On This Day: From Justice Denied to Justice Satisfied

   Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

   And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:32-35 in context of Acts 8:26-40)

   What did you feel when you read that line, “In his humiliation justice was denied him”?

   Jesus' “humiliation” summarizes all the unjust ways he was treated, culminating in the shame of death by crucifixion. Paul described it like this,

   though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by 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 2:6-8).

   Isaiah’s prophesy set the stage to explain how the injustice against the Messiah would bring about the justice of God against our sin. Since “the wages of sin is death,” the Messiah would suffer the injustice of dying to save us from the just (and deadly) condemnation of our sins.

   Part of the reason this stood out so strongly this morning is the current movement to attack God’s “injustice” against his Son. The “More Christlike” cult claims that this portrayal of Yahweh is not Christlike enough. To the proponents of this teaching, it is not like Christ to do something so unjust to someone as to cause them to suffer for someone else’s sins. In their minds (not God’s), Isaiah’s revelation of Yahweh is not Christlike enough and needs to be corrected. I spent considerable time slogging through one of the books this cult has published and found it a horrible example of the New Testament warnings about false teachers.[1]

   The other reason this stood out is simply the realization of how hopeless we would be if God did not “put forward” his Son “as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25). Propitiation means for one person to bear the justice of God against another person. God gave his Son “to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). “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” (I John 4:10).  

   These Scriptures are talking about “In his humiliation justice was denied him.” In Jesus’ suffering, justice was denied him because he was bearing God’s justice against the sins of others. And it is only because “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” (I Peter 2:24).

   So, when Paul wrote that, “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26), he was summarizing what Jesus did through the injustice against him. He willingly bore our sins (the injustice of a man being humiliated in crucifixion when he had done nothing wrong), so that God’s justice was fully satisfied and we could be forgiven.

   One of the most awe-inspiring expressions of this is, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21). That’s what Isaiah spoke about 700 years before Jesus died on the cross. God fully satisfied his justice against our sin by pouring out his wrath upon his Son, and that means God is fully just to make us righteous with his own righteousness.

   Please be guarded against anyone claiming that there is something wrong with God punishing his Son for our sins. Jesus went willingly to the cross. He willingly suffered our condemnation. God’s love for us is without question, and so is his genius in making a way of salvation that turns sinners into saints. His plan was to have a people in his own image and likeness, and satisfying his justice against our sin was a necessary part of the plan from before time began.

   And please allow your heart to rejoice in the so great salvation we have in Jesus Christ. Included in Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus was this glorious expression:

   Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).

   Jesus felt the unjust “anguish of his soul” in suffering for us, but he saw the very thing for which he died and was “satisfied”. “It is finished!” And because Jesus came to “bear their iniquities”, we can be one of the “many” who would “be accounted righteous”.

   And if all that amazing weaving together of truth in the divine tapestry doesn’t lift your soul with wonder and praise, perhaps you first need to be the “blessed are the poor in spirit” who admit you are the sinner who needs such a Savior as this.

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] I was asked to read the book by Brad Jersak titled, “A More Christlike Word” in which the author claims the Bible is not Christlike enough and he and his helpers are a much better authority about Jesus than the prophets (like Isaiah). I had already considered Brad Jersak to be a false teacher from listening to him being interviewed, and going through his book solidified that conclusion. The fact that he also says that the God of the Old Testament (Yahweh) is not Christlike enough, and the Way of the church Jesus is building is not Christlike enough, secures Brad Jersak in Paul’s warnings about false teachers, and the “More Christlike” movement as a cult that is leading people away from both the “word” and the “Word” of God.

  However, in an attempt to resolve the conflict with the people who asked me to read the book, I spent over 5 months making a “journal journey” through the book, honestly assessing what the author taught, and honestly responding with what I was reading for myself. You can find my 102 blog posts about this book under the label of “Countering Counterfeits” on my blog.

   Here is a link to the first entry titled, A Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 1: https://in2freedom.blogspot.com/search?q=A+Journal+Journey+with+Brad+Jersak%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9CDifferent%E2%80%9D+Jesus+%E2%80%93+Day+1