He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgement he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?  And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. - Isaiah 53:7-9 ESV

Jesus Christ was the suffering servant, who came “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).  Who else have you ever known that has poured His life out for you?  In an age when we worship movie stars and musicians and political figures, consider this, who among them was ever led to the slaughter and stricken for your transgression?  In a time when we fear the judgement of men, and seek their praise, consider this, who among them was oppressed and afflicted, yet opened not his mouth?  In a culture where pride is touted as a virtue, consider this, that they made His grave with the wicked, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.  At this moment, as I let these words marinate in my soul, I am brought down to my knees, by the picture of the Son of God, pouring out His life as a ransom for me.

If you want to know who my hero is, His name is Jesus, and Isaiah 53 is what He looks like.  He was holy without blemish, pure and innocent, and He gave Himself over to death as the sacrificial Lamb of God so that the punishment for my sin (which He did not  deserve) may be imputed to Him, and that His righteousness (which I did not deserve) may be imputed to me.

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jesus Christ, I am at a loss for words, as I look upon the sacrificial atonement that You made for Your people, who have time and again forsaken You.  And yet You became the Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the world, out of Your infinite goodness and Your infinite grace.  May all glory be to You, my King and my Savior.

“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10).

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. - Isaiah 53:4-6 ESV

PROPITIATION - properly signifies the removal of wrath by the offering of a gift. (The New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition)

Propitiation is a word that I did not hear until I was well into my walk with Christ.  In fact, it is a word that was not even mentioned in the first bible I ever read (the NIV).  It was not until I was given an ESV bible that I came upon this word.  The NIV translates this word as “atoning sacrifice”.  I confess that I am not a biblical scholar, I am just a man who loves God’s word.  However, the translation as “propitiation” seems to give a bit more depth to the passages that use this greek word (hilasterion or hilasmos).

This week, as I meditated on the above passage from Isaiah, I realized that these words in Isaiah were in fact a description of Jesus Christ as our propitiation.  This is how Christ removed the wrath of God from us, by being “wounded for our transgression ... crushed for our iniquities”.  Truly he bore the “chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed”.  How amazing is our God, that He would send His son to take upon Himself the punishment for OUR sins, to satisfy the wrath of God against the sin of man, that we may now stand in the presence of His holiness, as Christ’s righteousness is now imputed to us!  In the words of a friend, “it seems too good to be true”.  It is too good .... and it is true.  “In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

It is not only amazing to me that God would save us as He has done, but that He also would proclaim hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born into flesh that THIS was in fact His plan for our salvation!  Since reading a bit more about this great word, I have discovered that this same word also refers to the atoning sacrifice made by the high priest as he would sprinkle the blood of atonement upon the Mercy Seat of the ark.  If you have ever wondered whether it was a waste of your time to read through those sections of the Old Testament that go into such wonderful detail about the ark and the tabernacle, let me tell you now, it is not.  When we place the truth about what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross next to the system of sacrifice that God established long before the time of Christ’s death upon that cross, we realize that Christ was in fact the perfect, final, and glorious fulfillment of that sacrificial system.  It was the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat that allowed Him to be the propitiation for our sins, and thereby to satisfy the wrath of a holy and just God.  Once and for all.  Truly we rejoice in the words of Christ Himself, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground;  he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. - Isaiah 53:2-3 ESV

We were sitting in Mallard’s ice cream, just catching up on life.  My friend was visiting me from Massachusetts, where we had spent two years together.  During that time he not only became my close friend, but he also became my boss.  He and his family had come to Bellingham to visit, as they toured around the Pacific Northwest.  That night, by God’s grace, the conversation steered itself toward the topic of religion.  Despite being a close friend, we had never really talked about religion before.  I knew that he had grown up Muslim, and had married a woman who had grown up Protestant, but that night I learned that he, like so many people today, believed that as long as you were a “good person” you would one day go to heaven.  I asked him how good he thought he had to be.  His answer was vague.  He told me that all religions were basically the same.  I told him I disagreed, and that while all other religions claimed that you have to be good enough to get to God, my faith was grounded on the truth that no one can be good enough to get to God, and so God came to us.  Silently and quickly I prayed for God to give me words to speak to my dear friend.  The Holy Spirit brought to my memory Isaiah 53.

