McRae, William: The Vicarious Christ ~ Isaiah 53 v 4-6

We had a great morning yesterday with, um, uh, some of the men here at Rosemount, and I believe there's another gathering for some of the women I heard about yesterday as well. But we're going to be walking through Isaiah fifty three. We were told yesterday that this is, uh, the Mount Everest of the Old Testament, so maybe we'll have a bit more explanation of what that's, that's about, but, uh, uh, Bill is, uh, well known to us in Maryland for many years. Um, my first exposure to, uh, Dr. McRae was, I hate to tell you, back in the nineteen seventies. um, uh, and it was at, uh, it was at Frontier Lodge, and I remember some of the most, um, influential and inspiring, uh, times we had together as we were studying the scriptures together for, for, uh, ten days, um, at that youth camp, um, was really around the word, and I think, uh, Dr. McRae was there at least two or three times for those years that we were involved in with the camp ministry there. And, uh, so we're grateful to be have been able to continue to have, uh, ongoing relationship with him and with Marilyn over these years, and we're just going to turn over the, uh, the teaching this morning, teaching time to him right now. Thanks, Bill. Well, thank you, David. Well, I'm sort of surprised to see an audience this morning. After that wonderful hockey game last night, I thought I'd be here all by myself. Well, you're a courageous group, and I haven't had anything thrown at me yet, so I think we're going to get along okay. Well, it hasn't been long since Easter. Let's reflect back upon our celebration of Easter. I've got a question to ask you. It's, um, one of the most common questions that's asked in any discussion of the Christian faith. It's a controversial question. It's an important question. It's a debated question. It's asked by people who are exploring Christianity, and it's asked by people who are entering Christian faith, and it's even asked by Christians over and over again who have been on the Christian journey for years. The answer to the question sometimes brings denial and pretty severe disillusionment. That's one side. The answer to the question on the other side brings devotion and dedication. So what's the question? Well, the question comes from the middle word spoken by our Lord on the cross. You may know that while he was on the cross, there were seven sayings that he uttered. The central saying has nine words in it, and the central word in that saying is why. My God, my God, why? Why have you abandoned me? And that's the question. It simply is this, why did Jesus die? Why, why did Jesus die? That's the question. The most common answer to that question over this past Christmas Easter season would be something like this. He died to give us an example of how we should love one another and how we should be sacrificially loving. And there's a sense in which there's some truth in that. As a matter of fact, Peter says it this way. Uh, to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. So that is one of the reasons why Jesus died, but it doesn't quite adequately exp- explain why he was forsaken by God, does it? So another answer that's commonly given is that he was, uh, he he he died in order to deliver us, to free us, to rescue us from the clutches of Satan, and there's a sense in which that's true. First John chapter three says this: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. And so there is a sense of truth in that, but it doesn't quite adequately explain why God abandoned him, does it? So why did Jesus die? Why hast thou abandoned me? Well, the only answer that adequately explains that is that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins, so that God could righteously, justly, and freely simply forgive us, if we would put our faith and trust in him. Now, that's what's suggested in several passages of scripture. When Paul is writing in, uh, the scriptures, he talks in, uh, First Timothy chapter two that Jesus Christ gave himself a ransom for all men. Now, that's getting closer to the answer then, isn't it? A ransom is a payment. Jesus' death was a payment. To whom? For whom? Why? Jesus' death was a pay. Why did Jesus die? He died to pay. It was, it was a ransom. Now, one of the texts that puts it most clearly for us is when Paul's explaining the gospel in First Corinthians chapter fifteen, when he puts it this way. Christ died because of our sins, according to the scriptures. And that's the line that I want us p- pursue together this morning. Christ died because of our sins, according to the scriptures. Now, when Paul refers to the scriptures, of course, he's referring to the Old Testament. So that's all he had. There was no New Testament. So what he's saying is that Christ died because of our sins, according to the Old Testament. Now, if you were going to press that, you would wonder, where in the Old Testament would you turn to demonstrate that Christ died because of our sins? That was the purpose of the death of Jesus. That was the reason of the death of Jesus. If you were talking to some folks of Jew- of the Jewish faith, and you wanted to demonstrate to them that the reason why Jesus came and Jesus died, according to the scriptures, according to their Bible, according to the Old Testament scriptures, where would you turn to? Well, the best place to turn to would be the chapter that we're going to look