Son of God

Introduction

We are taking a closer look at fundamental truths we believe that make us who we are as Christians. We began our journey looking at God. God is a big topic and a mysterious one, especially as we have been considering His Triune nature… three and yet one. All distinct and yet the same being. So far, we’ve been focusing mainly on the Father. Today, we turn our attention to the Son, Jesus Christ. It would be very easy for us to focus on passages in the gospels that tell us who Jesus is, and indeed, I would highly recommend every believer to familiarize themselves with what the Gospel says. It is our primary introduction to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. But did you know, the Old Testament speaks of Him as well?

We’ve already mentioned that Jesus was at work in creation. John 1 talks about Jesus as the Word of God and God spoke creation into existence. But that is not the only time we see Jesus in the Old Testament. There are many prophecies that predict His coming in incredible detail. But main passage I would like for us to focus on today is Isaiah 53… actually starting in chapter 52.

Believing in Jesus as the Son of God is an essential component of our faith, but before we dive much deeper into the topic, what do we do about those who deny this? If someone challenges us on our stance on Jesus, how will we respond? It’s hard for anyone to deny that Jesus of Nazareth existed, but how do we stand up to the argument that He was just a man, or a great moral teacher, but nothing more? I came across a quote by C.S. Lewis that might help us out here, so please listen and take note, you never know when such information will come in handy.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool; you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1960, pp. 40–41).

John MacArthur, John: Jesus—The Word, the Messiah, the Son of God, MacArthur Bible Studies (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2000), 9.

I appreciate how C.S. Lewis has completely eliminated a neutral stance on who Jesus Christ is. We follow Jesus as the Son of God and so we know what He did, why He did it. We know that His moral teachings were part of His discipleship process for those who would follow. But He had several divine claims that don’t mix with a good moral teacher unless they are true. You cannot claim to be the Son of God and be a good moral teacher unless you are in fact the Son of God, and only Jesus could make that claim.

So, what is the big idea for this message? What is the main take away that I want us to discover through examination of the Word of God? Jesus is the Son of God and He saves us from our sins! The two parts of that statement are completely interconnected and learning about it is how we better learn to share the good news (Gospel) of why Jesus came! Let’s dive into the Word this morning. Please open your Bibles to Isaiah 52:13-15. For those that might not be aware, Isaiah’s active ministry would have been somewhere between 740-700 B.C. The book of Isaiah then would have been written around that time… some 700 years before Jesus physically walked the earth!

Repulsive but Exalted

Isaiah 52:13–15 NIV

See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness— so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.

There are a few passages scattered throughout Isaiah that describe a Suffering Servant. What we are looking at today is one such passage and I hope that even from what little we have just read, you are beginning to understand that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this prophecy.

The Son of God is one who is to be highly exalted and praised. And yet despite His status as being worthy of all respect, dignity and honor, instead, He comes as something other.

It is interesting to consider what any picture of Jesus might look like. The portrayals that we see in media and movies is of a handsom fellow with a beard and long hair. Of course, no picture exists of the actual Son of God. He did not pose for a painting or a sculpture. Rather, these are artistic imaginings of what Jesus might look like. Isaiah paints a very different picture of Jesus than we might see in media doesn’t he? “His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.” Continue to watch for the physical descriptions of this Suffering Servant as we walk through the following passages.

But here we see that even though his appearance is marred… a word that ought to make us think that this is not some natural feature but something that was done to Him to disfigure Him, and He will “sprinkle” many nations. One of the things that you will hear me say when I am talking about Jesus is that His sacrifice on the cross is the fulfillment of Old Testament sacrificial rituals. Often these rituals involved the sprinkling of blood. Jesus’ blood was shed on the cross and in the events leading up to it… events that would have marred Him significantly. While no priest would have dipped his fingers in Jesus’ blood and sprinkled it , that blood would have been shed in a fashion that it would have gotten everywhere. Leviticus 16:14-15 describes this practice.

Leviticus 16:14–15 NASB95

“Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. “Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.

Despised but Arm of the Lord

Isaiah 53:1–3 NIV

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Here again we see more descriptions of the physical appearance of the suffering servant. Jesus was despised. His appearance was such that people would hide their faces and people wouldn’t even look at him. Despite being the Son of God, “He has no stately form or majesty.” And yet He is the Arm of the Lord! I came across a quote that says about this topic:

“The “arm of the LORD” represents his awesome power, yet in this context it speaks of the infinitely mysterious frailty of the incarnate Son of God, whose seeming weakness in death was the most powerful thing that has ever occurred in human history.”

Andrew M. Davis, Exalting Jesus in Isaiah (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 319–320.

It is interesting to note that Jesus’ appearance really did lead to various troubles. He looked like any other person. He was a “normal” Jewish man living in the area at the time and yet His teachings hinted at His divine nature. John 10:33 describes this somewhat.

John 10:33 NASB95

The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

John further points to Jesus’ rejection in the introduction to His gospel.

