THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.

Part 1
What the Bible says about the cross

Images of the cross from the Old Testament

The Bible is an amazing collection of 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. These books were written over a period of about 1200 years, in 3 different languages, in several different countries and in many different literary styles—for example, history, parable, poetry, drama, prophecy, vision, oration, epigram. However, one of a number of reasons why Christians believe that God himself was involved in the process—involving people chosen and equipped by himself for the task—is the way the whole corpus holds together. It is remarkably consistent in the way it presents the character of God and his dealing with mankind throughout history. It is consistent also in its picture of the nature of human beings, their accountability to God, their potential and their perversity.

Another way in which the Bible is consistent is in the meaning it gives to various symbols and images. The Bible often uses images, metaphors, symbols, and stories or parables to illustrate spiritual truths. It is interesting to note the number of times in the Gospels that the disciples, or others, misunderstood Jesus because they took him too literally when he was using a story or metaphor to get across a truth. Sometimes these images from the Old Testament are spoken of as “types”. Douglas Moo, in The Epistle to the Romans, defines types as “those Old Testament persons, institutions, or events that have a divinely intended function of prefiguring.”

The Old Testament is mostly the story of God’s dealings with the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, over a period of some 1500 years, as he prepared them for his personal coming into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, the second member of the divine Trinity.[3] However, there is a very real sense in which the Old Testament could be said to be God’s Picture Book, a book that illustrates, often in quite vivid ways, the truths that are made more explicit in the New Testament through the coming of Christ.

Some of the most significant images given to us in the Old Testament look forward to the cross and in some way illuminate its meaning. Often these images are referred to by writers of the New Testament. It is always easy to get carried away with interpreting images. Some of the Church Fathers in the early centuries after Christ tended to do this. However, a good guide is to see how the New Testament writers interpreted them. If we believe that God had a hand in giving us the Bible, then we can expect some consistency here. So let’s go exploring in the Old Testament to see what we can find.

[3] I have explored the question of why Christians believe that God is a Trinity of persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and how this makes sense, in the booklet Understanding the Trinity.

The tree of life

The “tree of life” is mentioned a number of times in the Bible. It occurs first in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9; 3:22, 24). It is found in four of the pithy sayings of Proverbs (3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4). It occurs again in Revelation as one of the symbols found in the Eternal City (2:7; 22:2, 14). It seems obvious, in Genesis and Revelation at least, that this stands for that quality of life which we enjoy when we have a relationship with God. This was the life that humans lost when they turned from God and forfeited their fellowship with him, symbolised by being driven from the Garden and no longer having access to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). In the New Testament, this life is called “eternal life” and is given as a gift when we put our faith in Jesus (e.g. Romans 6:23).

It is significant, however, that in the New Testament the cross is four times spoken of as a ‘tree’ (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; 1 Peter 2:24). This, no doubt, is related to the statement in the Old Testament that “anyone who is hung on a pole [or 'tree'] is under God’s curse” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Paul, when quoting this verse, explains that Christ bore that curse on our behalf, “becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). The Greek word used for “tree” in these instances is xulon, which is the usual word for dead wood or timber. The normal word for living wood in the New Testament is dendron (from which comes our word “rhododendron”—“rose tree”).

When the tree of life is mentioned in the New Testament, the Greek word is always xulon, not dendron. It is the “dead tree of life”. I see here a clear reference to the cross. It is Christ crucified (and risen again) who offers us life. One could well say that the “dead tree of life” is Christ himself, the one who forever bears in his risen body the scars of his suffering (John 20:20). “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Those who have the Son have life; those who do not have the Son of God do not have life” (1 John 5:11, 12).

The serpent’s fatal wound

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel (Genesis 3:15).

These words of God to the serpent at the beginning of the human story have from early days been recognised by Christians as a symbolic reference to the ongoing struggle between Satan and humans and foreshadows the means by which he will ultimately be defeated. Revelation 12:9 speaks of “that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan” (cf. Isaiah 27:1). The word “Satan”, in both the Hebrew and Greek, means literally “The Adversary”.

The above verse from Genesis implies that it is the offspring of the woman who will eventually crush Satan’s head—that is, give him his death blow. The Hebrew word for “offspring” is literally “seed” and can be taken either in the singular or plural. No doubt it could have a collective significance (as in Romans 16:20), but many would see here a reference to Christ. The personal pronoun “he” of this verse is allowed, but not required, by the Hebrew, but is used in the LXX, the first Greek translation of the third century B.C. Paul uses a similar interpretation of the word “seed” in Galatians 3:16 when referring to the Old Testament prophecy concerning the seed of Abraham.

In dealing Satan his death blow, the descendant of the woman would also suffer--" you will strike his heel ". Interestingly, the one instance of a crucified person that has yielded to the archaeologist's spade has been the discovery in a cemetery north of Jerusalem in 1968 of a crucified male whose right heel bone was pierced medially by a nail (see Psalm 22:16; Luke 24:40).

Another hint of this battle between Christ and evil comes in the magnificent scene in the throne-room of heaven in Revelation 5. "' Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals .' Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain... " (vv. 5, 6). Christ has triumphed over all the forces of evil, from whatever source. How has the Lion of Judah triumphed? He did so as the Lamb who was slain. And as this passage goes on to explain, it is " by [his] blood " that the Lamb has " purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation " and " have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth "[3a] (vv. 9, 10), thereby implying that this defeat of evil will eventually lead to the restoration of all creation.

[3a] Italics mine.

Many would see the battle between Michael (Christ?) and Satan described in Revelation 12:7-9 as that which took place on the cross. This makes sense as it is immediately followed by the statement that “They [believers] triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb” (v. 11). What Satan took as a great victory proved his greatest defeat, as through the cross Jesus provided the means for our total forgiveness and Satan can no longer accuse us before God (v. 10). Mel Gibson hints at this aspect of the cross, the defeat of Satan, in his film The Passion of the Christ.

The battle still rages, but the final outcome is assured through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Believers may begin to experience a foretaste of that victory through their trust in him. The kingdom of this world will be taken from Satan and “become the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

Thorns—symbol of the curse

The result of the curse that God pronounced on the ground after Adam and Eve’s disobedience was that it produced thorns (Genesis 3:17, 18). There are a number of significant references to thorns in the Bible. In the Parable of the Sower it is thorns that represent the attractions of this world, those things that prevent people from hearing the word of God (Mark 4:7, 18, 19). Paul speaks of his illness, whatever it was, as a “thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan” (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Do we see in the “crown of thorns” (Matthew27:29; Mark 15:17; John 19:2) a picture of Satan’s final attempt to exert his authority over Jesus? Christ did indeed redeem “us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Because he endured the consequences of this curse, Isaiah can look forward to a glorious future when “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow” (55:12, 13).

