Chapter 28
Effectual Atonement
"Yet
it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, 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: by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 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." Isaiah 53:10-12
What
happened at Calvary? Did the Lord Jesus Christ redeem his people from all
iniquity; or did he merely make men redeemable? Did he actually put away the
sins of his people; or did he merely make it possible for men’s sins to be put
away? Did the Lamb of God reconcile his people to God; or did he merely make
men reconcilable? Did he actually justify his people; or did he simply make it
possible for men to be justified? Did he effectually secure the salvation of
those for whom he died; or did he only make salvation a possibility for men?
Did the incarnate Son of God actually make atonement for sin by the shedding of
his blood; or did he just make a stab at it?
Isaiah 53 is a true,
divinely inspired, prophetic description of the sin-atoning sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ and its results. The inspired prophet declared, “He shall be satisfied.” “He,”
the Son of God, our glorious Substitute, our great Sin Offering, our divine
Savior, the one who died in our place at Calvary, “shall,” without a doubt,
without the possibility of hindrance, most assuredly, “be satisfied,” fully,
completely, eternally satisfied! He was satisfied with the terms of redemption
proposed to him as our Surety in the covenant of grace before the world was
made. He is satisfied with his purchased possession, his bride the Church. He
is satisfied with himself as a ransom price for the satisfaction of
justice. He shall be satisfied with us, his redeemed ones. Without question,
Isaiah’s words describe a complete, effectual redemption accomplished by
Jehovah’s Righteous Servant, our Substitute and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We
trust an undefeated and undefeatable Savior. It is written, “He shall not fail!” The Son of God can
never be frustrated in his purpose, defeated in his design, or hindered in his
work. Christ was not conquered at Calvary. He conquered. He did not die as the
helpless victim of circumstances. He died as the Lord of all things, the one
who rules all circumstances. And he will not be defeated in the end. “He shall see of the travail of his soul and
shall be satisfied!” The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be
discovered a miscarriage. The Lion of the tribe of Judah must prevail. The Word
of God universally proclaims the infallible efficacy of Christ’s atonement.
That which the Son of God accomplished at Calvary was an effectual atonement
for all the sins of God’s elect, which were imputed to him. I want to show you
from the Word of God the glorious, absolute, saving efficacy of Christ’s
atonement.
The
subject matter before us is a matter of utmost concern. The one thing that
characterizes every messenger of Satan is a denial of the efficacy of Christ’s
atonement. The one point of doctrine upon which all false prophets are agreed
is this - They all deny that every soul for whom Christ died shall be saved.
They may give lip service to Bible doctrine and Bible terms; but they deny the
very foundation of the gospel - Substitution. The modern day prophets of Baal preach a redemption that redeems no one, an atonement
that atones for nothing, and a salvation that saves no one. They preach
possibility redemption, possibility atonement, possibility grace, and
possibility salvation.
Today
we are told that the sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ does not, in
itself, secure the salvation of anyone; but that it only makes salvation
possible for everyone. We are told that the blood of Christ becomes effectually
operative by man’s faith, by man deciding to believe on Jesus, by the act of
man’s great free will. Nonsense! Such
doctrine is utter blasphemy and heresy! The notion of universal redemption is
totally contrary to everything revealed in Holy Scripture.
In
this study, we will confine ourselves to these three verses of Holy Scripture,
looking at each verse line by line. This passage of Holy Scripture, in harmony
with the entire Volume of Inspiration, talks not about a frustrated Christ, but
a satisfied Christ. Christ is not our helper. He is our Savior. He is not an
accomplice in salvation, but the Accomplisher of
salvation.
“Yet, it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put
him to grief.”
Our
Savior died by the hand of God, according to the will of God, for the glory of
God. Though our Lord Jesus Christ “knew
no sin,” the Lord God was pleased to bruise him in the place of sinners for
sin. We recognize that our Redeemer was crucified by the hands of wicked men;
but he was delivered to their hands by the will of God (Acts 2:23); and those
wicked men did nothing but that which God himself had purposed and “determined before to be done” (Acts
4:27-28). The death of Christ was not an accident, or after thought. The death
of Christ was in the mind and heart of God from everlasting (Rev. 13:8). The
eye of faith looks beyond the malice of the Jews, the weakness of Pilate, and
the Roman cross, and traces the death of Christ back to its original source, to
the heart of God himself (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10).
