Isaiah 53
(V. 3-5) He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Jesus was not a handsome man among men, He was ordinary-looking.
Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
When Jesus died, He paid our debt of human death, with all its sorrows and griefs and regrets, but until we see Him with eyes of faith, it looks like God is against Him.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
Jesus had no charges against Him, the criminal charges are against each one of us. We have transgressed, and He paid the consequences for our sins.
(V. 7, 10) He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not his mouth.
Jesus is the Lamb of God set aside for Sacrifice (the Greek is very specific). Sheep don't bleat when sheared, and Jesus did not answer the false accusations lodged against Him.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his Hand.
It was the Triune God's Plan before He created any of this Universe that the Son would be the One to come to us in our humility to pay our debt, so that we would be able to be with Him in His glory. It's the only way we can. That is the joy that enabled Jesus to endure the Cross (see John 17:24).
(V. 12b) He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
The "sin-nature of the many" all those who have been born with the sin-part of Adam's DNA that we all inherit; and "made intercession for the transgressors," all of us who have deliberately made wrong choices in defiance of God's rules.
Jesus didn't leave anyone out from ability to be saved, from the innocent babies to the most hardened criminal. The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.
Today, Good Friday, is the day we remember the Passion of the Christ. The day mankind executed God, the worst day in the history of the World, we call Good, because what man intends for evil, God intends for good; and the most evil of all God uses for the unimaginable best for each of us. All written down in detail hundreds of years before it happened.
Today's Friday, but Sunday's coming!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