at in our two sessions together this morning. It's Isaiah chapter fifty three. It's a chapter that will be very familiar to some of you, probably too familiar, because you can become a little accustomed to it. It's generally persec- perceived by people who study the Old Testament scriptures that it is the Mount Everest of all the prophetic scriptures in the Old Testament because of its grandeur, because of its gigantic truths, because of the majesty and dominance of the message of Isaiah fifty three. it's the Mount Everest of all the prophetic scriptures in the Old Testament. And we're going to look at it this morning. Uh, it was a poem, a song, as a matter of fact, in the book of Isaiah, there were four passages of scripture that are called servant songs. They were songs about the servant of Jehovah who was going to come. This is the fourth of those songs. It actually begins at the end of chapter fifty two with the verse thirteen that says, uh, behold my servant, behold my servant. And that's where the song really begins, and it carries through the rest of fifty three. There are 15 verses in the song, and those verses are divided into five stanzas, and each stanza has three verses. The subject for the psalm, for the eyes, for the song, rather, the subject and the title of it, I would call it The Astonishing Christ, because that's the way he's introduced in the first stanza. He's identified as the astonishing Christ. In the second stanza, which is the first three verses of chapter fifty two, he's the misunderstood Christ, because when he came, he was majorly misunderstood. And then you come to the third stanza, which, of course, is the mountain peak of Mount Everest. And that third stanza presents him as the vicarious Christ, which is going to be our subject and study together this morning. So if you've got your Bible, let's turn to Isaiah chapter fifty three. and, um, if you're familiar with it, I think, I think I'm going to shock you with something that you should have seen fifty years ago. You've read this verse three dozen times, and you've never seen it. Have you ever noticed that most of the tenses in Isaiah fifty three are past tense. Now that's surprising, isn't it? Because now watch me. Isaiah lived seven hundred years before Jesus. Jesus came seven hundred years later. Now, isn't it interesting that when Isaiah wrote seven hundred years before Jesus, he said he was wounded for our transgressions. He's talking like a person who's way over here, looking back on it. Most of the verbs in Psalm and Isaiah fifty three are past tense. He was bruised. He was led as a past tense. Why past tense? Well, I'll tell you why. Because in the latter part of Isaiah, Isaiah projects himself into the future, and he positions himself with what we like to call the remnant of Israel, that in some future day is going to turn in faith and become devoted followers of Jesus. Isaiah predicts that. There's going to be, in the last days, a massive returning to Jesus on the part of Jewish people, and that will be the returning remnant. And what Isaiah is doing in the latter part of his book is he projects himself forward, and he's standing from his perspective over here, while he actually is writing from a way over here, and he's looking back, the way they will look back on Jesus and the experience of the cross, the way they will look back on it from their perspective up there. And that's the perspective, of course, that we have. So it's very helpful to us because that is where we are looking back upon it, and we're going to experience the past tenses that are f- that are presented to us in our text, and it will make it so much more meaningful and significant because Isaiah is really standing in his mind as he writes, where we are actually standing, looking back on the work of Christ and the atonement on the cross. So what you've got in Isaiah chapter fifty three and verses four, five, and six is an introduc- introduction to him as the vicarious Christ. Now, when we use you- we use the word the vicarious, we're simply talking about in our place. That's what vicarious means. So it's the in my place Christ. That's what it means. Or a word that we oftentimes use in our Christian circles is our substitute Christ. That's the vicarious Christ. He is in our place Christ. He is the substitute Christ. And that's the picture that's going to be presented for us in the verses that are before us. Verses four, five, and six then present him as the substitute Christ, the Messiah Christ, the in our place Christ. Now, you notice the first verse in ver- first word in verse four is the word surely. In, uh, one of the con- contemporary translations, that is translated, the fact is, and that's exactly what that word means. The previous lines talk about he was so majorly misunderstood by the Jewish people. Verse four begins with, the fact is, however, or begins with, now, however, we understand. That's what that word surely means. And what you have in verse four is a confession, really, to the confusion that the Jewish people had as they encountered the Messiah. This was what Isaiah predicted seven hundred years before it happened, and in a coming day, the returning, faithful, repentant remnant are going to look back and they're going to say, oh, now we understand. The fact is, now what is it that they understand? Here's what they understand in verse four: He took up our infirmities and carried