Isaiah 53:12

Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great

Christ’s conflict and conquest

I. CHRIST’S CONFLICT.

II. CHRIST’S CONQUEST. The conflict is last in the order of the words, but first in order of nature and time. (T. Manton, D.D.)

The greatness of the Sin-bearer

It is the voice of God Himself; and it is befitting that, as He introduced His Servant in the opening verses of this marvellous portraiture, so, in these closing words, He should pronounce His verdict on His career. Two things are clearly predicated of the Sin-bearer.

1. That He should be great.

2. That He should attain His commanding position, not as the founder of a new school of thought, nor as the leader of a social reformation, nor as possessed of exceptional saintliness--but as a Sufferer.

I. THE GREATNESS GIVEN BY THE FATHER AS THE REWARD FOR CHRIST’S OBEDIENCE TO DEATH. It was meet that such a reward should be bestowed, for the sake of those who should afterwards follow in the footsteps of their Divine Master. None could ever deserve more or better than Christ; and if He were without recognition or reward, might it not be thought that Heaven had no prize to give for faithful service? Surely He must have a reward, or the very order of the universe might be deemed at fault? But what reward should He have? What could compensate Him for having laid aside the exercise of His Divine prerogative; for having assumed our nature; for having passed through the ordeal of temptation, sorrow, and pain; for having become obedient to death, even the death of the Cross? All worlds were His by native right; all holy beings owned His sway as Creator and God; all provinces of thought, emotion, power, and might, sent Him their choicest tribute. What reward could He claim, or have? The answer may be suggested by recalling our own pleasure in conferring pleasure, our joy in giving joy. Let the limitations imposed by our mortality or circumstances be removed; let us be able to realize to the full the yearnings and promptings of our noblest hours; lot the wish to help be accompanied by a sympathy that cannot hurt the most sensitive, a wisdom that cannot mistake, a power that cannot be daunted or thwarted; and probably we should at once drink deep draughts of blessedness like God’s. This is the blessedness of Christ, and this is the reward which the Father has given Him. God Himself could not give, nor the Saviour ask for, a greater reward than this. And, in its magnificence, it appeals to all who would tread in His steps. This is Heaven’s supreme reward: that all who pour out their souls to death shall obtain enlarged opportunities and possibilities of service.

II. THE GREATNESS THAT CHRIST’S DEATH HAS SECURED HIM AMONG MEN. He is worthy to take the mysterious scroll of destiny, and break its seals, because of the light Its has cast on the great mysteries by which our lot is shadowed.

1. Pain. When it enwraps us in its fiery baptism, we are apt to accuse ourselves or to doubt God. But Jesus has taught us that there is yet a third way of regarding pain. He had not sinned, yet He suffered as none of woman.born ever did. Evidently, then, pain is not always symptomatic of special sin. He was once so submerged in anguish that for a time He lost the sense of His Father’s love; but He never suggested that there was failure or obliquity in the moral government of the world. The death of Jesus has therefore robbed death of these two implications, and has taught us that it is often sent, and must be borne, with the view of benefiting others. What a priceless service was this--to transform pain; to persuade sufferers that by their travail of soul they were enriching the whole world of men.

2. Death. Men dread it. But He, by His dying, has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. For this we count Him great, that through death He undid death.

3. Sin When Jesus died on the Cross, He was numbered with transgressors; but He stood over against all transgressors, distinct from them and bearing their sin. This surely constitutes an overmastering claim for us to count Christ great.

III. THE GREATNESS WHICH HIS DEATH WILL WIN FOR CHRIST IN THE ESTIMATION OF OTHER RACES OF BEING. Not to the Mount of Beatitudes, but to the Cross, will distant worlds send their deputations in all coming ages, to learn the manifold lessons which it alone can teach. There they will learn to know the very heart of God, His hatred against sin, His love for the sinner, His fidelity to covenant engagements, His righteousness, His truth. The Cross is the heavenly prism that enables us to distinguish the constituents of the Divine nature. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

He shall divide the spoil with the strong

“He shall divide the spoil with the strong:”