The Lord Jesus Christ died
according to the purpose, decree, and will of God (1 Pet. 1:18-21; Acts
13:28-29). We do not, we dare not, impute to God the sin and guilt of the
crime. Wicked men did exactly what they wanted to do. God did not force them to
act as they did. But he did absolutely govern and control their actions and use
them to accomplish his own purpose of grace toward his elect. Not a single
action, circumstance, or pain involved in the Savior’s death came to pass
except by the decree of God our Father. This is a foundation truth of Holy
Scripture. See that you hold it firmly. - God Almighty has written a book of
sovereign and absolute predestination (Rev. 5:1).
“Chained to His throne a
volume lies
With all the fates of men,
With every angel’s form and
size
Drawn by the eternal pen.”
Nothing escapes the will, purpose, decree, and power
of God. Everything that comes to pass in time was ordained by God in eternity.
You may be sure that God Almighty, who feeds the sparrows, clothes the lilies,
and numbers the hairs of our heads, left nothing to chance or circumstance
regarding the life and death of his dear Son.
The
death of Christ is the very core of predestination. It is the center and
mainspring upon which God fashioned all his other purposes. It is the
foundation upon which the structure of God’s decrees was built. Jesus Christ is
“the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world”, because “it pleased the
LORD to bruise him.” Long before there was a sinner, God provided a Savior.
Before the sheep went astray, God made Christ our Shepherd. Before we fell in
the first Adam, we stood in the last Adam. Before ever we broke God’s law,
Christ was our ransom. Before we became polluted, Christ was our cleansing
Fountain. Long before we incurred the debt of sin, Christ stood as our Surety
to pay our debt. Before we were cursed by the law, Christ was our Redeemer. And
before ever we died, Christ was our Resurrection and our Life!
The Son of God was sent into
the world to die for us because the Lord God loved us with an everlasting love
(Jer. 31:3; John 3:16; 13:1; 1 John 3:16; 4:9-10). God the Father loved us and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God the Son loved us and came
to die in our place. “He loved me and
gave himself for me.” God the Holy Spirit loved us and formed the holy
humanity of Christ in the womb of the virgin to be a sacrifice for our sins
(Heb 10:5).
The Son of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ, came into this world to die in order to accomplish his Father’s
will. In the fullness of time God the Father took his dear Son from his bosom
and freely delivered him up for us all. “Herein
is love!” The offended Judge took his own holy Son, whom he dearly loved,
and gave him up to suffer the pains of hell to accomplish the redemption of our
souls, in order to save traitors and rebels who would never love him in return,
except he create love in us.
Yet, the Lord Jesus was not
a forced substitute. The Lord of Glory voluntarily laid down his life for us as
our Substitute. “It pleased the LORD to
bruise him;” but we must not forget that he is the Lord God who did the
bruising as well as the one bruised. Christ was not a forced Surety but a
willing one, a willing Servant, a willing Savior, a willing Substitute, and a
willing Sacrifice (Ps. 40:6-7; Pro. 8:23-31; Isa. 50:5-7; John 10:17; Heb.
10:5-14; 12:2).
Still, the unutterable agony
of Christ’s death upon the cross was inflicted upon him by his Father’s own
hand. We read of the terrible agonies he endured in Psalm 22 as he hung upon
the cross, suffering the wrath of God. Those woes were aggravated by the fact
that it was the Father’s hand that was turned upon his dear Son in wrath, and
that at the very height of his obedience! “It
pleased the LORD to bruise him.” Oh, how he bruised him!