them, carried our sorrows. That's the fact. Boy, were we confused. Now we see he bore our infirmities, the consequences of our sin, and he carried away those sins. The picture, of course, is the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Israel's celebration. And one of the moments in the Day of Atonement was when two goats were brought, and the priests would put their hands upon the head of the goats, and they would confess the sins of the nation. Individuals could come and lay their hands on and confess their sins. So their sins were laid upon that creature. And then the second creature was led off into the wilderness and abandoned in the wilderness to die, just lost out there. And the picture, of course, in the Day of Atonement was that someone is going to come upon whom our sins will be laid and who will carry away those sins. That's the picture that's involved. John the Baptist ties into that picture in his very first encounter with Jesus, when he pinpoints him with his finger and says, look it, there he is. Behold the Lamb of God who carries away the sins of the world. That's the, that- that's what they're understanding. That's- that's- that's- that's the fact. Now we understand it. He carried our sins, he bore our sins, he carried our sins away. Now, it's interesting that he goes on and says, in verse four, yet, yet. This is what we thought. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by God, and afflicted. Wow, were we confused. We thought that when he was put upon the cross and died, that he was being struck by God the way lightning strikes a house and burns it down. We thought that he was smitten by God the way leprosy smites a person and cripples them. We thought that's what was happening. We thought he was getting exactly what he deserved. And that's because he c- he committed the ultimate blasphemy. He claimed to be God. The ultimate blasphemy, the most capital of crimes. And when he was put upon that cross, we thought that he was getting exactly what he deserved. We thought that he was getting God's wrath, and God was punishing him because he dared to claim that he was God. But wow, were we confused. Now we understand the fact is, now our eyes are open, the fact is our sins were laid on him, and he carried our sins away. He was dying because of our sins, and through his dying because of our sins, our sins can be carried away in God. That's, that's the amazing message of that particular verse. The astonishing thing about the verse is that has a, it has a, an astonishing relevance to it. Because there are still men and women who are hugely confused about why he died. I'd like to settle that confusion for you this morning, if you're confused. Confused about who he is? Confused about how he died? Let's get that settled. He claimed to be God, come in human flesh, to die because of our sins, so that we could be forgiven. That was his claim. And what do you do with that claim? Well, C. S. Lewis says, you've got some options. You can, for example, say that he was a self-deceived lunatic. He was a mentally deranged man. He was crazy. Not many people dare to say that. Or you could say, well, he was just a downright liar. And not many people have the guts to say that. Or you could say, well, he didn't really say that. People said that about him two or three hundred years later. But that's hard to pass. Because it was said by people in his very generation, written in books at a ver- to his very generation, and people who lived at that very time accepted those books as historical and reliable. So it isn't some kind of legendary stuff that was cocked, dreamed up by somebody a few years later. And so I submit to you, the only alternative that's le- left to you is that it's the truth, that what you said is the truth. The one option that you don't have is that the one that you, the one that you hear all the time at university. It's the one that you hear all the time in half the churches across Canada. And that option is this. He was a wonderful teacher. And I simply submit to you, that's simply absolutely intolerable. You can't say that about Jesus. He's a liar. He's not telling the truth. Don't talk to me about him being a model. Don't talk to me about him being an example. Don't talk to me about him being a good teacher. He committed the ultimate deceit. He put himself before crowds of men, and he said, I'm the way to heaven, and I'm the only way to heaven, and you put your faith and trust in me, and you will spend eternity in heaven. That's the ultimate deceit, if it's not true. He put the whole eternity, the whole eternal welfare of men at stake. He misled them about the most important thing in life, what happens after life. So you can't say he's a good teacher if that's not true. He was the ultimate deceiver. He was a fraud. So I want to suggest to you this morning, if you're struggling with a little bit of confusion as to who Jesus was and why Jesus died, that the only adequate explanation is that he's exactly what he was, exactly who he claimed to be, exactly what Isaiah predicted seven hundred years before he came he would be. He was the one who came, upon whom was placed the guilt and the responsibility for our sins, and who died so that they could be carried away. That's the confusion of verse four. That leads to the conviction of verse five. And look at verse five. It starts with the word but. See, after talking about all that confusion, he