He Knew What Was Coming!

Isaiah 53:7-9

John 15:13

If you are familiar with the OT background of prescribed animal sacrifices, you will note that the crucifixion of Jesus was very different. Hebrews 10 tells us, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The sacrifice of Jesus was the sacrifice of a human, not an animal. But not just a human, but a perfect person who had lived life fulfilling all righteousness – so by active obedience, God could impute to redeemed sinners such as us His righteousness. Not just a perfect human, but the very Son of God who could experience the eternal wrath of God for all of those whom He intended to save.

But what really stands out in our passage this morning that makes the sacrifice of Christ so unique is his willing, voluntary, silent submission to that act of sacrifice – knowing full well the entirety of what was involved. The slaughtered lamb did not choose its death. The slaughtered lamb did not understand what lay ahead of it as it blindly followed the rest of the flock to the butcher’s knife. But our Lord Jesus, the precious Lamb of God, set his face resolutely to go to Jerusalem, fully understanding what lay ahead on the cross. Not just the experience of a violent, barbaric, grotesque, publicly humiliating death … but the unleashing of the full wrath of God against him because he died in our place to pay the penalty for sins that we deserved to pay. He would cry out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me”

This is just a little of what Jesus endured for you and me, and to a contemporary society, it makes absolutely no sense. How and why would an innocent person willingly die for something they did not do? It is not just. It is not fair. Consequently, it is difficult to understand or for that matter accept. Yet, he endured it all for you and me. Isaiah foretells us three things Jesus would do.

1. He willingly laid down his life (vs. 8). He was made answerable. There was a debt to be paid that was answerable by His suffering and death.

2. He silently submitted (vs. 8). The word “oppress” is one that means He was pressed or harassed to the point of being totally weary and fatigued, and yet He did not respond because He allowed Himself to be oppressed and because it was the Father’s will.

3. His innocence was vindicated in His burial (vs. 9). Even though Christ would die with the wicked, God would not allow Him to be buried with the wicked.

Jesus endured the most horrific suffering imaginable to humanity, and He did it for you and me. It was not something he had to do. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Father to remove the assignment but submitted in obedience. When He was arrested, He went quietly. He did not protest even a little bit. When they scourged him, He didn’t retaliate. When the soldiers put the crown of thorns on His head, He didn’t curse at them. When they drove the nails in His hands and feet, He didn’t threaten them. When the bystanders spat at Him, He didn’t spit back. When they swore at him, He didn’t swear back. Though no one spoke up for Him and no one came to defend Him, still He endured because He knew it would be the means by which salvation would reach to the end of the earth and how the arm of the Lord would be revealed.

            What would you do, innocently accused, sentenced to death, maltreated in the worst of ways? What would you do if everything was against you, and nothing was in your favor? Such was the not the case for Jesus. He knew what was coming. He knew the grave could not hold Him and death could not contain Him.