The Suffering Servant
God is a God of Love. He is a Holy God, A God of Justice and order and yet He is a God of Love who’s mercy and Love endure forever. He is slow to anger and yet His wrath is great. In understanding the mission of the Messiah in his first visitation on earth we must understand why He came. The reason for that is that He came to save his people and show the exceeding Glory of God in his Love and Holiness. A people chosen by God beforehand, before anything was even created.
The first man, Adam. Sinned against God when he disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. God passed a suspended judgement before hand through his word saying that if Adam were to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, he (Adam) would die. And so God gave Adam a statute to follow and Adam disobeyed this by his own will. Thus the suspended judgement which would not be executed if Adam obeyed, came into execution through man’s disobedience. Thus death came through sin. Adam was made perfect and without sin, but when he sinned he became a slave to sin and blemished Himself because he became imperfect and so Adam took on a nature that was aware of good and evil and was now inclined to sinning. This sin nature was passed onto Adam’s children as they inherited this nature from their father Adam as they all are of his bloodline. A bloodline corrupted by sin, this condition affects all mankind even now as all men die.
In order to be kept free from sin in his human body, Messiah had to be conceived completely through the Spirit of God. His body fashioned by the Holy Spirit and his bloodline completely new, so as to be free from the blemished bloodline of Adam. He is the Last Adam, the Son of Man. There were no sperm and egg involved in the conception of Jesus’ body. His conception is utterly miraculous, having been conceived solely by the Spirit of God. As such His body was made Holy. He was blemish-less from conception, unlike other humans who are conceived in sin. His body completely human and His inner person Divine and eternally pre-existing. He must have been fully aware of all things occurring across the universe even as a fetus in Mary’s womb. As a fetus being formed within her womb he was still God though He had taken on flesh. He humbled Himself to the point of taking on the human form from conception and being born into the world as a human child through his own creature and further obeying the Father to the point of death on a cross.
Romans 5:12-14
Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the Law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even as over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
So all humanity is born in sin, and is inclined to sin and is morally depraved from childhood (as is seen in the rebelliousness of even little children). But God in his surpassing excellency and glory shows himself to be merciful and exceedingly so. For in Christ we have been given the free gift of life everlasting.
Romans 5:15-
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgement following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Here the entire span of Jesus the Christ’s life on earth is summed up as one act of obedience. That being that the Father gave Him commandment to save his sheep and not lose any. And so in obedience he laid down his life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Through this act of obedience grace has been dispensed unto men at Christ’s expense. For he came to save; this is the grace of God. Our salvation came at the expense of his death. It cost Him his life to save us, towards us God’s grace is freely given. But Christ paid the price for it, he had to shed his blood. The blood through which we are redeemed. Grace; God’s goodness at Christ’s expense. This means that every moment of the Christian’s life is time purchased by God for all eternity. That means we are not our own but are Christ’s. For to be saved we are united with Him in his death. In faith in Him we are united with Him so that he bears our sins and dies in our place and baptism is a picture of this, a picture that has its roots in the bathing of the priests in the laver and in ritual cleanings found in Leviticus but has its fulfillment in Christ as does the whole sacrificial system itself. And because we are united with Him in his death, we are united with Him in his resurrection and he has poured in us The Spirit of Holiness and Grace. We too shall be glorified at the time God has chosen; when Christ shall call us up to Himself. And so through the death of Christ we are justified as the full penalty for our sins was born by Christ on the cross by his death. And so we are no longer guilty but are now counted as righteous. But our righteousness is not our own but is Christ’s. His obedience reveals His Righteousness, and the blood of our redemption cleanses us. Through union with Him, his righteousness becomes our righteousness. As such we no longer stand as guilty sinners before God, because of the blood of Christ that has cleansed us from all our sins and covers them; we now stand as saints, holy one’s before God in Christ.
Romans 6:3
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
Romans 6:5
For if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of death might be brought to nothing.
So through union with Christ redemption is granted and life given unto us. This is the teaching of the Lord’s supper and the communion. He gave his body to be broken for us and through His blood ratified the New Covenant and redeemed us. We have through faith in Him been united with Him, we are made into one body through faith in his sacrifice and through the Holy Spirit are united with Him in his resurrection; the Spirit gives us life. See Romans 8:10-11 on believers having the Spirit of God. Romans 8:15-17 speaks of believers being now adopted son’s of God and fellow heirs with Christ to whom the promises of God belong to as the seed of Abraham. And furthermore the creation which was subjected to futility awaits the manifestation of the sons of God at the return of Christ to reign on earth (see Romans 8:18-23). All these things and more are made possible through the obedience of Christ. He suffered greatly, he was Holy and innocent; God in human flesh. Yet he in grace suffered greatly that we may be saved, sanctified, glorified and live eternally in Him to the Glory of God the Father. These things, the suffering he would endure and the type of death he would have were spoken of before hands by the ancient prophets.
Isaiah cried of the suffering the Christ would endure saying
Isaiah 52:13-Isaiah 53
Behold my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind-so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which as not been told to them they will see; and that which they have not heard they will understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before Him as a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgression; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed. 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. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgement he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief, when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
The resounding theme of the passage above is the righteous servant suffering and bearing the guilt and sins of others, finally dying and then resurrecting and interceding on their behalf. God the Son became human in obedience to the will of the Father and as The Son of Man obeyed the Father’s commandment and died fulfilling the will of God. The man, Jesus Christ is the sole mediator, the only way to God the Father. His suffering is a suffering no man can comprehend. Utterly Holy and blameless, God over all yet he gave himself for our sins and suffered and died on our behalf. Those who perish in hell suffer there for their own sins which is Just. Jesus suffered not for his own sins, he had none. He suffered for our sins, and he invites us to join Him in his suffering. He was rejected by men, condemned though innocent, spat on and oppressed. The excellency and surpassing glory of Christ is seen in his life and sacrifice and his power and might are revealed clearly in His resurrection. The suffering servant of The LORD.