This is generally interpreted as picturing a conqueror sharing with other fellow-conquerors in the booty of the conquered. But could that figure have any analogy in Christ’s triumph” Who could be His fellow-conquerors? What could be the booty of His conquered ones? Much better is it to consider “the strong,” or the “mighty ones,” to represent the powers of darkness, who have made spoil of the human race, and the division of the spell with them by Messiah to be the rescue of souls from their grasp. The “many” (Isaiah 53:11) whom He saves will then be the spoil He snatches from the great enemy, and we can read the whole passage: “By the knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant give righteousness to many, and He Himself shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him the many as His portion, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty ones.” This allusion to the powers of evil gives completeness to the prophetic description. The humble birth, unattractive position in society, and unfavoured career through life, are given in Isaiah 53:2,

3. His partnership with distress and His own sufferings are exhibited invers. 4, 5, 6. His meekness is portrayed in Isaiah 53:7. Then comes the apparent failure of His life, followed by its complete triumph in saving souls. We need a word regarding the enemy triumphed over to make the wonderful prophetic sketch complete. (Howard Crosby, LL.D.)

The Lord Jesus a glorious Conqueror

Dividing of the spoil is the effect of a sure and a great conquest. The eminency of it lieth in these four things--

(1) Either in the power of the adversaries. There is no triumph in prevailing over weak things.

(2) The unlikelihood of the means. A thousand men were slain by the jawbone of an ass by the hands of Samson; and a numerous host discomfited by Gideon’s pitchers and three hundred lamps. Such things as these make the success memorable.

(3) The manner or nature of the victory. Total defeats are most noted.

(4) A conquest is glorious in the effects or result of it. If it be of great importance and consequence to the good of a people, when fears are removed, and privileges are granted and enlarged, spoilers taken, a kingdom subdued--these things make for the glory of the victory. Let us see if such things be not found in the conquest of Christ.

THE ADVERSARIES. They are always expressed by such notions as do imply great strength and power (Colossians 2:15; Ephesians 4:8).

1. There is the devil, who is a powerful adversary. But “the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:11).

2. The law was an enemy, as it condemns us (Colossians 2:14; Ephesians 2:16).

3. Death and hell (1 Corinthians 15:54; 2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 1:18).

4. The flesh (Romans 8:3).

5. The world (John 16:33).

6. All the adverse powers in the world (Psalms 2:10).

II. THE MEANS. The weapons of this warfare are not carnal.

1. As to His death.

2. By the Word of the Cross, called the foolishness of preaching.

3. By His Spirit; a great force, but secret and undiscerned.

4. By His prayers and intercessions.

III. THE MANNER OR NATURE OF THE CONQUEST, how it is achieved.

1. The enemies are overcome and terribly broken: there is a total dissipation of all the powers of darkness.

2. Not barely overcome, but spoiled and rifled (Colossians 2:15).

3. Such a victory as endeth in a solemn triumph; as conquerors in public view carried their spoils and their enemies tied to their chariots, so Christ would expose them to open shame.

IV. WHAT SPECIAL BENEFITS WE HAVE BY THE CONQUEST OF CHRIST.

1. The banishment of distracting fear (Hebrews 2:15).

2. An encouragement to the spiritual conflict.

3. Joy unspeakable and glorious.

4. Hopes of glory; we shall conquer with Him, and reign with Him.

5. The very exaltation of Christ is a great comfort to us.

6. Christ’s conquest is a token, earnest and pledge of our victory.

7. What Christ did in this conquest, He did it for our sakes. He will have nothing but we shall share in it.

8. Another benefit is usefulness and serviceableness for all that befalls us. Christ doth so effect it that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). (T. Manton, D.D.)

He hath poured out His soul unto death

The conflict of Christ explained

I. HIS DEATH. “He hath poured out,” etc.

II. THE IGNOMINY OF IT. “He was numbered with the transgressors.”

III. THE CAUSE OF IT. “He bare,” etc.

IV. THE NOTED CIRCUMSTANCE IN IT. “He made intercession for the transgressors.” (T. Manton, D.D.)

The love of Christ

He gave Himself.

