Bible pictures of Christ

Isaiah’s wonderful Picture – Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Scripture: Isaiah 53:7-12.

This is our final study in this series. It will bring our studies to number 126. The series started in September 2015.

There is no better place to finish than in the verses before us.

1. Here is the substitutionary death of Christ emphasised again.

This is the very heart of the gospel! “For the transgression of my people was he stricken,” V 8. The Saviour died for a specific people. His elect, His sheep. See Rom 8:32; Gal 3:13; Eph 5:2; 1 John 4:10.

2. The character of the Saviour displayed as He suffered.

He was a most uncomplaining Redeemer. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth,” V 7.
I believe this shows the utter willingness of the Lord Jesus to suffer and die for His people. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Rom 5:6-8.

3. The chief sufferings of the Saviour came from Jehovah.

“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, 10.
God punished His dearly beloved Son for the sins of the people He had made His. How wonderful this is!!
Here is how much we are loved.

4. The sufferings of Christ accomplish wonderfully the eternal purpose of God.

Isaiah 53:10-12.
“He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”
“Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Note this verse highlights once more. VICTORY, SUFFERING, PRAYER.
Remember the words of the Saviour in Luke 24:25-27. “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself,” Luke 24:25-27.

Click to stream or download, Bible pictures of Christ, Pt126

Pictures of Christ – 16
Isaiah’s wonderful Picture – Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Let us stand before this portrait of our Saviour on the cross and lovingly and reverently note what is set before us.

We are more privileged than those who actually stood at Calvary. They did not fully understand what was happening, Luke 24:15-17, but here we have God’s explanation of those dark and sombre events.

A very clear statement. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted,” Isaiah 53:4. He was the sin-bearer smitten of God.

A detailed explanation. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed,” Isaiah 53:5. The sufferings were His. The benefits were ours.

Wounded, bruised, chastised, stripes. His sufferings were severe and many. Mixture of words which denote the great and unknowable pain, the shame, the grief He bore when He became ‘sin for us’.

The benefits we obtained were likewise immeasurable and innumerable.

A telling illustration. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah 53:6.

All – There is no exception to the sinfulness of mankind.

Like sheep have gone astray. We habitually, deliberately sinned. We left the paths of God’s law and the fields of obedience.

Turned every one to his own way. Rejected God and became our own gods and kings. Like the Prodigal son we left the ‘Father’s house’ and went into the far country away from His rule and presence.

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others,” Eph 2:2-3.

Where are you today? In the safety of the Saviour’s fold or out on the mountains amidst great danger?

Click to stream or download, Bible pictures of Christ, Pt125

Isaiah’s wonderful Picture – Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Despite the dreadful truth that, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not,” Isaiah 53:3, we read in the next verse: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted,” Isaiah 53:4.

To “esteem” means ‘to form an estimation of’. Christ was counted of no value. “And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate,” Luke 23:11.

1. The people for whom Christ suffered are the people who despised Him.

Not one of the millions who will get to heaven through the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus will ever be able to say: “I never despised Him, rejected Him. I never hid my face from Him or did not esteem Him.” Paul’s testimony is really the testimony of all believers. “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities,” Acts 26:9-11.

2. The chief sufferings of Christ were at the hands of God.

“Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted,” Isaiah 53:4. The view formed by the people of the Saviour in His sufferings was that He was rejected by God. He was rejected on the cross by His Father but the people were wrong in their thinking of why this happened!

They deemed him a sinful man, unrighteous and therefore rejected by God. But the Saviour’s rejection was because the Father “Made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Cor 5:21.

On the cross the Father dealt with Christ as He would deal with us sinners. He forsook Christ, He judged Christ, He punished Christ. But was God acting in mercy to us and judging His So rather than us! “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8.

Click to stream or download, Bible pictures of Christ, Pt124