Our Savior died a very
violent death. His death could not be by natural causes. He died as our penal
Substitute. As a penal Substitute, he
had to die as a slain victim, as a sacrifice. Immanuel
died a terribly painful death, tormented in body and in soul. He was
mercilessly beaten and barbarically crucified. He was
forsaken by his friends and mocked of men. He was made to be sin, and forsaken
by his Father. Why did he suffer so? Because justice must be satisfied if
redemption is accomplished. There was no other way for the holy Lord God to be
both “a just God and a Savior” (Isa.
45:20).
Our Redeemer died a horribly
ignominious, shameful death. He “endured
the cross, despising the shame.” He was slaughtered as a shameful man, a
common malefactor. And he died in a shameful condition, stripped naked before
men and nailed to the cursed tree as a cursed man. The Son of God died a
specifically cursed death. It is written, “Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree.”
Our great Savior died a
slow, lingering death. Others gradually grew weaker as they suffered. He was
full of life to the end. Others were given gall and myrrh to stupefy their
senses. He was given gall and vinegar to intensify his pains. In all his pains
and agonies there were none to help, not even a sympathetic soul to look upon
him with pity.
Because
he loved us with an everlasting love, because he purposed to save us for the
glory of his own great name, because he was resolved to be gracious to us, “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath
put him to grief!”
“When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.”
Why did the Lord of glory endure such a death
as this? The Lord God bruised his Son and put him to grief upon the cursed tree
because he made “his soul an offering for
sin.” Christ died as he did, he had to die as he did, so that he might be a
suitable Substitute and Sin Offering to God for his people. Here are four
reasons for the crucifixion, four reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ died the
painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross.
1. Christ died the death of the
cross because he must bear the curse of the law in his death if he would save
us (Gal. 3:13; Deut. 21:22-23).
2. The Lord Jesus died the
horrid death of the cross to fulfill the Old Testament types as a sin offering.
Those sacrifices were always lifted up upon an altar before God. The brazen
serpent was lifted up on a pole. Even so, God’s great sin offering, the true
sin offering had to be lifted up (Num. 19:9; John 3:13; 12:32).
3. Our Savior died as he did
upon the cursed tree to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies concerning his
death (Ps. 22:16-17; Zech. 12:10).
4. The Lord Jesus endured the
death of the cross for us, as our Substitute, that God might be both just and
the Justifier of all who trust him (Rom. 3:24-26; Ps. 85:10-11; Pro. 16:7; Isa.
45:20).
God has no pleasure in the
death of the wicked. Should all the world suffer the wrath of God forever in
hell, justice could never be satisfied. Yet “It
pleased the LORD to bruise him.” By Christ’s one great sacrifice for sin,
the holy Lord God was pleased, his justice completely satisfied.
Beginning
with the next sentence and going through the rest of the chapter, Isaiah shows
us what the certain, just, and inevitable results of Christ’s death must be. Do
not ever think that the results of our Lord’s death are uncertain. The
Arminian, the freewiller must say, “There are no sure
and certain results of Christ’s death. Everything is left to chance. Everything
depends upon what man will do. Everything is determined by man’s will.”
Blasphemy! In these next lines God the Holy Spirit tells us exactly what the
results of Christ’s death must and shall be. “He shall not fail!” Our Lord’s death was not a gamble, a
crap-shoot. He effectually accomplished all that he came here to do. Here we
see the infallible efficacy of Christ’s atonement.
“He shall see his seed.”
We do not have to guess who his seed is. His
seed is the generation (Ps. 22:30) that shall serve him, the whole body of
God’s elect. He see them, everyone of them, justified, sanctified, and
glorified (John 12:24, 32).
“He shall prolong his days.”
That
simply means that, once he had by his death fully satisfied the justice of God
and put away the sins of his people, he was raised from the dead to declare in
the most public, undeniable manner possible that all for whom he died are
forever justified (Rom. 4:25). Being raised from the dead, he was exalted and
glorified to give eternal life to all his redeemed ones (John 17:2; Rom. 14:9;
Phil. 2:8-11).
“And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his
hand.”
Pay
attention to that word “shall.”
Everything that God wants done shall be done by the risen, exalted,
glorified Christ. All the pleasure of God’s eternal purpose is being and shall
fully be accomplished by King Jesus (Rev. 10:1; Rom. 8:28-31).