I. THE GIFT. “His soul.”

II. THE MANNER OF GIVING. “Poured out.”

III. THE INTENT. (T. Manton, D.D.)

Christ killed by the inner Cross

It was not the Cross of wood that killed the Saviour, but the inner Cross, which lay heavily on His soul. (C. Clemance, D.D.)

Christ’s connection with sinners the source of His glory

I. The first source of the Mediator’s glory is, that He, out of His love to guilty men, has POURED OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH. The penalty of sin is death. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” The Lord Jesus came into such connection with men that He bore the death penalty which guilty men had incurred. Remark the expression: “He hath poured out His soul unto death.” It is deliberate. It is a libation presented with thought and care; not the mere spilling of His blood, but the resolute, determinate pouring out of His whole life unto its last drop--the pouring it; out unto death. Christ’s resolve to die for you and me was not that of a brave soldier who rushes up to the cannon’s mouth in a moment of excitement; but He was practically pouring out His life from the day when His public ministry commenced, if not before. He was always dying by living at such a rate that His zeal consumed Him.

2. It was most real and true. I pray you do not think of Christ as pouring out His soul, as though it made Him spend a sort of ecstatic life in dream-land, and suffer only in thought, intent, and sympathy. My Lord suffered as you suffer, only more keenly; for He had never injured His body or soul by any act of excess, so as to take off the edge from His sensitiveness.

3. See how complete it was. Jesus gave poor sinners everything. His every faculty was laid out for them. Put your trust; m Him, then, without reserve.

II. OUR LORD WAS NUMBERED WITH SINNERS. “He was numbered with the transgressors.” There is a touch of nearness to the sinner about this which there is not in the first clause. He bears death for the sinner; but you could not suppose, if you had not read it, thus He would be written in the sinner s register. He was not, and could not be, a sinner; but yet it is written, “He was numbered with the transgressors.” Is there a census taken of sinners? Then, the name of Jesus is written down. How was He numbered with the transgressors? This makes it the more marvellous, because it is so hurtful to a man who is pure, to be numbered with the impure.

Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors--

1. By the tongue of slander. They called Him a drunken man and a wine-bibber: they even called Him Beelzebub. That was sharp enough for Him to bear, whom all the angels salute as “Holy, holy, holy!”

2. In the earthly courts of justice. He stood at the bar as a common felon, though He was judge of all. Though they could not find witnesses whose testimony agreed, yet they condemned Him (Mark 15:28).

3. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on earth, was treated, in the providence of God, as transgressors are treated. Transgression sometimes brings on men poverty, sickness, reproach, and desertion; and Jesus Christ had to take His share of all these with sinful men. All things in this world that are so keen and terrible to man, because man has become so guilty, were just as keen and terrible to Him. The nails that pierced Him tore His tender flesh as they would have torn that of the sinful. Fever parched Him till His tongue cleaved to His jaws.

4. The Holy God treated Him as if He were one of us. “It pleased the Father to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief.”. God not only turned His back on transgressors, but He turned His back upon His Son, who was numbered with them.

III. The third matter by which the Lord Jesus Christ has won His victories, and earned reward of God, is this: “HE BARE THE SIN OF MANY.”

IV. The last thing is this: “HE MADE INTERCESSION FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS.” Who among us will take up the part of the guilty? Who will plead for the guilty? I know, in certain oases, the lawyer will sell his tongue to the most polluted; but if a man were perfectly pure, you would not find him saying a word in defence of the guilty. So far as the man was guilty he could not be defended. But our Lord made intercession for transgressors. When He was here on earth how tender He was with transgressors! He bore on His heart the names of guilty men. He was always pleading their cause, and when He came to die he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He took their part. He would exculpate them if He could. I dare say that He has often prayed like that for you. Now He has gone up yonder He is pleading still. Application:

(1) Jesus Christ does not shrink from sinners; ye sinners, do not shrink from Him.

(2) As Jesus does not shrink from sinners, do not yourselves shrink from them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

He was numbered with the transgressors

The Friend of sinners

I. To the sinner, troubled and alarmed on account of guilt, there will be much comfort in the thought that CHRIST IS ENROLLED AMONG SINNERS. “He was numbered with the transgressors.”

