When John the Baptist introduced his disciples to Jesus, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). In our studies of Jesus’ life and ministry as John the apostle recorded it, we have come to that point in His life that He became, in fact, the “Lamb of God.”
John’s description of Jesus as the “Lamb of God” agreed perfectly with Isaiah’s description of the Suffering Servant as he described Him in Isaiah 53. In that chapter, among his many description of the Servant, Isaiah wrote, “As a Lamb that was led to the slaughter and as a sheep that before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Isaiah had written in Isaiah 53: “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;” “He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities;” “The chastisement of our peace was upon him;” and, “By his stripes we are healed.” These prophecies present Jesus bearing the sin of others. Just as a ram, caught in the bushes, took the place of Isaac upon the altar Abraham had prepared for the offering of his son (Genesis 22:10-12), so Jesus took our place upon the altar, dying in our stead. The promised blessings to Abraham that “in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3) becomes crystal clear; the greatest blessing Abraham’s seed provided for the human family was the blessing of forgiveness of sins, made possible by God’s own Son offering Himself for the creature He had made (Acts 3:25-26).
It is said that nearly three hundred different prophecies were made regarding Jesus who was the promised Seed of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). These prophecies touch many aspects of His life: His birth and the nature of it; His role as a master teacher; the perfect character of His life; the kind of teaching he would teach; the circumstances of being betrayed by a close friend; the scattering of His disciples; the mockery of His “trial;” the crucifixion itself; various incidents as He hung on that cross; His death; His resurrection, ascension, and glorification; His sending the Holy Spirit; the beginning of His church; and, the promise of His return.
The death of Jesus is recorded by Isaiah 53, and is part of the fabric which profoundly establishes His crucifixion and resurrection as a matter of history. Consider some of them.
When Phillip approached the chariot in which the eunuch was riding and reading, the record said he was reading from Isaiah, specifically the passage which says “in his humiliation his judgment was taken from him” (Acts 8:33; cp. Isaiah 53:7-8). How true this was! He suffered humiliation because His own nation had rejected Him as their Messiah. Pilate was an unscrupulous Gentile who thought little of honor or fairness. However, even he protested to the Jews that Jesus was an innocent man, despite the fact that they insisted on crucifying Him! His judgment was, “I find no fault in him. I will chastise and release him” (Luke 23:16). But the judgment Pilate gave concerning Jesus was not allowed to stand. Despite the fact that Pilate ruled that Jesus was an innocent man, he gave Jesus into the hands of the soldiers who crucified Him. Isaiah’s words “They made his grave with the wicked” were literally true. He was hung between two thieves when He died. His intercession for those who crucified Him (“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” Luke 23:34) was prerecorded in Isaiah 53:12 where the prophet specifically said that He “made intercession for the transgressors.” His silence before Pilate was anticipated by Isaiah who wrote that “As a lamb that before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). His burial in a rich man’s tomb was anticipated by Isaiah’s words “And with a rich man in his death.”
The dividing of His garments among those who crucified Him was also prophesied (Psalm 22:18; cp. Luke 23:23-24). His death by crucifixion was anticipated beforehand when the prophet decreed, “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16). The fact that while the legs of the robbers were broken to hasten their death, Jesus’ legs were not broken: He was already dead when this was done to the thieves. The prophet wrote, “I may count all my bones” (Psalm 22:17). The fact that one of the soldiers thrust his spear into Jesus’ side also was prophesied. Zechariah wrote, “They shall look on him whom they pierced” (12:10). His plaintive cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” had been predicted by David (Psalm 22:1; cp. Matthew 27:41). These, and other facts which were pre-recorded before these things happened, offer compelling evidence that Jesus is who He claimed to be. John wrote, “Many other signs and wonders truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that believing ye might have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
The voices of these prophets contribute to establish the sacred event of which they wrote: David, 1000 B.C.; Isaiah, 750 B.C.; and, Zechariah, 535 B.C. Truly, “Whatsoever things which were written aforetime were written for our learning that we, through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope” (Romans 15:4). Paul had been questioned by the Corinthian Christians regarding spiritual gifts, and in his first letter to them wrote a lengthy explanation of those gifts (1 Corinthians 12-14). When he concluded his explanation he wrote, “But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant” (1 Corinthians 14:38). How could anyone fail to reach the same conclusion regarding the historicity and truth that Jesus is the Son of God? Many prophecies were written by so many different writers scattered over several centuries, combined and compounded together, and offer irrefutable evidence that Jesus’ claims are true. If in the face of all the voices of those prophets a person still says, “I’m not sure who Jesus is,” with Paul we must simply say, “If any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant.”
Jim McDonald