Our nakedness covered through the shedding of blood

“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).

Christians have often recognised here a simple illustration of the gospel. Adam and Eve had tried unsuccessfully to cover the shame of their nakedness with fig leaves (Genesis 3:7). God provided, at no cost to them, a better way, but a way that involved the death of the one from whom the covering came.

In a number of places in the Bible our outer garments are given as a picture of the state of our heart or our standing before God. For instance, Isaiah declares, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (64:6). The prophet Zechariah describes a vision in which the high priest, Joshua, is accused by Satan. Joshua is dressed in filthy clothes. However, “the angel of the Lord” says, “‘Take off his filthy clothes.’ Then he said to Joshua, ‘See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you’” (3:4).

In the New Testament, Paul describes the experience of becoming a Christian as putting “off the old self with its practices” and putting “on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9, 10). He says, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). In Revelation, believers in glory are said to be those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14).

An illustration of this principle comes to us from the story of the crucifixion itself. We are told that the robe that Jesus wore was “seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom” (John 19:23). Here we have a beautiful picture of the sinless perfection of the Son of God. However, when he came to the cross he shed his seamless robe as “God made him who had no sin to be sin [or “sin offering”] for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). What happened to the robe? It was gambled for and taken home by one of the rough soldiers who had nailed Jesus to the cross—and it cost him nothing. To complete the verse above—“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”[4] (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the great transaction of the New Testament. He took the consequences of our sin that we might be regarded as righteous before God. Lloyd Douglas’s magnificent novel The Robe tells the imaginary story of this garment of Jesus and the transforming effect it had on those who later possessed it.

Paul takes this illustration further still when he speaks of the new glorified body we shall receive at the resurrection as a new suit of clothes, when “what is mortal” will be “swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:1-4).

“My soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

[4] Italics mine

A God who is prepared to die

God made several great promises to Abraham: that he would have a son in his old age; that his descendants would be as uncountable as the stars; that they would possess the land of Canaan and that through his “seed” all nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:4-7; 22:15-18). In chapter 15 God seals his covenant with Abraham with a ceremony that was no doubt familiar to Abraham and typical of the culture of that day when two persons entered into a lasting agreement. The parties to the covenant would divide the bodies of certain animals in two and walk together between the parts, indicating by this that if either broke the covenant, then they would be prepared to suffer the same fate as the slaughtered animals. In this instance it is God alone who seals the covenant and moves between the slaughtered animals.

I can do no better here than quote theologian Miroslav Volf, from his book Exclusion and Embrace:

Abraham cut the sacrificial animals in two, and “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch”—both symbols of theophany—passed between the halves (15:17). The unique ritual act performed by God was a pledge that God would rather “die” than break the covenant, much like the animals through which God passed died (Ratzinger 1995, 205f.; Westermann 1981, 271). The thought of a living God dying is difficult enough—as difficult as the thought of a faithful God breaking the covenant. At the foot of the cross, however, a veritable abyss opens up for the thought. For the narrative of the cross is not a self-contradictory story of a God who “died” because God broke the covenant, but a truly incredible story of God doing what God should neither have been able nor willing to do—a story of God who “died” because God’s all too human covenant partner broke the covenant.

Frederick Buechner illustrates this truth beautifully: “Like a father saying about his sick child ‘I’ll do anything to make you well’, God finally calls his own bluff and does it.”

The Father’s sacrifice

In Genesis 22 we read a story which is one of my favourite illustrations of the cross. God had kept his promise to Abraham by giving him a son, Isaac, in his old age. Abraham must have had much joy as he watched the lad grow. However, one day the Lord gives Abraham a terrible command: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you” (v. 2). We can hardly imagine the struggle that must have gone on in Abraham’s heart. But his trust in God is such at this point in his life that he obeys. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead” (Hebrews 11:19). How else could God’s promise be fulfilled—“My covenant I will establish with Isaac” (Genesis 17:21).

A clue to the significance behind this story lies in the statement that it was to take place in the “region of Moriah”. In 2 Chronicles 3:1 we are told that Solomon built the temple of the Lord on “Mount Moriah”. So the “region of Moriah” was no doubt the area around Jerusalem. In John 8:56 Jesus makes the puzzling statement that “Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad”. In what sense did Abraham see the day of Jesus? I love a suggestion of the famous evangelist, D. L. Moody. Maybe, as Abraham stood with his knife raised in his hand, ready to slay his one and only son, God gave him a vision down the corridors of time. What he saw was a glimpse of the eternal Father offering his only Son for the sins of the human race, perhaps on that very same spot, approximately 1,800 years later. In the story of Abraham, the son was spared and God provided a substitute, a ram. Abraham named the place “The Lord Will Provide” (Hebrew Jehovah-jireh). God’s only Son (John 1:14, 18; 3:16) was not spared, though in his case it was followed by the resurrection. We are the ones who deserved to be on the cross, but God has provided the perfect substitute.

As Isaac carried the wood to the place where he was going to be sacrificed (v. 6), so Jesus was compelled to carry his own cross to the place of execution (John 19:17).

This raises the interesting question as to who suffered most through the experience of the cross, God the Father or God the Son? An interesting statement occurs twice in the story of Abraham: “The two of them went on together” (22:6, 8). The New Testament constantly emphasises that both the Father and the Son were involved in the decision that led to the cross. Jesus spoke of it as a voluntary decision on his part. “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:18). He spoke also of his love for his friends in laying his life down for them (John 15:13, 14). However, the New Testament puts much emphasis on the Father’s love in sending his Son to die for us. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. . .” (John 3:16). “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Both the planning and execution of our salvation were the work of both the Father and the Son. The writer of Hebrews speaks of the involvement of the Holy Spirit as well. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (9:14).

Passover—safe beneath the Lamb’s blood

The first 12 chapters of the book of Exodus tell the story of how God brought the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt after ten acts of judgement on Pharaoh and his people. The last of these judgements was the most terrible of all, when the eldest son in each family died. However, God provided a means of averting the judgement for the Israelites who were prepared to trust him. Each family was to take a year-old male lamb with no defect. On the 14th day of the month, the first Israelite month of Nisan, the lamb was to be slaughtered, roasted and eaten with bitter herbs. But, before the meal, its blood was to be put on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where the meals were held. When God passed over the land in judgement the homes where the blood was present would be spared. “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).

