Isaiah 53:7-11
Purpose: To explain why God's wrath must be assuaged before forgiveness is possible.
Aim: I want the listener to glory in what Christ did to absorb God's wrath against our sin.
INTRODUCTION: I won't ask for a raise of hands, but men have any of you ever forgotten your anniversary or your wife's birthday? It's one of the biggest mistakes a husband can make. Forgetting a date important to your wife can make her angry (or at least very annoyed). So, what does a husband often do in a situation like this? He goes out and buys his wife a gift (flowers, jewelry, etc.) hoping that when he gives her the gift she will no longer be mad at him.
You could say a husband's gift for his upset wife is an example of propitiation. Propitiation is an offering that appeases the wrath of someone.
Literally the word PROPITIATION means: "... the removal of wrath by the offering of a gift." [1]
The original idea of propitiation came from the pagans. In pagan religions, the word PROPITIATION meant "to offer a sacrifice to placate an angry god." For example, "When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land. " (2 Kings 3:26--27).
"At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, "Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened." Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. " (1 Kings 18:27--28).
The Christian meaning is much richer as we shall see today. Before we explore what Christian propitiation looks like we have to understand why God needs to be satisfied.
I. Why Does God's Wrath Need to be Satisfied?
A. God is holy
God is angry at sin because it offends His holiness and violates His holy Law. In His holiness, He must judge sinners. God cannot ignore sin or compromise with it, for that would be contrary to His own nature and Law.
B. We are not holy
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, " (Romans 3:23).
"All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way... " (Isaiah 53:6).
"All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. " (Ephesians 2:3).
C. God punishes the unholy
"For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil will not sojourn with you. The boastful will not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful. " (Psalm 5:4--6).
"God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day. " (Psalm 7:11).
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. " (Romans 1:18).
D. God loves mercy
God HATES sin, but He LOVES to show mercy. "The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. " (Psalm 103:8).
"Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love. " (Micah 7:18).
So this leaves us with a problem. God cannot pass over the sin of the unholy and still remain holy Himself. "The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty..." (Numbers 14:18).
"Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. " (Deuteronomy 10:14--17). In other words, there is nothing we can do to turn God's wrath away from us.
II. How did God solve the problem?
"Isaiah 53 is quoted or alluded to in the New Testament more frequently than any other Old Testament chapter." [2]
Isa.53:6-9 A. God the Son must be a willing sacrifice "He did not open His mouth"
Only God is perfect and there had to be a perfect payment. This is why our efforts to please God are useless.
Jesus can pay for our sin because He is the God-man. "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people " (Hebrews 2:14--17).
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us " (2 Corinthians 5:18--19).
Pagans would sacrifice possessions, or body parts or even other humans in their attempts to placate an angry God. God's plan for turning away His own anger is to give Himself.
Look at how the word PROPITIATION is used by the Apostle John. "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. " (1 John 2:1--2).
Isa.53:10 B. God the Father must be the executioner "the LORD was pleased to crush Him"
God the Father was pleased to crush Christ on the Cross because sin would be paid for and He could then forgive sinners. Just as Christ was willing to endure the Cross because of the glorious results it would bring. "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. " (Hebrews 12:2).
Isa.53:11 C. Sin must be fully paid "justify the many"
The Law has been satisfied, and God can now graciously forgive all who will receive His Son. "For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son..." (Romans 5:10).
The Judge took the place of the criminals and met the just demands of His own holy Law! "He was numbered with the transgressors" and even prayed for them (Isa. 53:12; Luke 22:37; 23:33--34).
The dangerous tendency today is not so much outright rejection of God, it is the belief that forgiveness can be purchased by prayers,by rituals,or by giving up things and devoting ourselves to God.
"On the Day of Atonement, animals were killed before the altar and the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat in the most holy place.
"Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat ["propition seat"]... " (Hebrews 9:3--5).
Under that seat were the Ten Commandments. Looking down from heaven God could see the law, but when the sacrificial blood was sprinkled, the law--which pointed out man's sin--was covered. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb 9:22).
God gave very specific plans for how the Ark was to be make. "You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel. " (Exodus 25:21--22).
The blood on the mercy seat covered over the BROKEN LAW and hid it from God's HOLY PRESENCE.
Christ's death on the Cross satisfied the Father because it accomplished His eternal plan:
"He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. " (1 Peter 1:20NIV). This is why Jesus cried out: "It is finished" (John 19:30) from the Cross.
III. What Does the Satisfaction of God's Love Prove?
1Jn 4:7-10 A. God is love
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. " (1 John 4:7--10).
Grace is love that has paid the price!
Rom 3:21-26 B. God is righteous
"But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. " (Romans 3:21-26).
The doctrine of propitiation has to be one of the greatest proofs of the divine inspiration of Holy Scripture. Who would or could have thought of the holy Creator dying for the rebellious creature?
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." " (Romans 1:16--17).
IV. Who can Receive Christ's Satisfaction of God's Wrath?
Rom 4:5 A. Only those who fully trust Christ's work
"But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, " (Romans 4:5).
Lk 18:9-14 B. Only those who humbly ask for Christ's work
"And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful [Lit. "propitious"] to me, the sinner!' "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." " (Luke 18:9--14).
The tax collector wasn't just asking God to forgive him, he was asking God to pay for his sin.
Oswald Chambers said, "Either the Cross is the only way there is of explaining God, the only way of explaining Jesus Christ, and of explaining the human race, or there is nothing in it at all. If the human race apart from the Cross is all right, then the Redemption was a useless waste." [3]
CONCLUSION: Christ has fully paid the awful penalty for your sin. How much do you value what Christ did for you?
"When a large religious service was being conducted at the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco [in 1937 to celebrate the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge], many people quickly became aware that the minister delivering the main address was not thoroughly orthodox. Although a gifted speaker, he began to direct most of his eloquence against the power of the blood of Christ.
"Ruth E. Marsden relates that when his fluent oratory ended, a timid, elderly lady stood up in the midst of the crowd and softly began to sing a great hymn by William Cowper as a touching rebuttal to the modernist's remarks. A hush fell over the assembly as they heard those faint but familiar words: "There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains."
" Before she could begin the second stanza, approximately a hundred people rose to join her. By the time she reached the third verse, nearly a thousand Christians all over the audience were singing that blessed song of faith. The triumphant, thrilling strains rang out loud and clear: "Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power, till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more." Many were deeply moved as that humble believer stood up for her Lord and with the light of Heaven upon her face. [4]
The death of Christ displayed God's love to mankind while mankind was saying, "Crucify Him."
[1]Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed.) (975). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
[2]Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be comforted. An Old Testament study. (130–132). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.
[3]Chambers, O. (1996). Biblical ethics. Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott.
[4]Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : A treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers. Garland TX: Bible Communications.