As these perfect words poured out of my imperfect mouth, I explained to my friend God’s plan to rescue us from our own fallen state, and I explained how these words in Isaiah spoke of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has now come to make atonement for our sins.

My faith in the truth of Christianity has been tremendously strengthened by Isaiah 53.  While there are hundreds of prophecies regarding Jesus throughout the Old Testament, Isaiah 53 stands out to me in stark contrast.  As I read this entire chapter of Isaiah 53, I feel like I am staring at the face of Jesus Christ.  And when I consider that these words were written between 600 to 700 years before His time on earth, I am struck with awe and wonder.  Although I know it is dangerous to make such sweeping statements, I would hazard to suggest that these are the most important words of the Old Testament that you could and should ever memorize.

Much like a multifaceted jewel, every time I read this chapter, I am given a new glimpse of the radiance of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.  And I am reminded of the cost that Jesus paid for my sins.  Today as I read these words again, what I am especially moved by is a consideration of what Jesus gave up to enter into human flesh.  In heaven He was clothed in majesty.  On earth “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him”.  In heaven He was the very definition of beauty.  On earth He had “no beauty that we should desire him”.  In heaven He was worshipped by a multitude of angels.  On earth “He was despised and rejected by men”.  In heaven He lived in constant and joyful community with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  On earth He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”.  In heaven He was glorified and honored and praised night and day.  On earth He “was despised, and we esteemed him not”.

I went home that night praising God for the privilege of getting to speak scripture into a friend’s life, whether he accepted it or not.  I hope you too will memorize Isaiah 53, and will reflect often on the implications of the humanity of Christ. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” - Philippians 2:5-8.

The Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. - John 3:19-20 NASB

We have a rat living in our garage.  It is not a pet.  It is my fault that he moved in.  A few weeks ago I left a box of dog treats open in the garage.  The rat snuck in through a gap in our garage door that I had neglected to fix.  He must have taken the gap, as well as the box of food, as a sign of our hospitality toward his species.  We feel confident we have corrected this misconception of his by leaving out several rat traps around the garage (we have also secured all of the dog food, and covered the hole in the garage door opening).  Unfortunately, rat traps do not actually capture rats that are the size of a small dog.  So, the rat remains.  We have named him Sneaky.

Occasionally, I will open the door to the garage and turn on the lights, and Sneaky will quickly scamper into an, as yet, unidentified hiding spot.  As I read today’s scripture, I thought about Sneaky.  He hates the light.  He runs from it, for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  And I am reminded that before I came to faith in Christ, I was that rat.  I sinned in darkness for fear that my deeds would be exposed.  I rejected the Light.  I rejected Jesus Christ, because I loved my sin and I loved the darkness I was living in.  I had established an elaborate factory of idols in my heart, and that factory was in a perpetual state of darkness. And I wished for it to stay that way.  My name was Sneaky, and I was the rat in God’s garage.

My view of the role of apologetics has recently been transformed after reading several insightful authors on this topic.  I used to think that in order to win someone to faith in Christ, you had to “convince” them of the reasonableness of Christianity.  Christianity is in fact the most reasonable truth there is.  However, more often, it is a person’s heart that is keeping them from coming to the Light.  Non-believers do not come to consider the claims of Christianity with a heart that is a blank slate.  On the contrary, they come (as we all did) with sin stained hearts that love the darkness, because in their hearts, they know that accepting Jesus Christ, will mean rejecting that sin and idolatry and darkness which they have so grown to love.  John 3 does not tell us that men “trusted” the darkness, or that they “believed” that darkness was superior to light.  It tell us that men “loved” the darkness.  It is not so often a matter of the mind, as it is a matter of the heart.  We need to take this into consideration as we witness to non-believers, seeking to understand what are the idols of their hearts, which they love, and which are keeping them from coming to the Light.  And as we expose those idols, we pray that they will get even a glimpse of the Light, and will recognize It as infinitely more beautiful than the darkness.