The Israelites were commanded to keep this ceremony as an annual memorial on the 14th Nisan, in remembrance of how God had delivered them from Egypt. This was the beginning of their nationhood. It is still kept by the Jewish people today as their major annual ceremony. Since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Jewish people have not sacrificed living animals, but the shank bone of a lamb is present on the table at the Passover as a reminder of the lamb’s significance.

Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Our Passover lamb is Christ, who has already been sacrificed.” We are safe from judgement when we put our trust in the one who shed his blood for us. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The fact that the lamb was to be male and without defect adds to the symbolism. Also, the first Passover was to be celebrated “with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover” (Exodus 12:11). This was to be the beginning of their journey to freedom. When we commit our lives to the crucified and risen Saviour, it is the beginning, and only the beginning, of our journey to spiritual freedom. A life of living for him lies ahead. The fact that it was to be eaten in haste implies the urgency of the occasion. There is no more important decision we will make in this life than our response to Christ. Before the lamb died they could not go. After the lamb died, they could not stay.

Jesus was crucified at Passover. It seems from John’s Gospel that Jesus would have been hanging on the cross at the very time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the temple in preparation for the evening meal (18:28). This would have meant that the Last Supper with his disciples, held the night before, was not a Passover meal. However, the other Gospels make it appear as if the Last Supper was indeed the Jewish Passover (Matthew 26:17, 18). The answer may well lie in the fact that it was a meal held the day before in preparation for the Passover, or that different Jewish groups celebrated the Passover on different days, in which case the Passover could have been celebrated on both days. I believe there is some evidence for this. There is no mention of the presence of a lamb, and I like to think that it was a true Passover meal but that Jesus deliberately excluded the lamb, as he was the one to be sacrificed on this occasion.

However, there is one other very attractive view that is presented by Arnold Fruchtenbaum of Ariel Ministries. He is a Chrsitian Jew and his views can be read on his website <www.ariel.org>. He says that all the Jews would have eaten the Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan which was the Thursday evening. However, on the next morning, at nine o'clock, the very hour at which Jesus was crucified, a special Passover sacrifice was offerred in the Temple compound. This special sacrifice was not for individual families, but for the nation of Israel. It was this Passover that John refers to.

John the Baptist had declared at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Now the time of fulfilment had come when symbols would give place to reality. “He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my[5] blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27, 28). This is why Christians now celebrate the “Lord’s Supper” or “Holy Communion” in place of the Passover, to commemorate our spiritual deliverance from the consequence of our sins through the Lamb of God. The description of Jesus as the Lamb surfaces again in the book of Revelation, where it is used as his title 29 times. In heaven we will always know him as the one who sacrificed himself for our sins.

Terry Virgo, in his excellent book God’s Lavish Grace, has a very pertinent comment to make concerning the security we have in Christ when we trust in his blood shed for our sins:

Notice incidentally that the blood was to be placed on the outside of their houses. The blood was for God to see, not for their benefit. The blood was not to make them feel good or feel safe. The blood was not for their feelings at all. The blood was to satisfy God. It was for his eyes alone, just as later the blood of atonement would be offered in the Holy of Holies where no other man was present. God said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). We have peace, not because we feel good, but because God is satisfied with the blood. Only he can evaluate the worth of the blood of the lamb. Because he is satisfied, we have peace.

[5] Italics mine.

Bitter waters made sweet

At the very first stopping place on the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt, a curious event happens. The water of the place is bitter and undrinkable. The people complain. Moses prays, and the Lord shows him a piece of wood which Moses throws into the water and it becomes sweet (Exodus 15:22-25). Maybe it is not too fanciful to see in this piece of wood a picture of “the old rugged cross”. The story of a God who suffers with his people, sharing their most hurtful experiences, and suffers for them, even to the extent of bearing the consequences of their sins on a wooden cross, is a story that can bring sweetness into the most bitter of human trials. I explore this theme further, and give personal examples, in the booklet If There Is a God, Why Is There So Much Suffering and in the book Life After Death: Christianity’s Hope and Challenge.

The smitten rock—God in the dock

Exodus 17 tells the story of how the Israelites arrive at Rephidim in the desert and find no water to drink. The people complain, Moses cries out to the Lord, and the Lord tells him to walk on ahead of the people with the elders and his staff in his hand. “I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink” (v. 6). God is spoken of as a rock many times in the Bible (e.g. Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 28:1; 62:2). In using the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness as an analogy of our spiritual journey as Christians, Paul says, “that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). It was necessary that the Son of God should be smitten on our behalf before the living waters could flow. Perhaps it is appropriate to quote here the words that Jesus cried out when present on one occasion at the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles: “‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:37-39).

Edmund Clowney, in his book The Unfolding Mystery, gives a fascinating insight into this story. We read that the people “quarrelled” with Moses (Exodus 17:2). Unfortunately, the word “quarrelled” does not adequately express the Hebrew word used. It is a legal term and would be better translated “they lodged a complaint with Moses.” The word is the root of Meribah, the name given to the place of this incident. It describes the institution of a lawsuit and is used by the prophets to express the lawsuit that God brought against Israel because they broke his covenant (e.g. Micah 6:1-8).

It is initially against Moses that the people bring their charge, for allowing them to perish in the wilderness. However, Moses points out that their real complaint is against God (v. 2). God is the Judge of all the earth, and in response to Moses’ prayer he indicates that the case would be heard. Moses is to bring his staff, the symbol of his authority, and the elders are to be present as witnesses (v. 5). What follows is one of the most amazing incidents in the Bible. We would expect God to act as the judge, but in this instance God places himself in the dock and Moses is appointed as the judge. God identifies himself with the rock by standing “beside” it, though a more natural translation would be that he stands upon it. In the Psalms that commemorate this event, the name “Rock” is used for God (Psalm 78:15, 20, 35; 95:1, 8). Moses, acting as the judge, lifts his rod. Someone found guilty of a crime in Israel could be sentenced to lie down and be beaten (Deuteronomy 25:1-3). Moses cannot strike the heart of God’s shekinah glory. God commands him to strike the rock with which he is identified.

Clowney continues:

Is God then guilty? No, it is the people who are guilty. In rebellion they have refused to trust the faithfulness of God. Yet God, the Judge, bears the judgement; He receives the blow that their rebellion deserves. The law must be satisfied: if God’s people are to be spared, He must bear the punishment.

Clowney then adds a significant comment: “Before God gave His covenant at Sinai, He pledged His presence at Calvary.”

