Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 52:7-15, Isaiah 53:1-12, Hebrews 2:9-10, 1 Peter 2:24

One thing makes Christianity stand out from all other world religions: our deity suffered to save us. If you, like me, have been around the gospel message since childhood, then it is so easy to spout phrases like “Jesus died for our sins” without feeling or considering any of their outrageous import. And at no time in history has it ever made more sense for the one doing the saving to be the sacrifice. It has always been astounding and confounding. 

Isaiah’s prophecy told the people of Israel about their future Messiah.

He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from; 
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
—Isaiah 53:2–3

When they heard this, it likely seemed just as backward to them as it does to us now. Saviors conquer. Saviors are noble and mighty. Saviors save. They are not weak and unimpressive. It’s no wonder that Jesus’s contemporaries overlooked Him and couldn’t see Him as the fulfillment of this prophecy. 

But Isaiah went even further. It wasn’t just that this Savior was unimpressive. He was to suffer. This wasn’t just an act of self-sacrifice on behalf of people. It was God’s intended purpose to provide salvation. The servant of Isaiah was the Savior because He suffered.

Yet the LORD was pleased to crush him severely.
When you make him a guilt offering,
he will see his seed, he will prolong his days,
and by his hand, the LORD’s pleasure will be accomplished. 
—Isaiah 53:10

And lest we mute or dilute these texts, the Savior didn’t merely suffer, but He tasted death (Hebrews 2:9) and “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1Peter 2:24). And he did so willingly and without complaining so that by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). This is diametrically opposite to earthly victory. We understand self-sacrifice for the sake of others, but that is measured in what it will cost and the value of the outcome. It is generally remembered somberly, not celebrated in victory. But Jesus did take pleasure in this kind of victory.

Therefore I will give him the many as a portion,
and he will receive the mighty as spoil. 
—Isaiah 53:12

You and I, as believers, are the spoils of victory. Our salvation was earned by suffering. And our Savior died and lived again, unlike any other Savior there has ever been or ever will be. 

Written by Barnabas Piper