says, but, but now here, here's the fact, here's the truth. This is what we're convinced of. This is our conviction, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought peace upon him, by his wounds, by his stripes, we're healed. If you look at those four verbs, ladies and gentlemen, you will see something absolutely incredible. You'll see a graphic portrayal of a crucifixion that in the days of Isaiah was not even conceived, didn't even exist. It was a Roman invention five hundred years later. He was pierced. The crown of thorns. The nails. The spear. He was pierced. He was crushed. The walk. The cross. Falling to the ground. Crushed under the weight of the cross. He was punished. The punishment, the ultimate punishment that has been concocted by any generation in the human race, a crucifixion. So hideous, so torturous, so painful that a Roman citizen was exempt from it. You couldn't sentence a Roman citizen, no matter what they had done, to a crucifixion. It was reserved for non-Romans. It was crucifixion. The ultimate, the most severe form of execution ever devised by men. He was punished. And then it says, by his stripes. That's a reference to the scourging, the whipping that he took that tore his flesh right down to the very bones. It was a crucifixion. If you saw The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's movie a couple years back, then you saw the picture. It portrayed a crucifixion in all of its horror. And this is the conviction of this, this Isaiah and this coming remnant and of Christians today. The conviction is he was crucified. Why? Well, it says because of our sins, because of our transgressions. That's why. One of the phrases we like to use that sometimes we don't quite understand, if you'll allow me to be so, um, judgmental, is we talk about Christ dying for us. Now, have you ever tried to think that through? What does that mean to somebody when you say that Christ died for us? Eh, there's, there's a lot of confusion that can be open on that. Now, that's what the Bible says, Christ died for us. But what does that for, F-O-R, what does that for mean? Well, it means exactly what it means when we say that somebody is wanted for murder. It means because of. When we say somebody is wanted for murder, it's not that we want them in order to murder them. It could say that, but that's not what we mean by it. When we say somebody is wanted for murder, we say that we- he's wanted because of murder. And that's what that for means in the Bible. When it says Jesus died for our sins, now I understand what that means. He died because of my sins. That's the substitute. That's the vicarious. That's the in my place Christ. He died because of my sins. My sins were laid upon him, and he bore them away. And how did he bear them away? Through his crucifixion. He paid the penalty, and he bore them away. That's the conviction that the remnant will come to someday. Have you ever come to that conviction? That's a life-changing ex- i- i- conviction to come to. It's a, it's a mind-boggling, it's a, it's a life-transforming one. He died. He was crucified. He was subjected to that crucifixion because of my sins. That's their conviction, that's their con- their conviction. Now he cl- closes this verse with a, with a confession, and here's the confession. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Now watch this. And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. So after confessing the confusion and acknowledging their conviction, he confesses that this was all for us. This was for me. And one of the great messages for the human race, and one of the great messages for men and women today right here, is that he did that for me, because we're all me. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Now that's a sobering thing, because what that is simply saying is that we've all sinned. The essence of sin, catch it now, the essence of sin is going your way, not God's way. That's what sin is. Doing it your way instead of God's way. Sin is simply having your way instead of God's way. And um, the text is saying we've all done that. Hands up if you've never done that. I'm not surprised. Quebecers say, I'm not surprised. All we like sheep have gone astray. And it's interesting, isn't it, that Isaiah says that at the end of this end, end of this stanza. He says, wow, all that I've been talking about and all that I've been portraying in that crucifixion, all that was because of me, because I'm one of them, and all of us are one of them, because all of us have gone astray, and the iniquity of all of us was laid upon him. He died for all of us, and yet he died for each of us. That's the wonderful message. That's the conclusion. Christ paid the penalty for my sin so that God could freely and justly forgive me, if I would put my faith and trust in him. That's why Jesus died. But I've got a second question for you this morning. My second question is, why did Jesus have to die? Why did he have to die? Have you ever wondered about that? Why was it necessary for him to die? And the answer is, because his death was a payment. It was a payment that satisfied the demands of a holy and righteous God. It was a payment that satisfied the demands of a holy and righteous law. His death paid that penalty and satisfied the demands of God that the penalty be paid and satisfied the demands of the law that death be paid. That's why. Now, as a result, God can, and