There is another story that is connected to this event at Meribah. In Numbers 20, we read how the Israelites again have no water. Again they quarrel with Moses, Moses prays and once more God instructs him to stand before a rock. However, on this occasion there is an important difference. There is no suggestion that this is to be a court of law and Moses is not commanded to strike the rock, but merely to speak to it. But Moses disobeys and strikes the rock twice, and though abundant water is provided, God rebukes Moses for his disobedience and tells him that, because of it, he will not personally enter the promised land.

Why the difference from the previous account? When we turn to the New Testament, particularly the book of Hebrews, the answer becomes plain. What Jesus suffered on the cross, because of its sufficiency to deal with the problem of sin for all time, cannot, will not, nor ever needs to be, repeated. In the New Testament there is a little Greek word hapax or ephapax. It has a very definite finality to it, meaning “once for all”. It is used seven times of what Jesus did “once for all” on the cross, five of these in Hebrews (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27: 9:12, 26, 28; 10:10; 1 Peter 3:18).

The writer of Hebrews gives three reasons why this event could only happen once. First, because of who Jesus was. “God sent his Son to bring his message to us. God created the universe by his Son, and everything will someday belong to the Son. God’s Son has all the brightness of God’s own glory and is like him in every way. By his own mighty word he holds the universe together” (1:2, 3). Later he explains that Jesus became human in order to be like us as well as like God. He could then become a faithful high priest on our behalf, representing us in the presence of God (2:14-18). Second, because of what his sacrifice achieved. The animal sacrifices of the old covenant were only looking forward to the cross and could never, of themselves, take away sin. Therefore, they were continually repeated. The sacrifice of Christ, however, can “cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (9:14. See also 7:27; 9:25-28; 10:11-13). Third, because of its eternal significance. This was confirmed by his resurrection from the dead. “Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (7:24, 25). His “once for all” sacrifice has purchased an “eternal redemption” and an “eternal inheritance” for us (9:12, 15). The Rock needed to be struck only once.

It is fitting to finish here with a quote from the seventeenth century Bible Commentator, Matthew Henry:

These [rivers of living water] flow from Christ, who is the rock smitten by the law of Moses, for he was made under the law. Nothing will supply the needs, and satisfy the desires, of a soul, but the water out of this rock, this fountain opened. The pleasures of sense are puddle-water; spiritual delights are rock water, so pure, so clear, so refreshing—rivers of pleasure.

Animal sacrifices

The first seven chapters of the book of Leviticus describe the offerings that God prescribed for his people at Mount Sinai. These consisted of the burnt offerings, fellowship offerings (traditionally “peace” offerings), grain offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings. When a person, or group, became conscious of having broken God’s law and sought forgiveness, they would bring a sheep, goat or bullock, depending on the circumstances, to the priest to offer as a sacrifice. They would place their hands on the animal’s head as a sign that they were being identified with it. Though they could know nothing of the sacrifice yet to be made by the Saviour of the world, they were acknowledging in this act not only their guilt, but also that God had provided a substitute, one that would suffer the consequences of their sins in their place.

Again, it is the writer of Hebrews who spells out the prophetic and temporary nature of these ceremonies. Hebrews is steeped in Old Testament imagery. From beginning to end, by direct quotes and allusions, it explains the essential themes of the Old Testament as they are now fulfilled in the New. It may be helpful here to point out the structure of this letter. In Hebrews 1:1-3 he (or she—we don’t know who wrote this letter) gives the reasons why Christ is greater than the prophets. In 1:4-2:18 he gives reasons why Christ is greater than the angels. In 3:1-4:13 he gives reasons why Christ is greater than Moses. But from 4:14 to 10:31 he shows how Christ is greater than Aaron, the first high priest of the old covenant, and fulfils in reality all those functions which were symbolised in the ministry of Aaron.

Whereas the high priest of the old covenant had to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for those of the people, Christ, though tempted, was without sin (4:14-5:3). Whereas the priest of the old covenant offered sacrifices repeatedly, as they could never really take away sin, Christ’s one sacrifice was sufficient to do this for all time (7:26-28; 10:11-18). Whereas the priests of the old covenant were replaced because of death, Christ lives forever (7:23-25). Whereas the high priest of the old covenant could enter the central court of the tabernacle (or later the temple), the Holy of Holies, Christ “entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (9:24). God has now established a new covenant with his people and there is now “no longer any sacrifice for sin” other than this one (10:18, 26).

Paul adds an interesting point when he indicates that Christ’s sacrifice was equally sufficient for those who had faith under the old covenant as for those who came after, as God “left the sins committed beforehand unpunished” in anticipation of the atoning sacrifice yet to come (Romans 3:25, 26—see also chapter 4). Maybe we could liken the Old Testament sacrifices to a “cover note” such as is provided by insurers. If you insure your car, then the insurer may provide you with a cover note which is valid in case of accident until the proper document comes through.

It is appropriate to see in the different sacrifices offered symbolism pointing to different aspects of Christ’s sacrifice. The burnt offering, in which the whole animal was totally consumed on the altar, points to the totality of Christ’s offering of himself for us. The fellowship or peace offering points to the one who reconciled us to fellowship with God, “making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20). The sin and guilt offerings point not only to the fact that we all experience guilt as the result of our actual personal sins, but that we are “by nature[6] objects of God’s wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). We have a natural bent towards self-centredness, rather than God-centredness. The cross is sufficient for both these aspects of sin. However, the writer of Hebrews does not make distinctions between the various sacrifices, but points to the atoning significance which is common to them all. They represent a divinely appointed way of dealing with sin in order that it may not bar fellowship with God and thus all point to the cross.

A common expression used in this connection is that of “bearing sin”. For instance, Aaron, the high priest, is said to “bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate” (Exodus 28:38). The scapegoat is said to “carry on itself all their sins” (Leviticus 16:22). Isaiah’s Suffering Servant is said to “bear their iniquities” (53:11). It may be helpful here to quote from a sermon of Arthur T. Pierson in A Treasury of Great Sermons on the Death of Christ, compiled by Wilbur M. Smith:

If we examine from Genesis to Revelation, we shall find four senses in which the words “bearing sin” are used; first representation; second identification; third substitution; and fourth satisfaction. If we take those four conceptions: representation—one standing as a representative before God; identification—one being made identical with those he represents; substitution—one substituted in the place or stead of others; and satisfaction—a furnishing of a satisfying atonement on behalf of others; we have the scope and meaning of these four words.

