Prayer: Lord, we want You to know that we still need You. We need You as the life-giving Spirit. We need You as the anointing ointment. Lord, do speak in our speaking, and do be one spirit with us. Lord, cover us all against all the enemy's attacks. We hide ourselves in You. We believe that You are here with us. We are meeting into Your name. Lord, do honor Your name, and anoint everyone. Visit everyone, and touch every heart. Amen.
This message is the second in a series of four messages on the all-inclusive Christ in His four stages according to God's New Testament economy. In this message we will consider the stage of Christ's resurrection.
Isaiah 53:10b-11b says, "When He makes Himself an offering for sin, / He will see a seed, He will extend His days, / And the pleasure of Jehovah will prosper in His hand. / He will see the issue of the travail of His soul, / And He will be satisfied; / By the knowledge of Him, the righteous One, My Servant, will make the many righteous." In this portion of the Word there are four points: (1) Christ's making Himself an offering for sin; (2) His seeing a seed and extending His days; (3) His seeing the issue of the travail of His soul and being satisfied; and (4) His making many righteous by the knowledge of Him. The first item of the four belongs to the second stage, the stage of Christ's crucifixion. The remaining three points belong to the third stage, the stage of Christ's resurrection.
In Isaiah 53:11a, the words the issue have been inserted; they are not present in the Hebrew text. The issue is the outcome, the result, of the travail of Christ's soul. Christ suffered by pouring out His soul unto death (v. 12b). Surely there should be an issue, an outcome, of that travail. Isaiah said that Christ would see the outcome, that is, the issue, of the travail of His soul, and He would be satisfied.
Then, Isaiah 53:11b says, "By the knowledge of Him, the righteous One, My Servant, will make the many righteous." The phrase by the knowledge of Him does not mean by Christ's knowledge; it means by knowing Him, the righteous One, the resurrected Christ as God's Servant. By such knowledge of Him, Christ will make the many righteous. Many versions of the Bible translate this verse, "will justify the many." The Hebrew text can mean both. But we prefer to translate it, "will make the many righteous," because this refers to Christ in His resurrection. Justification is related mainly to Christ's death. However, for Christ to make us righteous is not merely to justify us through His death by His blood. It means primarily to make us righteous. It must be in resurrection that the living Christ lives in us so that He can be lived out of us as righteousness. Thus, Revelation 19:7-8 says that when the bride is ready for the marriage of the Lamb, she will be clothed in fine linen, which is the righteousnesses of the saints. The righteousnesses of the saints refer to the subjective righteousness lived out of us by our living of Christ. Christ in His resurrection will make us all righteous by Himself as the resurrection life being lived out of us.
Isaiah 53:12a says, "Therefore I will divide to Him a portion with the Great, / And He will divide the spoil with the Strong." This brief portion in Isaiah 53 refers to Christ's ascension. It is in His ascension that Christ brought us to the heavens as His captives. We were Satan's captives, but through His death and resurrection, Christ released us. Then, in a sense, He captured us. Now we are His captives. In His ascension He brought all of us as His captives with Him into the heavens. When He was ascending, Ephesians 4:8 says that "He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men." The Amplified New Testament renders this, "He led a train of vanquished foes." This means that Christ conquered Satan and captured Satan's captives, making them His captives. In His ascension Christ brought all these captives to the Father. There in the heavens He and the Father, who is the great One and also the strong One, shared the prey and divided the spoil.