Wednesday Bible Study on Isaiah 53

July 26, 2017

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

Many Gentiles will believe in Him but few Jews.  Or in our case, many unbelievers will believe in Him but few Christians.  We Christians are the ones who were baptized as infants.  We have the Holy Scriptures since our youth.  We have the pure Divine Service for the faithful preaching and teaching of the pure Gospel and the proper administration/distribution the sacraments.  So among us Lutherans, “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?”  It goes against reason that trusting Christ in such ordinary and despised forms we should be saved from temporal and eternal death.  So we look for concrete actions and results.  The new term “missional’ is replacing the older term “church growth.”  God Himself has written a book that we might believe in His name and that by believing we might have eternal life (John 20:231).

2 For he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

Fascinating that Jesus grew up before God the Father.  Jesus did not grow up before the world.  The world did not see it.  He grew like a root growing underground.  In fact, the Christ is repulsive.  It is as if He had a cultic theology and even a failure in worldly endeavors who was rightly put to death for His own sins.  But this is not true of Him.  

3 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.

We turn away from Him when we present Him as Someone other than who is He is.  For example, the Jews and Islam and even the Pope would agree the Christ is a great teacher.  But they would also agree that the Christ did not atone for our sins but for His own sins.  

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

The Christ did not suffer and die for His sins but ours.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,

John the Baptist summed this up by calling Him the “Lamb of God” as a proper understanding of the Levitical sacrifice for all.  So there are no good works of our that give us the forgiveness of sins.  The Roman Mass to this day is called the “Unbloody Sacrifice” made by priests and behalf of the people to God.  The “Frontier Revivals” of the 19th century and the “Comtemporary/Missional Worship” of the 20th century and today are sacrifices to God in the same vein.  It is even one thing to preach and teach and practice that Christ is the only resource we have for forgiveness, it is hard for us to believe it in the quiet of our homes.  However, if we retain the article of doctrine that “Jesus Christ is the Savior” then the other articles of the Holy Spirit and the church and the Holy Scriptures will fall into place.  So that fact is that Christ is the atoning sacrifice and the purpose is for our forgiveness.  Islam and Romans proclaim the fact (Christ died for sin) but deny the function (for our forgiveness).   Enthusiasts (those who look outside of Scripture or reject Scripture to find God) deny both the fact and the function.

he was bruised for our iniquities:

Christ work compares to your work like the Pacific Ocean compares to burning match.  The PO will easily extinguish the match but the match will never evaporate the PO.

Thus a certain hermit who was extremely harassed by Satan could not evade him, but said: “I have not sinned. Everybody must look upon his conscience as free.” He did not answer well because he did have sin. This is what he should have said: “My sins have been transferred to Christ; He has them.” This is the grafting of the wild olive into the olive tree. ….. Hence a Christian man must be especially vexed in his conscience and heart by Satan, and yet he must remain in the Word and not seek peace anywhere else than in Christ. We must not make a log or a rock out of the Christian as one who does not feel sin in himself. This is the claim of the exceedingly spiritual Enthusiasts…..Hence a Christian man must be especially vexed in his conscience and heart by Satan, and yet he must remain in the Word and not seek peace anywhere else than in Christ. We must not make a log or a rock out of the Christian as one who does not feel sin in himself. This is the claim of the exceedingly spiritual Enthusiasts. -Luther

the chastisement of our peace was upon him

Peter treats this passage (1 Peter 2:24). Christ is not so much a judge and an angry God but one who bears and carries our sins, a mediator.    - Note the wonderful exchange; One man sins, another pays the penalty; one deserves peace, the other has it. The one who should have peace has chastisement, while the one who should have chastisement has peace. It is a difficult thing to know what Christ is. Would that our Enthusiasts saw this clearly!  -Luther

and with his stripes we are healed.

Hence this is what we must say to the Christian: “If you want to be healed, do not look at your own wounds, but fix your gaze on Christ.” - Luther

6 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.

This is the supreme and chief article of faith, that our sins, placed on Christ, are not ours; again, that the peace is not Christ’s but ours...Summary: The head of self-righteousness must be lopped off. I grant that the works of the godly are good and right, but they do not justify…  Here, however, we have the punishment of our sins on Christ Himself. In public life, however, if anyone sins openly, let him be punished by the magistrate.  - Luther

1 A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, The guilt of all men bearing;  'Tis laden with the sin of earth, None else the burden sharing;  It goes its way, grows weak and faint, To slaughter led without complaint, Its spotless life to offer; Bears shame, and stripes, and wounds, and death, Anguish and mockery, and saith, "Willing all this I suffer."