Christ’s death for us encompasses all four meanings. He is the “last Adam” or “second man” (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47) and our “advocate” (1 John 2:2) who acts and speaks as our representative. He is identified with us and we with him in his sacrifice. “One died for all, and therefore all died” (2 Corinthians 5:14). Paul can declare, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). He is our substitute, taking our place before the judgement bar of God. The Greek of Mark 10:45 is literally that he gave his life as a “ransom instead of” many. And his death satisfies the demands of a holy God to the extent that he is now “able to save completely those who come to God through him” (Hebrews 7:25).

A further point worth noting is that when they brought their animals for sacrifice, the Israelites had to make sure that the animal they brought was “without defect” (e.g. Leviticus 4:3). David Pawson, in the series Unlocking the Bible, vol 1, comments on this:

They offered to God compensation. The word atonement actually means “compensation”. So if you atone for something, you offer something as compensation. Both the sin offering and the trespass [or “guilt”] offering are compensation offerings to God involving blood: as a compensation for the bad life the offerer has lived, they offer to God a good life that has never sinned.

I comment further on these Old Testament sacrifices in relation to Jesus’ sacrifice in the chapter “The cross in Hebrews”.

Before leaving the symbolism inherent in animal sacrifice, it is worth noting the way the New Testament writers, particularly Paul, apply this to our Christian discipleship. There is no sense in which any human being can offer his life for the sins that another has committed against God. Paul’s concern for his fellow-countrymen who were rejecting the gospel was such that he could have wished for that (Romans 9:2, 3), but only the one who was both fully God and fully human could do it. However, those who have experienced the reconciliation that is offered through the cross can offer their lives to him in gratitude. In this sense the New Testament speaks of all Christians as priests (1 Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10). The sacrifices we offer to God out of gratitude for what he has done for us are our bodies (i.e. lives—Romans 12:1), our material gifts (Philippians 4:18) and our praise and good works (Hebrews 13:15, 16). Paul can speak of the converts of his evangelistic ministry as his sacrificial offering to God (Romans 15:16), and even his martyr’s death as a drink offering that is poured out on the sacrifice as was prescribed in the Old Testament (Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6—see Numbers 15:5).

[6] Italics mine

Day of Atonement—the rent curtain

The Day of Atonement, on the tenth day of the seventh month, was one of the seven major feasts prescribed for Israel.[7] The ceremonial ritual to be performed on this day is detailed in Leviticus 16. Between the Holy Place, where the priests worshipped, and the Most Holy Place, where the presence of God was focused, was a thick curtain. No human could venture beyond this curtain, as none were fit to enter the presence of God. However, there was one exception. On the Day of Atonement the high priest was to sacrifice a bull for his own sins and a goat for the sins of the people and, taking the blood of each beyond the curtain, to sprinkle it on the cover of the ark of the covenant, the wooden box that held stones on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. He had bells around the hem of his garment. At least the worshippers outside would be able to hear him moving around and know that he had not been struck dead in the presence of the Holy One.

Again, it is the writer of Hebrews who describes the significance of this ceremony. The presence of the curtain and the fact that none could go beyond it indicated that “ the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed ” (9:8). The problem of the sins that prevent us from enjoying a relationship with the living God had not yet been dealt with. However, at the very moment when Jesus finally gave up his spirit on the cross, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51). No doubt this was the result of an earthquake, which is also mentioned in this verse. Imagine the consternation of the priests in the business of preparing the Passover lambs, when, for the first time ever, they are looking into the Most Holy Place, the very presence of God. If this was something humans had done, the curtain would have been rent “from bottom to top”. But salvation through the cross is all God’s doing. There is a further point of telling significance. I understand that it was the Jewish custom for a father to rend his garment on the death of an eldest son!

In chapters 9 and 10 of Hebrews the writer enlarges further on the significance of this for you and me. Using this symbolism from the Day of Atonement, he declares, “[Christ] did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption” (9:12). The curtain is rent forever. The way is now open for any person, whatever they might have done or been in the past, to come into the very presence of God, if they will. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience” (10:19-22). This means, of course, that Christian conversion and becoming a follower of Jesus is not just a matter of repentance and seeking forgiveness. It involves full reconciliation and a willingness to live daily in that relationship. If that is our desire, then we are encouraged to take full advantage of the invitation and have the right, indeed obligation, to live 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, enjoying fellowship with God. That is his desire, and it was made possible at tremendous cost.

The writer goes on to point out the serious consequence of rejecting the offer. “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think those deserve to be punished who have trampled the Son of God underfoot, who have treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who have insulted the Spirit of grace? . . .It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:28-31). In other words, no one will be ultimately condemned because of how big a sinner they were. They will be condemned for refusing the offer of forgiveness and reconciliation.

There is one other ceremony associated with the Day of Atonement that is worthy of mention. The goat that was sacrificed by the high priest, the blood of which was sprinkled on the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy Place, was not the only goat involved. The high priest was to take a second goat, traditionally called the scapegoat, and lay his hands on its head, confessing over it all the sins of the people. This goat would then be taken into the desert where it would be set free, carrying the sins of the people with it (Leviticus 16:9, 10, 20-22). Though the resurrection of Christ from the dead on the third day never comes sharply into focus until it actually happened, there are a significant number of hints through the Old Testament that his death would not be the end of the story. We will look at some of these briefly later. But it is the living Christ, still bearing the marks of his identification with our sins in his risen body, who now offers us the benefits of his death. The same symbolism is evident in the ceremony prescribed for the cleansing of those with skin diseases, when a living bird was to be dipped in the blood of another that had previously been sacrificed and then released in the open fields (Leviticus 14:3-7).

[7] In the book Life After Death: Christianity's Hope and Challenge I have detailed the symbolic significance of each of these feasts.

The bronze serpent—look and live

In Numbers 21 there is a curious story that is another of my favourite images of the cross. The people complain against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (v. 5). The Lord sends poisonous snakes among the people and many die. Moses prays and the Lord tells him to make a snake of bronze and put it on a pole. “Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live” (v. 8).

As we have seen, the snake is one of the symbols for Satan in the Bible. There is a real sense in which we have all been bitten. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Consequently, we are all under the sentence of death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). However, the Lord has provided One who was himself wholly identified with our sin. On the cross “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). I don’t think there is a clearer picture of this principle in the Bible than in this story in Numbers 21. Though we can never fully understand all that took place on Calvary, it seems as if, in those awful three hours when “darkness came over all the land” (Matthew 27:45), as God looked down on his Son, all he saw were the sins and rebellion of the human race. Now all that remains for us to do is to look with the eye of faith and live. Jesus referred to this story and specifically related it to his cross in his discussion with Nicodemus. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:14, 15).

