“And so, I will give Him a place of honor, a place among the great and powerful. He willingly gave His life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven." (Isaiah 53:12)
The prophet Isaiah prophesies about Jesus. Notice first off, that Isaiah was writing as if it had already happened. This is because he was speaking in the Father’s voice. And to the Father, yesterday is like today and tomorrow like today. God sees the past, present and future all at the same time. In our timeline, it has already happened. But in Isaiah’s time it hadn’t.
Today we know that Jesus is glorified in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father and interceding for us. Peter wrote about Jesus: “who has gone to heaven and is at the right side of God, ruling over all angels and heavenly authorities and powers.” (1Peter 3:22) And Paul writing about Jesus said, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us through His Son. He is the One through whom God created the universe, the One whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end. He reflects the brightness of God's glory and is the exact likeness of God's Own being, sustaining the universe with His powerful word. After achieving forgiveness for the sins of all human beings, He sat down in heaven at the right side of God, the Supreme Power.” (Hebrews 1:1-3)
When we think of Jesus, we think of Him as He has been depicted in pictures. But Jesus is glorified as He truly is, God. He’s been seen by Daniel. “I looked up and saw someone who was wearing linen clothes and a belt of fine gold. His body shone like a jewel. His face was as bright as a flash of lightning, and His eyes blazed like fire. His arms and legs shone like polished bronze, and His voice sounded like the roar of a great crowd.” (Daniel 10:5-6) John also had a vision of Jesus when Jesus appeared to him on the Island of Pathos. Both Daniel and John saw a completely different Jesus than who is depicted in the pictures we have seen. “I turned around to see who was talking to me, and I saw seven gold lampstands, and among them there was what looked like a human being, wearing a robe that reached to His feet, and a gold band around His chest. His hair was white as wool, or as snow, and His eyes blazed like fire; His feet shone like brass that has been refined and polished, and His voice sounded like a roaring waterfall. He held seven stars in His right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came out of His mouth. His face was as bright as the midday sun. When I saw Him, I fell down at His feet like a dead man. He placed His right hand on me and said, "Don't be afraid! I am the first and the last. I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead.” (Revelation 1:12-18)
Isaiah wrote that He gave His life willingly. Jesus said, “No one takes My life away from Me. I give it up of My own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded Me to do." (John 10:18) If Jesus had not taken our place and paid the price for our sin, we would still be in our sin. We could not save ourselves. We could not redeem ourselves, not by any kind of work or sacrifice. We were tainted by sin. God would not have accepted any sacrifice defected and contaminated with sin. We were in a hopeless situation, unable to escape the kingdom of darkness. The sacrifice of innocent animals could not redeem us as it was done in the Old Testament. It merely covered the sin for a year. There was no salvation, no new creation, no redemption, no escape from our sin nature.
Jesus took our place, taking the punishment and taking our death for our sin. He took our old sin nature to the Cross and there it died to be raised with Him a new creation. “Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.” (2Corintians 5:17) We are born again, children of God with His nature. We have been snatched from the kingdom of darkness and placed in the kingdom of God’s dear Son, Jesus. It’s a kingdom of peace, of love, of hope, of light, of Truth and of life, free from sin.
Whenever I bring up the point that we are free from sin, I must explain that yes, we still sin, but it’s not in our nature. We fall into sin because we still live in this body and because we still live in this world. But the reborn spirit is pure and holy and sinless because it is born of God, not of man and not of this world. “What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do. If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law. What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions;” (Galatians 5:16-19) But the spiritual nature that we have been given is quite different. “But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. The Spirit has given us life; He must also control our lives.” (Galatians 5:22-25) This makes it clear. You will know if you’re thinking, acting or saying things by your natural human nature or reborn spiritual nature by setting it against this criterion.
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