The Cross is the Main Event, Part 2

Last time we looked at what Jesus did. But why did He do it?

God’s great love. 53:7-9 Jesus was beaten by ungodly men, whipped, thrashed, abused to the point of death; then He was put on a cross to die, made a spectacle to the world. It was all for love that the Creator of the Universe allowed Himself to be dealt with like this. He allowed Himself to be hated so that He could show us His love. Isaiah 53:10 says the Lord as pleased to do this, God’s heart was revealed in delighting to provide a guilt offering (Eph. 2:4-5; John 3:16 1 Jn 4:9-10).

Our desperate need. Rom. 5:6 53:6 All we and the Lord. He suffers and we are still straying. The Lord, acting as high priest in relation to the Victim/Servant, loads up on Him all our wrongdoing. The Servant suffers isolation from humanity and suffers for our sin under the Lord’s hand. God takes our sin seriously. Christ was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed due to our twistedness. We explain sin away: shortcomings, mistakes, lapses, accidents. We refuse to bow to God’s rule, insist on going our own way, make our own rules that coddle rather than kill lusts; we make peace with our sins rather than war. Our sin is death corruption.

Our total inability. Rom. 3:9-18 53:6 the picture of straying like sheep summarizes our inability and inadequacy and our tendency to wander. Shows the danger we are in without Jesus, sheep without a shepherd. 53:4 completes Isaiah’s accurate diagnosis of our sinful condition – to see the Servant and find no beauty in Him reveals our bankruptcy, one with those who despised and rejected Him; our will is misguided apart from Christ, to look at Him and not see the answer to our sin problem is to condemn ourselves as corrupt and guilty before a holy God. Every aspect of human nature is inadequate; we cannot get ourselves to God. Rom. 3 shows us this truth. Every avenue is blocked by which we might bring ourselves to God – all human attempts fail. Nothing but God revealing Himself by making the Servant known and drawing us to Himself will do. What Jesus did at the cross & does in saving us is all God’s work & none of ours.

God’s perfect will. Isaiah 53:10 God really wanted to do this – because of the outcome that He planned to bring about. God planned it before time began. It was His will to crush Jesus for us. And Isaiah 53 was inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoken and recorded by the prophet Isaiah 700+ years before the actual events took place. Spoken as if it was already accomplished! (Acts 2:22-24; 4:27-28)

What are the results? (check out tomorrow's blog to find out)