I can imagine the kind of excuses Israelites may have made for not taking advantage of the offer of healing provided by the bronze serpent. Some no doubt thought it was too simplistic or ridiculous; some perhaps thought they were not really as ill as others might be, or that they had a better cure; others may have been too lazy to journey across the camp to where the snake was erected and just hoped things would turn out all right—excuses no different from those today who reject the forgiveness offered through the gospel.

I love the story of the conversion of Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher. When he was 15, he set off on the morning of 6 January 1850 for a church service. Hindered by a violent snowstorm, he turned down a side street and ended up in a Primitive Methodist Chapel. No more that fifteen people made up the congregation. As the minister didn’t appear, no doubt snowed up, “a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker or tailor”, agreed to do some preaching. He took as his text Isaiah 45:22, “Look unto me and be...saved, all the ends of the earth” (Authorised Version). He spun out the text for ten minutes or so, emphasising the idea of looking to Christ for salvation, before running out of steam. Then he noticed Charles sitting under the gallery and, no doubt knowing him to be a stranger, fixed his eye on him and said, “Young man, you look miserable.” In his autobiography, Spurgeon continued:

Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, “and you always will be miserable in life, miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.” I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” what a charming word it seemed to me…There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him.

Spurgeon looked to Jesus and left the chapel a changed person, understanding the gospel. He was so joyful that when he reached home his family said, “Something wonderful has happened to you,” and he was eager to tell them about it.

Two years later he became pastor of a handful of believers at Waterbeach, in Cambridgeshire. Within another five years he was the best-known minister in London, and so began a ministry which extended around the world through the printed sermons which came weekly from the press. Such was the place that he had come to occupy in people’s hearts that in his last illness, “for twelve days the attention of the civilized world was centred in the testimony borne, not only to the servant of God, but to the Gospel he preached, in column after column of almost every newspaper.”

Isaiah’s Suffering Servant

Isaiah is one of my favourite books of the Bible as it contains so much prophecy that anticipates the coming of the Saviour. Scholars have debated endlessly as to whether it all comes from the pen of the prophet Isaiah who had a great influence in the southern kingdom of Judea during the reign of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 19, 20). Whether the book has one author or more, it is such a wonderful book that I am sure the Lord had a hand in putting it all together. At the beginning of chapter 40 there is a change of theme. The last twenty-seven chapters are written in Hebrew poetic form and there is much more emphasis on the Lord’s greatness and his acting in history to deliver and protect his people. There is also considerable emphasis on the glorious future he has prepared for his people. This means that the book naturally falls into two sections of thirty-nine and twenty-seven chapters. It is fascinating that there are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New. If we take the final twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, they can be divided naturally into three sections of nine chapters each by the phrase, “‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked’” (48:22; 57:21). If we take the central chapter of the central group of nine chapters, then we have Isaiah 53 which, as we shall see, focuses on the sufferings of Christ for us, the heart of the New Testament message. Whether the Bible translators in the last half of the seventeenth century knew what they were doing when they first put the Bible into chapters and verses I have no idea, but it is certainly a remarkable set of circumstances which is one of the many kinds of hints which point to the divine hand behind the writing of these books.

The author of the final section of Isaiah has four passages[8] that speak of a figure whom the Lord describes as “my servant” (42:1; 49:6; 52:13). He will be God’s agent, “my chosen one” (42:1; cf. 49:7) upon whom “I will put my Spirit” (42:1). “He will bring justice to the nations” (42:1). Through him God will establish a covenant with his people, “and a light for the Gentiles [non Jews], to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (42:6, 7). The third of these passages mentions his unjust sufferings. When brought to trial he does not resist his accusers but depends on the Lord to vindicate him. “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. …It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who will condemn me?” (50:6, 9).

[8] 42:1-9; 49:1-9; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12.

However, it is in the final of these passages, 52:13-53:12, where the full focus is on his sufferings, sufferings he will endure in order to bring forgiveness, justification and peace to his people. As this passage plays such an important part in the New Testament understanding of the sufferings of Christ, indeed, in Jesus’ own understanding of his ministry, I shall spend some time looking at that influence. Biblical scholar F. F. Bruce, in the BOOKS and the PARCHMENTS, said:

There is little or no evidence that anyone attributed the sufferings [of this passage] to the Messiah before the coming of Christ. . .The Tradition preserved in the Targum, while it identifies the Servant with Messiah, interprets his role as that of a champion of Israel against the Gentiles. If this was the view current in the first century, we can understand how the proclamation of a suffering and crucified Messiah was a stumbling–block to the Jews.

This also helps to explain why, when Jesus talked to his disciples about his coming death, “they did not know what he was talking about” (Luke 18:33, 34). It took the resurrection and Jesus’ own explanations (Luke 24:26, 27, 45, 46) to help them understand, though that was sufficient for them to do so very quickly!

Joachim Jeremias, in Eucharistic Words, stated that “No other passage from the Old Testament was as important to the Church as Isaiah 53.” John Stott, in The Cross of Christ (pp. 145-147) gives an excellent summary of the influence of this passage in the thinking of the New Testament writers. Matthew quotes verse 4, “he took up our pain and bore our suffering” with reference to Jesus’ healing ministry (8:17). In 1 Peter 2:22-25 Peter has echoes of verse 5, “by his wounds we are healed”; verse 6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray”; verse 9, “nor was any deceit in his mouth” and verse 11, “he will bear their iniquities”. Verses 7 and 8, about Jesus being led as a sheep to the slaughter and being deprived of justice and life, were used by Philip to tell the Ethiopian eunuch “the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:30-35).

There are two other very significant statements by Jesus that have echoes of this chapter. In Mark 10:45, Jesus says, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. The “Son of Man” is a figure who appears in Daniel 7:13, 14. He would come “with the clouds of heaven”. He would be given “authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him”. In an interesting twist, Jesus connects this with Isaiah 53:12, “he bore the sin of many”. Jeremias has argued that “many” here is not exclusive (many, but not all) but, in the Semitic manner of speech, inclusive (the totality, consisting of many). In other words the “many” were the godless among both Jews and Gentiles, “a (Messianic) concept unheard of in contemporary Jewish thought.”

Stott adds the following comments:

Careful students of the gospels have detected numerous references by Jesus himself, sometimes only in a single word, to Isaiah 53. For example, he said he would be ‘rejected’,[9] ‘taken away’[10] and ‘numbered with the transgressors’.[11] He would also be ‘buried’ like a criminal without any preparatory anointing, so that (he explained) Mary of Bethany gave him an advance anointing, ‘to prepare for my burial’.[12] Other allusions may well be his description of the stronger man who ‘divides up the spoils’,[13] his deliberate silence before his judges,[14] his intercession for the transgressors[15] and his laying down his life for others.[16] If these are accepted, then every verse of the chapter except verse 2 (‘he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him’) is applied to Jesus in the New Testament, some verses several times. Indeed, there is good evidence that his whole public career, from his baptism through his ministry, sufferings and death to his resurrection and ascension, is seen as a fulfilment of the pattern foretold in Isaiah 53.