1. In what sense are we to understand this?

(1) He was numbered with them, in the census of the Roman empire.

(2) Years rolled on, and that child who had been early numbered with transgressors, and had received the seal of transgression in the circumcision, which represents the putting away of the flesh--that child, having come to manhood, goes forth into the world and is numbered with transgressors in the scroll of fame. Ask public rumour “What is the character of Jesus of Nazareth?” and it cannot find a word in its vocabulary foul enough for Him. “This” they sometimes said; and our translators have inserted the word “fellow” because in the original there is an ellipsis, the evangelists, I suppose, hardly liking to write the word which had been cast upon Christ Jesus. They called the Master of the house, Beelzebub!

(3) But to make the matter still more forcible, “He was numbered with transgressors in the courts of law.” The ecclesiastical court of Judaism, the Sanhedrim, said of Him, “Thou blasphemest;” and they smote Him on the cheek. Written down among the offenders against the dignity of God and against the security of the Jewish Church, you find the name of Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. The courts civil also asserted the same.

(4) Then, the whole Jewish people numbered Him with transgressors; nay, they reprobated Him as a more abominable transgressor than a thief and a murderer who had excited sedition.

(5) His name is written in the calendar of crime by the whole universe; for He is despised and rejected of men; of all men is He accounted to be the offscouring of all things, and is put to grief.

2. Why was Christ numbered with transgressors?

(1) Because He could the better become their advocate. I believe, in legal phraseology, in civil cases, the advocate considers himself to be part and partner with the person, for whom he pleads. You hear the counsellor continually using the word “we;” he is considered by the judge to represent the person for whom he is an advocate.

(2) That He might plead with them. Suppose a number of prisoners confined in one of our old jails, and there is a person desirous to do them good, imagine that he cannot be admitted unless his name is put down in the calendar. Well, out of his abundant love to these prisoners he consents to it, and when he enters to talk with them, they perhaps think that he will come in with cold dignity; but he says, “Now, let me say to you first of all that I am one of yourselves.” “Well,” they say, “but have you done aught that is wrong?” “I will not answer you that,” saith he; “but if you will just refer to the calender you will find my name there; I am written down there among you as a criminal.” Oh, how they open their hearts now!

(3) That sinners may feel their hearts drawn to Him.

(4) That we might be written in the red roll of His saints.

II. We are taught in the next sentence, that Christ “BARE THE SINS OF MANY.”

1. Here it is as clear as noon-day that Christ dealt with sinners.

2. As He did bear their sins, other texts tell us that He did bear them away.

3. There is now no sin abiding upon those for whom Jesus died.

III. Our third sentence tells us that JESUS INTERCEDES FOR SINNERS. “And made intercession for the transgressors.”

1. He pleads for their forgiveness.

2. He next prays that those for whom He intercedes may be saved, and may have a new life given them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Christ numbered with the transgressors

He became a sinner, though sinless--

1. By imputation.

2. By reputation. (J. Trapp.)

Made intercession far the transgressors

Christ’s intercession for transgressors

Christ in this and such like actions is to be considered in a double regard--

1. As a holy, godly man; so He was to fulfil all righteousness.

2. As a mediator and public person, that was to be our High Priest, to satisfy and intercede. (T. Manton D. D.)

Christ s intercession

1. Who prayeth. Christ, one that could destroy them with His glory easily enough.

2. When He prayed. In the very act of His sufferings.

3. For whom He prayed. For them that offered Him all the indignities in the world.

4. How He prayed. He pleadeth for them; “Forgive them,” etc. (T. Manton, D.D.)

Jesus interceding for transgressors

Our blessed Lord made intercession for transgressors in so many words while He was being crucified, for He was heard to say, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Our Lord fixed His eye upon that point in the character of His persecutors which was most favourable to them, namely, that they knew not what they did. He could not plead their innocence, and therefore He pleaded their ignorance. Our great Advocate will be sure to plead wisely and efficiently on our behalf; He will urge every argument which can be discovered, for His eye, quickened by love, will suffer nothing to pass which may tell in our favour. The prophet, however, does not, I suppose, intend to confine our thoughts to the one incident which is recorded by the evangelists, for the intercession of Christ was an essential part of His entire life-work. Jesus Himself is the reasoning and logic of prayer, and He Himself is an ever-living prayer unto the Most High. It was part of our Lord’s official work to make intercession for the transgressors. He is a Priest, and as such He brings His offering, and presents prayer on the behalf of the people.

