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There is truth here which is very difficult for us to grapple with. We find it so difficult to reconcile this purpose of God with the freewill of the Jews to put Jesus to death. However this is what Peter declares to us. It was God’s purpose that Jesus should suffer and die, yet at the same time the Jews were under no compulsion from God to do their wicked act, but expressed the free choice of their sinful nature. These two seeming irreconcilable truths we must hold together and believe humbly.

What we do learn is the true nature of the freewill we possess as fallen human beings. When God created Adam and Eve he gave them free choice. They were created holy and free from all evil. Indeed they did not know evil. But in this condition they had a choice whether to give their allegiance to God or the devil, and they freely chose to give their allegiance to Satan. This choice is our inheritance as human beings. We are fallen creatures. We are dead towards God when we are born into this world. We have a nature which has a bias towards evil. We are still free to make whatever choice we chose, but our choice will always be governed by our fallen nature. We are unable to chose God because our nature is against God. So we are free but not free. We make choices freely but our nature determines the direction of those choices. For salvation and life we are dependent on the sovereign and gracious will of God. It is this sovereign and gracious will of God that is before us in our text from Isaiah.

THE LORD’S WILL

Here is the sovereign grace of God towards us in our lost and sinful condition. From all eternity God purposed to reach down in grace, to sinners such as we are, in saving love. This reaching down in love is expressed in this purpose to crush the servant and cause him to suffer.

Because this was the only way God could provide a way we may be forgiven and accepted, God was ready to inflict suffering and pain on his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the counsel of the Holy Trinity this gracious salvation was discussed. God the Father spoke of his determination in love to save sinners who could not do anything to save themselves, and were not worthy even to be saved. God spoke in this counsel of the only means that salvation could be provided, and that was for the second person of the Trinity, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to come into this world and take our nature upon him and suffer and die in our place, accepting the pain and suffering we deserve. The second person of the Godhead, the eternal Word, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, agreed to carry out this gracious and loving will of the Father, and suffer all the pain and suffering we human’s deserve. So in obedience to the Father, Jesus was incarnate of the virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified, dead and buried, and rose again victorious on the third day. The Holy Spirit in this counsel of the Godhead, agreed to be the agent to enable and strengthen the Son for this task, and then to apply this salvation to sinners in sovereign grace. It is because of this purpose of God, and this obedience of the Son, and this sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit, that we who believe and receive salvation and eternal life, are saved and raised to life. We believe by the grace of God sovereignly and freely bestowed.

HIS LIFE A GUILT OFFERING

In the giving of Jesus to suffering, God made Jesus a guilt offering. The suffering of Jesus was a purposeful suffering. Jesus was suffering as a sacrifice for sin.

All through the Old Testament the Jews had before them the fact that God had laid down that the only way they could approach him was by sacrifice. This truth was powerfully set before them by the sacrificial system which was at the heart of their religion.

The Jew was told that he or she had to bring a sacrifice of a perfect animal, and offer it to God in sacrificial death as an offering for their sin. The symbolism was plain. They had to lay their hand on the victim as a recognition of their sin, and the transference of their sin to the victim. The victim was then slaughtered on the altar and sacrificed to God by fire. By this the Jew was taught that until their sin was dealt with and forgiven they could not be accepted into the favour of God. By this the Jew learnt that the victim became their substitute and was dying on account of their sin in their place. The animal was made responsible for the sin of the worshipper and took the penalty for the worshipper’s sin.

These animal sacrifices never took away sin, but they did point to the Lamb provided by God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here in our text we are told of the grace of God. God made Jesus, the Servant of God, a guilt offering. His life was the guilt offering, and that means that his life was given by God as the life which would be given in death to atone for the sin of the world. By this act of making Jesus a sin offering, God imputed to Jesus all our sin and evil. God made Jesus responsible for all our sin. Then God appointed that Jesus would die on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, and receive the just punishment for our sin in our place. In this way God satisfied the demands of his holiness, and his law was totally satisfied, so that God would be just when he forgave the sin of all those who trust in Jesus as their sin bearer.