One of the significant things about this passage is its emphasis on the servant’s suffering on the behalf of others, wicked others at that. J. S. Whale, in Victor and Victim, says:

The song makes twelve distinct and explicit statements that the servant suffers the penalty of other men’s sins: not only vicarious suffering but penal substitution is the plain meaning of its fourth, fifth and sixth verses. These may not be precise statements of Western forensic ideas, but they are clearly concerned with penalty, inflicted through various forms of punishment which the Servant endured on other men’s behalf and in their stead, because the Lord so ordained.

I will look at this theme further when we consider the prepositions used in the New Testament to describe Jesus’ death for us and our sins.

Also significant is the language of the priestly sacrifices. In verse 10 we read that “the Lord makes his life an offering for sin”. The word for “offering for sin” is the Hebrew asam. Tom Wright, in his impressive volume Jesus and the Victory of God, says of this word:

The word asam, translated in the LXX [the Greek translation of the third century B.C.] with peri hamartias, the regular phrase for ‘sin-offering’, may originally have had a wider range of meaning; by the first century we are safe in assuming that the Levitical, i.e. sacrificial, meaning would have been the first, and probably the only, meaning to be ‘heard’.

As Isaiah 53 is so important to the New Testament understanding of the cross, I would like to make a few other comments before moving on. I have often wondered whether the sentence, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (v. 2), refers to his normal appearance which was not particularly striking, or to his appearance as a result of scourging and crucifixion. If the former is the case, it is the only reference in scripture to the human appearance of Jesus. However, the statement that comes earlier, “Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him” (52:14) seems to refer to his sufferings immediately prior to, and on the cross. I wonder if this verse had an influence on Mel Gibson when portraying the sufferings of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ?

Referring to verse 1, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”, Arthur Wallis makes the comment in Pray in the Spirit, “These two questions are really one. Those who believed the report concerning Christ are those to whom Christ (the arm of the Lord) has been revealed. There is no faith without revelation.”

I like the thought of Ed Marks in the magazine Affirmation & Critique with reference to the statement, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground”(v. 2). He says, “His environment was ‘parched ground,’ but His root was in the life of His Father.”

Verse 9 states that, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death”. Jesus was buried in the tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. However, the New English Bible renders this as, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, a burial-place among the refuse of mankind”. F. F. Bruce comments in the BOOKS and the PARCHMENTS, “[This] depends. . .on deriving the Hebrew word translated ‘the rich’ in the A. V. from another Semitic root which yields a meaning which fits the poetic parallelism better.”

The final statement, “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors” (v. 12), clearly seems to anticipate the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

In Jesus and the Victory of God Tom Wright sums up the reasons for identifying Jesus with the “servant” of Isaiah as follows:

1) Jesus announces and enacts the kingdom of YHWH [the Hebrew letters for God], doing and saying things which dovetail very closely with the message of Isaiah 40-55 as a whole.
2) The kingdom-programme of Isaiah 40-55 as a whole is put into effect through the work of the servant, specifically his redemptive suffering.
3) Jesus acts symbolically as though he intends to put his kingdom-programme into effect through his sharing of Israel’s suffering, and speaks as if that is indeed what he intends.
4) One of the relevant sayings quotes Isaiah 53 directly [Luke 22:37], and others can most easily be explained as an allusion to it.
5) It is therefore highly probable that, in addition to several other passages which informed his vocation, Jesus regarded Isaiah 53, in its whole literary and historical context, as determinative.
6) Jesus therefore intended not only to share Israel’s sufferings, but also to do so as the key action in the divinely appointed plan of redemption for Israel and the world.

Before leaving Isaiah altogether, though it is not directly relevant to our theme, there is one other thing I would like to share. I love to point out to people that in Isaiah 41:10 the Lord says, “So do not fear, for I am with you. . .I will uphold you with my[17] righteous right hand.” In 41:13 he is the Lord who “takes hold of your[18] right hand and says to you, Do not fear”. In 49:16 he says, “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”. In 51:16 he says, “I have. . .covered you with the shadow of my hand”. In 52:12 he says, “The Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” As someone has said, if you are engraved on the palms of his hands, and you are covered in the shadow of his hand, then you have no business sticking your head out! I love the story of the village lady who was always praising God as she went about her work. One day she was challenged by the village atheist, who said, “One day, Sarah, you will slip through his fingers and then you won’t be praising him any more.” She replied, “Bless you. I could never slip through his fingers. You see, I am one of his fingers. Praise the Lord!”

[17] Italics mine. [18] Italic mine.

The Psalms

Christianity shared with Judaism the conviction that many of the Psalms are Messianic: that is they look forward to the coming of the Christ, God’s Anointed One. About fifteen of the Psalms are quoted in the New Testament with reference to Christ. The following are some examples:

His manhood: Psalm 8:4, 5; Hebrews 2:6-8.
His Sonship: Psalm 2:7; Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5.
His character: Psalm 45:6,7; Hebrews 1:8, 9.
His zeal: Psalm 69:9; John 2:17.
His obedience: Psalm 40:6-8; Hebrew 10:5-7.
His sufferings: Psalm 69:9; Romans 15:3.
His betrayal: Psalm 41:9; John 13:18.
His crucifixion: Psalm 22; The Gospels (see below).
His resurrection: Psalm 16:8-11; Acts 2:25-28; 13:35.
His ascension: Psalm 68:18; Ephesians 4:8.
His exaltation: Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:43, 44; Acts 2:34, 35; Hebrews 1:13.
His priesthood: Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:6; 7:17, 21.
His conquests: Psalm 110:5, 6; Revelation 6:15-17.
His eternity: Psalm 102:25-27; Hebrews 1:10-12.
His coming to judge the world: Psalms 96:13; 98:9—not directly quoted, but spelled out in such passages as 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.