“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall
be satisfied.”
There
is that word “shall” again. Twice it
is given in this sentence. The Holy Spirit intends for us to understand that
there is absolutely no uncertainty about what the consequences of Christ’s
atonement are. As I said before, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never
be discovered a miscarriage. This text is talking about a satisfied Savior, not
a frustrated assistant. When the Word of God talks about the satisfaction of
Christ, it is talking about two things: Christ making satisfaction and Christ
being satisfied. By his one offering for sin, our Redeemer has completely satisfied
the law and justice of God (Gal. 3:13; 1 John 1:9). By his sin-atoning death,
as our Substitute, our Savior satisfied all types, shadows, and prophecies of
the Old Testament Scriptures.
The crucified Christ
presented to sinners in the gospel satisfies all the demands of a guilty
conscience, all the needs of a convicted sinner, and all the desires of a
renewed heart (Heb. 9:12-14; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; Ps. 73:25-26; Phil. 3:7-14). And
the Son of God shall be satisfied with his ransomed people. Our Redeemer shall
be satisfied with the results of his sin-atoning work as our Substitute. He
shall be satisfied because they all shall be saved, satisfied because they
shall be perfectly saved (Eph. 5:25-27; Isa. 62:5).
He was satisfied with his
work when it was done. He is satisfied with the reward of his obedience - His
Exaltation and Glory (Phil. 2:8-12). He is satisfied with his present position
and work as our great High Priest (I John 2:1-2). The Son of God shall be
satisfied when he sees his seed, all his seed saved, completely saved (John
6:37-40), called by his Spirit, converted by his grace, and at last conformed
to his image. He shall be satisfied in the day of the great and glorious
resurrection day (1 Cor. 15:51-58). In the day of judgment he will say to all
his ransom ones, “Come ye, blessed,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” In
that great day, he will present all his ransomed ones before the presence of
the glory of the triune God in perfect holiness, unblameable
and unreproveable (1 Cor. 15:24-28). Then, our great
Savior shall be satisfied, in the marriage supper of the Lamb, with the
everlasting blessedness of his people and the everlasting praise of his own
great name (Rev. 4:11-12; 5:9-14).
Nothing
will satisfy Christ short of the complete salvation of his people (Matt. 1:21).
Nothing will satisfy the believer’s heart short of perfect, complete conformity
to Christ (Phil. 3:10). And both Christ and his saints shall be satisfied. I am
certain that this is the meaning of the phrase, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied,” because
that is what the next phrase declares.
“By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”
All
the many whose iniquities Christ bore on the tree shall be (There’s that word
again -- “shall”.) justified, and
they shall be justified by his knowledge. Perhaps that means by the knowledge
of him; but I prefer to stick with our translation. Christ shall justify his
elect according to his knowledge of the merits of his death and his knowledge
of those for whom he died (John 10:14, 27-28).
"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."
Here the prophet summarizes
all that he has said concerning the glorious, infallible efficacy of Christ’s
redeeming work as our Substitute. Here is a declaration of Christ’s exaltation
and glory. -- "Therefore will I
divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong.” Here are the reasons for his exaltation and glory. The Lord Jesus
Christ is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high because his work is
finished and his work was and is a complete success.
·
“He hath poured out his soul
unto death!”
·
“He was numbered with the
transgressors!”
·
“He bare the sin of many!”
·
“He made intercession for
the transgressors!”
This he did “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, all the blessings which were
stipulated in the everlasting covenant, between him and the Father, to be given
to his people in consequence of his sufferings and death.” – (John Gill)
The specific matter of our
Savior’s intercession is given in John 17:9, 20-24. The Lord Jesus made
intercession for us before the world began. He made intercession for us in the
garden. He made intercession for us on the cross. He makes intercession for us
today in heaven (I John 2:1-2; Rom. 8:33-34; Heb. 7:24-25; 9:24). And our
Redeemer’s intercession is effectual. “He
shall not fail!”