I. I have to direct your attention to our ever-living Lord making intercession for the transgressors; and I shall pray God that all of us may be roused to ADMIRATION FOR HIS GRACE.

1. If you will consider His intercession for transgressors I think you will be struck with the love, and tenderness, and graciousness of His heart, when you recollect that He offered intercession verbally while He was standing in the midst of their sin. Sin heard of and sin seen are two very different things. Our Lord actually saw human sin, saw it at its worst. He saw it all, and felt the sin as you and I cannot feel it, for His heart was purer, and therefore tenderer than ours: He saw that the tendency of sin was to put Him to death, and all like Him, yea and to slay God Himself if it could achieve its purpose, for man had become a Decide and must needs crucify His God--and yet, though His holy soul saw and loathed all this tendency and atrocity of transgression, He still made intercession for the transgressors.

2. Another point of His graciousness was also clear, namely, that He should thus intercede while in agony.

3. But it is marvellous that He being pure, should plead for transgressors at all: for you and for me amongst them--let the wonder begin there.

4. Further, it is to me a very wonderful fact that in His glory He should still be pleading for sinners.

5. Again, it is gloriously gracious that our Lord should continue to do this. He hath never ceased to make intercession for transgressors.

II. I do earnestly pray that we may be led of the Holy Ghost so to view His intercession for transgressors as to put our CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF. There is ground for a sinner’s confidence in Christ, and there is abundant argument for the believer’s complete reliance in Him, from the fact of His perpetual intercession.

1. Because His intercession succeeds.

2. There is reason for transgressors to come and trust in Jesus Christ, seeing He pleads for them.

3. I am sure, too, that if Jesus Christ pleads for transgressors as transgressors, while as yet they have not begun to pray for themselves, He will be sure to hear them when they are at last led to pray.

4. In order that our confidence may be increased, consider the effect of our Lord’s intercession for transgressors.

(1) Many of the worst of transgressors have been preserved in life in answer to Christ’s prayer.

(2) The gift of the Holy Spirit which is needful for the quickening of transgressors was the result of Christ’s intercession.

(3) It is through Christ’s intercession that our poor prayers are accepted with God.

(4) It is through the prayers of Christ, too, that we are kept in the hour of temptation. Remember what He said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not,” when Satan desired to have him and sift him as wheat. “Father, keep them from the evil” is a part of our Lord’s supplication, and His Father hears Him always.

(5) Indeed, it is because He pleads that we are saved at all. He is “able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

III. I pray that our text may inspire us with the spirit of OBEDIENCE TO HIS EXAMPLE. I take the example of Christ to be an embodied precept as much binding upon us as His written commands.

1. Imitate Him by forgiving all transgressions against yourself.

2. Imitate Christ, in pleading for yourselves. Since you are transgressors, and you see that Jesus intercedes for transgressors, make bold to say, “If He pleads for such as I am, I will put in my humble petition, and hope to be heard through Him.”

3. If we have been forgiven our transgressions, let us now intercede for transgressors, since Jesus does so.

4. Let us take care, that if we do plead for others we mix with it the doing of good to them, because it is not recorded that He made intercession for transgressors until it is first written, “He bare the sin of many”

5. If Christ appears in heaven for us, let us be glad to appear on earth for him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Monarch becomes an intercessor for His foes

(with Luke 23:34):--Here prophecy and history unite in taking us to the place which is calledCalvary.

I. IN WHAT LIGHT SHOULD WE REGARD THESE WORDS?

II. WHAT IS THE REQUEST? For whom? “Forgive them,” those who were the instruments and agents in His crucifixion. These were--

1. The people.

2. The chief priests and scribes.

3. The rulers.

4. The soldiers.

5. The Roman governor.

6. The passers-by, who were reviling Him.

7. Those who were crucified with Him, joining in the mockery and jests.

What is the plea by which the petition is urged? “They know not what they do.” Not one of them knew the full extent of the crime. Not even the disciples could have estimated the guilt of the people (Acts 3:16; 1 Corinthians 2:6). There was only One, even the Sufferer Himself, who could view that sin in all its manifold complications, and hold evenly and righteously the scales of judgment.

