be buried in glory, or with a rich man (cf. Matthew 27:57; Mark 15:43; Luke 23:50-56). Isaiah did not reveal explicitly that the redeemer would be raised from the dead. Redemption would be fully accomplished on Good Friday.

People will often use the resurrection as a proof of Christ’s divinity. Perhaps there is an argument to be made there, but others have been risen from the dead (e.g. Lazarus). The resurrection is not necessary to prove Jesus’s divinity because He could have simply given up His human nature and continued to reign in spirit. I want to show that there is more to the resurrection of Christ than simple proof that He was victorious—for, He was victorious, according to the prophets, in His atoning death. Even Jesus claimed that, as He was being crucified, everything necessary to fulfill Scripture was finished:

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit (John 19:28-30).

If the work of redemption is finished in the crucifixion, why would the redeemer be raised back to life in the glorified flesh? Why would He not simply ascend to the Father in glory unbound by the flesh?

The redeemer’s reward (v. 10-12)

But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

Isaiah prophesied that the Lord, the Father, was pleased to crush the one born to redeem Israel. The Lord crushed Him, and the Lord put Him to grief as a substitute for the nation. If the redeemer willingly went to slaughter, He would see His offspring—the fruit of His labor. As a result of the cross, the Father would give the redeemer a people born as a result of His death. The Father would prolong the days of the redeemer as a result of His substitutionary death. So, the everlasting glorified body of Jesus is His reward along with His church. In the glorified redeemer’s hand, the good pleasure of the Father would prosper forevermore. In the resurrection:

• Jesus assumed everlasting federal reign in creation,
• was given the redeemed as a gift from the Father, and
• was given the “go-ahead” from the Father to work out the Father’s kingdom and will on earth as it is in heaven—which is the work Christ is currently doing.

I believe that Jesus was always reigning and always sovereign. In the resurrection, Jesus inherited Adam’s federal headship and the federal rule of the davidic throne. The crucifixion meant the redemption of those being given to Jesus by the Father (cf. John 6:37). The resurrection was a gift to Jesus so that Jesus would reign as the everlasting federal head of creation—cause His kingdom of peace and justice to captivate the whole world.

As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

As a result of the anguish of His soul, the redeemer, would see it, the redemption of His people, and be satisfied. By, or according to, His own knowledge, the redeemer and one who fulfilled all righteousness, would justify many—not all but many, which shows particular atonement for only those given to Him by the Father; not all Israel was being atoned for. The Father, because of His work, would allot Him a portion with the great, and the redeemer would divide the spoil with the strong; Jesus inherited, as federal head, the real wealth and power of the world. Because the redeemer would pour Himself out to death and have the sins of His people imputed to Him, He would reign federally over the earth forevermore.

The nations

The Gospel writers took Isaiah’s prophecy and applied it to both Jew and Gentile. If the redeemer is the Second Adam, the true federal head, then all nations belong to Him in His resurrections. His atoning sacrifice is not only applied to many in Israel but many among the nations. As federal king, Jesus has inherited a people given to Him from among the nations. That is the natural conclusion of Isaiah’s prophecy. Even Isaiah recognized that the heathen nations would be considered as one with Israel as God’s people (Isaiah 19:24-25). So, everything written about the redeemer in Isaiah 53 applies to all nations. Isaiah’s suffering servant would be the redeemer of all those given to Him by the Father among the nations.

Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s description to the letter. What does that mean for those who are in Christ?

1. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf, meaning we don’t have to earn salvation or be good enough for heaven.
2. Jesus died as a substitutionary atonement, meaning that those who are in Him have been forgiven—which is better news than the world’s broken gospel of restitution or works-based righteousness.
3. Jesus was raised to life in order to receive His inheritance from the Father. So we will be raised with Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:17).

Through the Gospel, Christ is renewing the earth. Will we follow Him in His death and resurrection today? If you desire to follow Jesus, repent, believe in Jesus, and be baptized. Plug into a healthy local church family. If you need help distinguishing between a healthy or unhealthy local church, please contact us.