“Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see
and be satisfied”. Jesus experienced anguish in his soul on the way to his
satisfaction in redeeming brothers for his very own. In Gethsemane he declared,
“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.”[2] On
the cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?”[3]
Everything about his life was one of suffering that brought death. He was “despised and rejected by
men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”[4]But through this suffering, and rejection, and sorrow, the Son of
God would bring such redemption of sinners into the righteousness of God, that
he would be satisfied. His death would not be a frustration or a failure. He
would be “cut off out of the land of the
living,”[5] and would be buried in a “grave
with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,”[6] but he would “see his
offspring; he shall prolong his days,” through his resurrection from the
dead.
“By his knowledge shall the righteous one,
my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.” One of the wonderful
themes of the whole word of God is that God has done what was needed to have
people who could be “accounted righteous”,
even though sin had brought death and destruction into the world.[7] Abraham, the Father of the Jewish nation, “believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as
righteousness.”[8] The new covenant applies this to anyone who believes in Jesus Christ
when it says, “to the one who does not
work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as
righteousness,”[9] God had announced seven centuries before Jesus came that he would
do the work that would “make many to be
accounted righteous,” and that is exactly what Jesus did when he came.
“…and he shall bear their iniquities.”
This is the reason that sinners can be “accounted righteous”. The Messiah would
bear their iniquities on himself, thus securing eternal redemption. This
prophecy was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Peter
wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his
body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his
wounds you have been healed.”[10]
This
is the hope of the word of God, that we can be “accounted righteous” in order that we can “live to righteousness.” The burden of our righteousness no longer
rests on us, through the keeping of the law, but on God, through the provision
of the new covenant.[11] There is a righteousness that is by faith because there is a Savior
who suffered on our behalf. “For Christ
also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might
bring us to God,”[12]
What
do we do once we experience the faith that is counted to our account as
righteousness? We flee the things of the world, the flesh and the devil, and we
“pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, steadfastness, gentleness.”[13]We “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from
a pure heart.[14]
Faith gives us the life of righteousness, and so we pursue growth and maturity
in the life we have been given.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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