John 1:11 NASB95

He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

Despite His rejection, He is still the Son of God who brought about the Will of God in powerful and mighty ways, fulfilling the plans God had for Him from the very beginning of time!

Rejected but Atoning

Isaiah 53:4–6 NIV

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

This passage sounds familiar doesn’t it? It comes out around Christmas time every year, and perhaps again around Easter because it beautifully summarizes what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Perhaps we need to do better to remind ourselves that this passage was written 700 years before its fulfillment.

Even if you weren’t familiar with this passage, there is a good chance that if someone were to read it to you without giving you the reference, that you would mistakingly guess that it belongs in the New Testament. Let’s walk through this passage together.

Bearing our griefs and our sorries, Jesus sets himself apart from the rest of humanity. Perhaps because we see Him carry our pains, or perhaps because of the physical descriptions previously given, we don’t look on Him positively. We assume much like Job’s friends, that God is afflicting Him for something. Little do we realize that it is for our sakes that He is like this. He is pierced for our transgressions. How much more explicit of a fulfilment of prophecy could Jesus’ crucifixion be than to be nailed to that cross? He is crushed for our iniquities. He is chastened so that we would be alright. He is scourged so that we would be healed. He takes the punishment on our behalf and thus atones for our sins.

Isaiah then alludes to all of us being like sheep who have wandered off… a common metaphor used throughout scripture, but particularly be Jesus Himself. He is the Good Shepherd, and we are the sheep that wander away. He is punished because of our disobedience.

Slaughtered but Innocent

Isaiah 53:7–9 NIV

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah’s portrait of the Suffering Servant is not yet done. Despite the disfigured and marred appearance, it was all for the purpose of sacrifice. Verse 7 talksa bout His oppression and His affliction, but notice that he makes the analogy to a lamb being led to slaughter. The Servant keeps his mouth shut and does not speak. Despite all that is being hurled at Him and done to Him, even in this most dire of circumstance, the man does not sin but stays silent. “By oppression and judgment Hew asa taken away” even though He was the most innocent man to ever live. He was violently cut out from the land of the living so that something significant could happen. One commentary says it this way:

““Oppressed and afflicted” describes the single greatest display of human injustice in all history. Yet amazingly, it is also the greatest display of God’s justice in all history:...

In other words: God would rather slaughter his own beloved Son than allow guilty sinners like us into heaven unatoned for! There has never been a greater display of God’s justice in all history, nor of humanity’s injustice.”

Andrew M. Davis, Exalting Jesus in Isaiah (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 321.

We know many details about Jesus’ death and burrial, not to mention His resurrection. We know that He was crucified between two sinners sentenced to die. “His grave was assigned with wicked men.” We know that Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man and somewhat of a secret follower of Jesus who laid Jesus in his own tomb (see John 19:38-41) “Yet He was with a rich man in His death.”

It is no wonder why this passage gets mistaken for being in the New Testament… and yet was written 700 years earlier.

Crushed for Justification

Isaiah 53:10–12 NIV

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

This last part of chapter 53 is intriguing. The LORD is pleased to see this Suffering servant crushed. But notice the purpose behind it. Verse ten indicates that if He offers Himself as a guilt offering, His days will be prolonged and He will see His offspring. We can’t ignore the fact that Jesus had no children and so we must ask ourselves, what this might mean? Perhaps it has to do with the nature of discipleship and passing the message from one generation to the next. Or perhaps it has to do with how the Bible speaks about Christians being part of the family of God… how through Christ, we are adopted into the family of God. There is more to dig into here and more possibilities to explore, but for the sake of time, we will cut our discussion short knowing that even though there is a mention of offspring for the suffering servant in Isaiah, this does not negate its strong connection and fulfillment in the life and ministry of Christ. One thing that rises out throught his part of the passage is that the Lord is pleased with this Servant despite Him being pleased to crush Him.

Somethign else that jumps out at me as I take another look at verse 11 is the connection between what He accomplishes by going through all the terrible things He did and the justification He secures through it all. The last half of verse 11 says: “… My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”

And again verse 12 reiterates it all. “He Himself bore the sins of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”

Conclusion

As I bring this message to a close, I want to ask each of us whether it feels as though we have spent time looking at an Old Testament passage or not. From a human perspective with human reasoning, does this passage sound like it was written some seven hundred years before Christ would fulfill it? Or does it feel like it might have been written around the same time as the gospels were being penned?

This is not to cast doubt on the authorship or date of the writing of Isaiah, as some might think. Rather this ought to create within us a sense of awe and wonder at how God can work all things in such a way that it all lined up so perfectly in the life and ministry of Christ. It should give us a sense of security being able to trust in the fact that God’s plan was there from the beginning and all we needed to do was trust that He will take care of things and make it all happen according to His good purposes.

By the same token, seeing this passage fulfilled after seven hundred years should give us assurances of God’s continued promises of Jesus’ return! Even though it feels like it has been a long time, we need to be vigilant because the promise made is that Christ will come soon and He will come suddenly. We need to be prepared! But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself and am working into topics we will yet dive into in this series of messages on the basic doctrines of what we believe.