these are the wonderful words, fasten, fasten hold of them. Now God can fully and justly forgive. He doesn't forgive by turning his head, by winking and blinking, by saying, well, you're, you're pretty good, or well, you've done some good things here. A righteous God can't do that. A righteous judge requires that the penalty of the broken law be paid. That's a just judge, and God is a just judge. And so the penalty of the broken law was paid, and Jesus paid that penalty. That's why he had to die. Now God can freely and righteously, freely and justly forgive me. And that's the wonderful message of the cross. That's why he had to die. But now I've got a third question for you this morning, and this is little personal. Why do you think he had to die like this? Why did he have to die like this? A crucifixion. There are other ways of execution. Why the worst form of execution ever devised by human pe- human beings? Why did he have to die like this? Unjustly and undeserved. He died never having hurt one person in his lifetime. He died never having spoken one word that was not true. He died like this. Save for the worst of criminals. Why did he have to die like this? Well, I'm not sure, but I've got a suggestion or two, and I would love to hear your suggestion at lunch hour. Why did he have to die like this? Well, I think there are probably several reasons. Have you heard of Jerry Sandusky? Jerry Sandusky was the football coach at one of the universities last year, charged with forty five cases of sexual abuse of young boys, found guilty. Do you know what he was sentenced to? A man in his mid-60s at this time trial last year. He was sentenced to sixty years in prison. Why? Why? It's because of how the judge felt about his conduct. And what the judge was saying to everybody in America is that we're not going to put up with this kind of conduct. We hate what you've been doing. I'm going to give you the most that I can give you. Sixty years. That's twice the time of your expected life li- life that's left to you. Sixty years up to prison. Now I know what that judge thinks about sexual abuse of young boys, don't you? Now I know what God thinks about your sin and my sin when I look at Calvary, when I look at the cross. He subjected his son to the worst of worsts, and God was saying, that's how I feel about sin. When I look at the cross and what God allowed evil men to do to his son, it gives me a frightening glimpse as to how God really feels about my sin. Any such thing as little sins? Any such thing as trivial sins? We play that game. But when you look at the cross, what you're going to be impressed with for the rest of your life is that, wow, that's what God feels and thinks about sin. It's really, really serious. And he wants me to have that thought every time I look at the cross, every time I view that cross. That's why he died a crucifixion, the worst of all deaths, to show us how serious sin is. Don't play with it, don't dabble in it, don't justify it, don't rationalize it, don't tolerate it. It's sin, and it cost his son a cross, crucifixion. That's one reason. I think a second reason why he had to die like this was to demonstrate how much he loved us. Only in a crucifixion, said Athanasius, one of the great church fathers, only in a crucifixion does a man die with his arms outstretched. And that's what that crucifixion says. It's, it's, that's how much I love you. And you need to remember that next time you wonder if God loves you. You're saying some things to yourself, if you really love me, or I thought you love me. When those kinds of thoughts start to invade, then what you do is you look at the cross. You just look at the cross, and it has written all over it, this is how I love you. This is the, this is the conclusive proof. This is the evidence. This, I, I've demonstrated. You don't understand all that you're going through now, but don't, don't for a minute doubt that I love you. That's the proof of it. Wow. I think that's why. Why did he have to die like this? Maybe, just maybe, to show us how much we owed him. To show us how much we owed him. This is how, this is how much you owe him. And Paul, Paul got that message. When he says in second Corinthians five, in that he died for all, those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them. That's how much I owe him. That's what I owe. He died for me. I live for him. Is that right? Is that ringing a bell in your life? Well, that's what we sang before I got up here. Were the whole realm and nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. That's why Jesus died. That's why he had to die, and that's why he had to die like this. Let's pray. Well, Lord, we just stand in the shadow of the cross this morning. We stand with Isaiah as he stands with the remnant of repenting Israel in a future day. We look back to the center of history. We've climbed up the peak of Mount Everest in all prophetic scripture, the most remarkable anticipation of anything in the scripture, these verses that we've read, simply astonishing. We thank you for the exposure again, we thank you for the reminders again, and we pray that the impact will be such that our lives will never quite recover, and that we will live our lives in appreciation of your love, in a recognition of your abhorrence and offense with sin, and that we will honor and glorify you. Give us the wisdom and grace to do that, we pray, in Christ's name, amen.