Daily Devotional for Friday, July 29

The Suffering Savior

Read it once, and then read it again and again. Isaiah 53 is special. It is the John 3:16 of the Old Testament. Some estimate that it is quoted or referred to in the New Testament over thirty times, and the Ethiopian of Acts 8 was saved because he read it. It tells you the life story of Jesus Christ your Savior. 

It tells of Jesus’ humble birth (Isaiah 53:2), His difficult life and ministry (verses 3, 4), and His vicarious suffering for your sins (verse 5). It tells of your sins and how Jesus died innocently for them (verses 6-8). It tells of His of burial (verse 9) and His resurrection (verse 10). Amazingly it tells of how it pleased the Lord to bruise Him and to make Him an offering for sin (verse 10). This is not some sick pleasure of watching Jesus suffer, but God’s righteous requirements for sins was pleased or satisfied in Christ’s perfect sacrifice (verse 11). 

It tells of how a believer is justified or made righteous—only because Jesus bore your sins on the cross (verse 11). It tells of God rewarding His Son for obediently pouring out His soul unto death (verse 12), which always makes me think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39). It tells of how Jesus was crucified between two robbers, as if He too were a transgressor, but instead of being a transgressor, He bore the sins of the transgressors and made intercession for them (Isaiah 53:12).

Thought: Isaiah 53 is special. Read it again.

Phillip Miller