Ultimately, we believe that “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Psalm 3:8).  We believe that when a person’s heart finds Jesus Christ as a more worthy treasure than the darkness they were living in, that this work is carried out by the Holy Spirit.  However, we are called to “walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.  Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:5-6).  It is God alone who can turn men’s hearts back to Him.  And He has given us the privilege of partnering with the Him in this awesome work, which will ultimately bring glory to Him, who alone is worthy of glory.

“For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” - 2 Corinthians 4:6.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth - John 1:1-4; 14 NASB.

Who is Jesus?  I posed this questions two weeks ago.  How do we answer that question in light of this week's scripture?  John 1 is massively important for our understanding of who Jesus is.  My fear is that for those of you who grew up in the church, these words have grown so familiar that they have become stale.  I pray that today you will look upon them with fresh eyes.  I pray that today you see with clarity His role in creation, His eternity, His deity, His revelation of God the Father, and His glory, full of grace and truth.  Have you seen His glory?

Why does John refer to Jesus as "the Word"?  I am sure you could spend a lifetime answering this question.  However, the short answer is found in the context in which John was writing.  John was writing to introduce his audience to the gospel of Jesus, and his audience was Jewish and Greek.  The “Word” (“Logos”, in Greek), was intimately familiar to both groups.  In the Old Testament, the Word is often the personification of God's will executed on earth (see Psalm 33:6, 107:20, 119:89).  It was for Jewish readers, the personification of God's revelation to His people.  In the Greek worldview, the Word was seen as the intermediate connection between the transcendent God and the material universe.  Now we arrive at the crux of human history, and John reveals for us God’s plan for redemption.  The Word is Jesus Christ!  Jesus is the personification of God in flesh, fully God and fully human, come to reveal God's glory, and His plan for redemption.  And "THE WORD WAS GOD"!  We have seen His glory.

My wife spent months meeting weekly with a team of Jehovah's Witnesses.  She invested countless hours, trying to convince them of the truth of scripture.  For those who don't know, JWs deny the deity of Jesus.  As you can imagine, this verse from John’s gospel, is one that they have been forced to re-interpret, to justify their faith.  It broke my wife's heart, and mine, to get to know these people, who are still living in darkness because of false doctrine.  And it reminded us of the importance of humbling ourselves beneath scripture, that we may obtain a true knowledge of God, and that we may live as He created us to live.  Pray that those walking in darkness would see His glory.

I often think about the deity of Jesus Christ.  I often think about His earthly life, and His heavenly reign.  But I confess that I often neglect to consider His role in creation and that "All things came into being through Him".  When I think about the creation of the world, I confess that I often neglect to give praise to Jesus, through Whom God created the earth and all that fills it.  Jesus has existed for eternity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and He will continue to exist forever.  He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 1:8).  He is from everlasting to everlasting (Nehemiah 9:5).  I need to think often of the eternity of Jesus Christ.  I need to see His glory.

Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Word of God.  Today let us bend our knees and humble ourselves beneath the weight of Your glory.

For those interested a more detailed discussion of the defense of the deity of Christ against the errant belief held by Jehovah's Witnesses, I encourage you to read the following link:

http://carm.org/religious-movements/jehovahs-witnesses/john-11-word-was-god

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His son whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.  When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. - Hebrews 1:1-3 (NASB) This is a difficult passage for me to blog about.  Not because it lacks substance, but because it is so full of substance, that I fear that anything I would write would only detract from the glory of God's word.  Rather that reading what I would write, you would be much better served by reading this passage over and over and over again.

I want to tell you to climb to the top of a mountain and to meditate on these verses for hours.  I want you to sit in a closet with the door closed, and to feel the warm radiance of God's glory, manifested in the person of Jesus Christ.  I want to ask you to walk through the woods and to gaze at the unspeakable beauty of His creation.  I want to beg you to wake up every morning and to behold our risen King, who is the heir of all things.  I want to encourage you to sit and gaze at the holiness of God, as displayed in the face of His Son, the exact representation of His nature.  I want you to dwell on the eternity of Jesus.    I want you to taste the sweetness of God’s love, poured out for you at Calvary.  I want you to thank Him for His finished work of purification for your sins and for mine.  I want you to sit beneath His throne and to be still.  I want you to ponder the fact that He is God.  I want you to worship Him today!

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power  - Hebrews 1:2.