III. WHAT A SPIRIT OF LOVE THESE WORDS BREATHE! Their self-forgetfulness is wonderful. The sin of those thus wronging the Saviour was a far greater cause of distress to Him than all the degradation, ignominy, and pain He was enduring; on these things He could be altogether silent, in order to plead for the forgiveness of others sin. We see here, too, a love which, rising above human repulsiveness and guilt, ever regards itself as sent to save; a love which would carry on a redeeming work, even when stretched in agony on the Cross. Here, too, is not only the love of One, whose saving energy could neither be repulsed nor trammelled, but of One who, though He is most fully acquainted with the greatness of their guilt, pleads before Him, to whom sin is an abominable thing, the mitigation of their crime. Truly, it is a marvel of comfort that He, who judges sin most exactly, deals with the sinner most tenderly! Here, too, is Divine love making intercession for the transgressors; not for the good, but for the bad; not for the penitent, but for the impenitent; that they may be brought to repent; showing us how Christ’s love goes after men always, under all circumstances, in the lowest depths of guilt. Nevertheless, Divine love so pleads, as to imply that if this sin had been committed with full understanding of its enormity, He dared not have asked for its forgiveness. “For they know not what they do.” Thus the spirit of this prayer has its terrors as well as its comforts. “There is a sin unto death,” for which the Redeemer does not intercede, and for which we have no commission or authority to pray. Where that sin lies, what is its precise character, whether this or that man has committed it, we dare not say. We can tell four things about it:--we know the region in which it lies, the sign it has been committed, the sign it has not been committed, and why there is no mercy for it. Where one who has the fullest light indulges in the greatest sin, he is getting very near the unpardonable sin. The sign that it has been committed, would be hard, final, impenitence. True repentance is a sure sign it has not been committed. It is not pardonable, because at such a stage the sinner will not repent.

IV. WHAT ARE THE DOCTRINES THESE WORDS INVOLVE?

1. They teach us that the Father saves us through the Son.

2. That sins of ignorance need forgiveness. Paul sinned “ignorantly in unbelief,” and yet was the “chief of sinners.”

3. Whatever palliation of guilt may be allowed, owing to ignorance, full recognition is taken thereof by the great Intercessor.

4. We are taught that the fuller the light the greater the sin (Hebrews 10:26).

5. That forgiveness of sin, by God, is so precious to us, because it is made over to us in perfect knowledge of every aggravation and mitigation.

V. WHAT RESULTS DID THIS INTERCESSION SECURE? We are sure that this prayer was answered. It did not indeed avert the destruction of the doomed city, but--

1. It secured the forgiveness of every penitent who might be, nevertheless, involved in its temporal disasters.

2. The Great Pleader’s work soon proved its power in the salvation of the thief on the Cross, and shortly after of thousands more.

3. By means of the intercession of our Lord, begun on earth, and now carried on in heaven, we are “not under the law, but under grace.” (C. Clemance, D. D.)

Meaning of intercession

The question, “What is meant by intercession?” being asked in a Sunday school, one of the children replied, “Speaking a word to God fur us, sir.”

Intercession for the transgressors

“I shall never forget,” wrote Miss Plumptre to a friend, “the day of the sadness and the gladness of my heart, the day when a chafed and disappointed spirit found healing and rest in One whom I had done my utmost to be independent of. The joy of the astronomer over his newly-discovered planet is nothing to the rapture with which I gazed upon the word transgressors in the last sentence of Isaiah 53:12; ‘He made intercession for the transgressors.’ I wellremember being so dazzled that for a time I thought it a delusion, a misprint. It was something so altogether new to my proud, hard-working spirit, that I could almost wonder that I did not erase it and put in ‘the penitent’ or ‘the humble’ or one of nature’s proud epithets. Yes, I think that word ‘transgressors’ was the first that ever glowed on me with all the attraction of ‘free grace.’”.