Here is the wonderful sovereign gracious love of God. This act of imputing our sin to Jesus was on no other ground than God’s grace. There is nothing in us that prompted God to do this incredible act of love in giving his Son. We are totally unlovable in ourselves. God determined to love us out of pure sovereign grace. Nor was there any merit in us which demanded that God should reward us in any way. We are nothing but sinners before him, and those who have fallen short of his glory. It was God’s sovereign love that imputed our guilt to Jesus, and made him a guilt offering to die in our place.

HE WILL SEE HIS OFFSPRING

Though God imputed our sin to Jesus and condemned him to death for our sin, there was no doubt as to the outcome. The suffering of Jesus was only too real. All the terrible pain and suffering due against sin, Jesus accepted and suffered when he died on the cross. There was no least bit of the punishment for sin he did not take and suffer. However in all this suffering there was no doubt about his success in paying the total price for our sin.

If we had to suffer our own punishment, our death would in no way ever atone for our sin, so the punishment would remain for all eternity, and the suffering would be eternal. The death of Jesus was and is of infinite value, and his suffering equaled all the suffering that every sinner deserves, and he took the whole of that deserved suffering completely. When we read in this verse in Isaiah that the Servant would prolong his days, we have expressed this victory of Jesus. Jesus died for the sin of the world, but he could not remain in death and suffering, because he exhausted that suffering, and satisfied the whole of God’s justice, and he prolonged his days, because God testified to this complete atonement by raising Jesus from the dead. Jesus died, but he rose and so prolonged his days. Jesus lived again.

Here is the wonder of God’s eternal purpose. He gave his Son to suffer the most awful suffering, but there was no doubt about the victory. Not only did Jesus rise victorious and so prolonged his days, but he saw, according to this prophecy, his offspring.

Who are the offspring of the Servant prophesied here. It is none other than the redeemed. All those who believe by God’s sovereign grace, and have their sin cancelled and washed away by the sacrificial blood of Christ’s atoning death are his offspring. The believer is the offspring spoken of here. See how certain was the outcome. Here in this wonderful prophecy, it was declared as a certainty that Jesus would win salvation for his people, and Jesus would see us redeemed, the fruit of his saving work.

THE LORD’S WILL PROSPERING IN THE SERVANTS HAND

Here is declared the triumphant outcome of the will of God in crushing the His Servant.

Isaiah was foretelling the suffering of Christ. He was foretelling it over 400 years before Jesus became incarnate and suffered on the cross. Yet still the triumphant outcome was declared and foretold. There was never any doubt about the victory. Satan all down history sought to prevent the Saviour being born. He perverted the Jews from Jehovah, yet God preserved a remnant according to his grace, and the Saviour was born in Bethlehem. Then Satan sought to kill the Christ child through Herod, but God preserved the child from this attack. Then Satan assaulted Jesus with temptation at the beginning of his ministry, but Jesus routed the evil one and he had to leave Jesus. All through Jesus’ ministry the devil moved the Jews to oppose him and try to kill him. Then Satan thought he had won when he moved the Jews to accuse Jesus and get him condemned to be crucified. But in this we see that Jesus was always in control. He could have escaped the cross at any time, but he surrendered himself to it, because it was the will of God. In what the devil thought was Christ’s defeat, Jesus won the complete victory over Satan. Jesus defeated death and rose again, having made a full atonement for sin. Satan now had no more hold on Christ’s believing people. The strong man, Satan, had been overcome by the stronger than the strong man, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

All this was foretold here by Isaiah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The will of God for our redemption prospered in the hands of Jesus, and full redemption was accomplished by Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Here is the triumph of sovereign grace. Sovereign grace paid the ultimate cost. God died to save his people. Let us rejoice in this prophecy which speaks to us of a triumphant God, and a victorious Saviour, and the full accomplishment of the planned redemption of God. Here is our assurance and eternal salvation in Christ.