The writers of the book of Acts and the letters of the New Testament, as well as Jesus himself, all look back to the Psalms in particular when seeking to explain or interpret the sufferings and the cross of Christ. In this respect I could not do better than quote from Derek Kidner in the first of his two books on the Psalms in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries[19] series:

Most of our Lord’s references to the psalms are in fact to this element in them; indeed the tragic Psalm 69 is the New Testament’s largest quarry of quotations and allusions to Christ in the whole collection, six or seven different verses or phrases being drawn from it to interpret His cross and passion. From this psalm and its companions (notably 22, 35, 40, 41, 109, 118) the Gospels, Acts and Epistles find their most telling words to highlight such matters as His reforming zeal (69:9a), His deliberate self-offering (40:6-8), His experience of isolation (69:8), betrayal, hatred and rejection (41:9; 69:4; 35:19; 118:22), His suffering of reproach (69:9b), mockery (22:7f.; 69:21), stripping (22:18) and, it may be, nailing (22:16). They treat many of these explicitly as prophecy fulfilled; indeed Peter tells us that in Psalm 16 David, “being a prophet. . .foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:30ff.). In Acts 1:16-20 and Romans 11:9f. the apostles also show us predictions of the fate of Judas (109:8; cf. 69:25) and of unbelieving Israel (69:22ff.). Jesus himself on the cross, found words in the psalms for His darkest hour and for his last breath (22:1; 31:5).

[19] Psalms 1-72, Inter-Varsity Press, Illinois, 1973, ©.

No doubt Jesus would have turned to some of these references, when, in his appearance to his disciples on the day of his resurrection, he said, “‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, and Prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:44-47—see also verse 27).

Before leaving the Psalms, it is worth having a look at Psalm 22. This Psalm was written several hundred years before crucifixion was thought of, yet it would be hard to find a more realistic, poetic description of someone being crucified. It was to this psalm that Jesus turned in the moment of his greatest need, quoting the first verse, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (see Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). The words “I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest” (v. 2), with a little imagination, could illustrate the alternate periods of light and darkness experienced by one undergoing such intense agony. The sentences “I am a worm, not a human being, scorned by everyone, despised by the people” (v. 6), “all my bones are out of joint” (v. 14) and “All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me” (v. 17) underline the shame of a man exposed naked (which I presume Jesus was) and writhing in pain on a wooden cross. The words “‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him’” (v. 8) echo the very words spoken in mockery by the chief priests and Jewish elders (Matthew 27:41-43). The sentence “From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God” (v. 10) could only have been spoken honestly by the sinless Son of God. The expressions “I am poured out like water” (v. 14) and “my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth” (v. 15) speak of the profuse sweating and intense thirst of one so exposed in the midday sun. The statement “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment” (v. 18) is quoted by John as being literally fulfilled (19:23, 24). “They pierce my hands and my feet” (v. 16) was also literally fulfilled (Luke 24:39; John 20:27).

It is significant that from verse 22 of this psalm the theme changes and anticipates the resurrection. Verse 22, “I will declare your name to my people (or “brethren”—Hebrew ‘ach); in the assembly I will praise you” is quoted by the writer of Hebrews (2:12) as words spoken by Jesus himself with reference to the fact that he shared our human nature. If we accept the reconciliation provided by his death on our behalf, then he delights to call us “brothers and sisters”. Verse 24, “he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help”, was demonstrated to be true by his being raised from the dead by his Father on the third day. Verse 27, “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him”, anticipates his universal authority and the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The words “all who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive” (v. 29) give us the hint that he will be the one appointed to judge the living and the dead. The final statement of the psalm, “future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it” (vv. 30, 31), looks forward to the ongoing task of future generations of his people to tell what he has accomplished by his death and resurrection. The Gelineau translation entitles this psalm “The suffering servant wins the deliverance of the nations.”

The believer’s identification with Christ in death and resurrection

In the New Testament the believer is often spoken of as being identified with his Lord in his death and resurrection. For instance, Paul speaks of the ceremony of baptism as being “buried into his death” (Romans 6:3). It is the burial of our old self-centred life, in order that “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). In making this truth a reality in our experience we are told that those who want to be disciples of Christ must “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow [him]” (Matthew 16:24; cf. Luke 14:27). In those days a person only “took up their cross” to die on it. Jesus is here speaking of that commitment in which we choose to live unreservedly for him, rather than for our own selfish ends. This “death” to our own selfish goals is presented as one of the key secrets of living a fruitful life for God. Paul goes into further detail about this in Romans 6. We are to “count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 11). It is as our commitment to Christ deepens that we begin to experience more of the touch of his risen life. Paul was willing to suffer for his devotion to Christ because he found that in doing so he experienced more of that power and entered into a deeper relationship with his Lord. He puts it like this, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. . .” (Philippians 3:10).

This truth of death resulting in life is beautifully illustrated in a number of places in the Old Testament. The clue to finding them is to look for the phrase “the third day”, which often points to the resurrection. The following are the three most vivid examples.

1) The “promised land” of Canaan has often been presented in Christian literature as a picture of heaven, to which we are all journeying through the barren desert of this life. Take for example the words of a popular hymn:

When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside:
Death of death, and hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side.

However, this is to miss the main point. Canaan in the Bible is a picture of our present life in Christ as it is meant to be lived. It was a “good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills” (Deuteronomy 8:7-9). In other words, a land of abundant refreshment and provision for every need. It was also a land “that drinks rain from heaven. . .a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” It did not have to be “irrigated by foot” which required hard work on the treadmill to bring water up from the Nile, an experience they had endured in Egypt (Deuteronomy 11:10-12). This is the life Jesus was talking about when he declared, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). So Canaan represents that life of faith where I trust in the one who cares for me and where I have learned to “drink of the rain from heaven”. There are still battles to be fought, as was the case with the Israelites in the promised land, but I am learning the secret of victory.

However, to enter this land the Israelites had to cross the Jordan. They had already left Egypt, a picture in the Bible of the life lived in this world without God. They had crossed the Red Sea, which symbolises our baptism and union with Christ (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-4). They had experienced God’s guidance and provision on their journey through the wilderness. But now they were faced with a deeper experience of God’s love and power. Jordan does symbolise our death—not physical death, but that which we have been looking at above, our unreserved commitment to Christ, the taking up of our cross to follow him.

It is significant that, after forty years wandering around in the wilderness, it was in “three days” that the Israelites were to cross Jordan and possess the promised land (Joshua 1:11). The ark, carried by the priests and symbolising God’s presence with his people, made the journey first (3:3, 6), as Jesus has done for us. When the priests placed their feet in the water, the river immediately stopped flowing, possibly the result of an earthquake temporarily blocking the river as has happened several times in Jordan’s history. They went through on dry land and were immediately in the new land. As we take our stand with Christ, whatever this may involve, we begin to experience something of the touch of his risen life. This may happen through a crisis experience or as a gradually deepening understanding.

2) A second beautiful illustration of this principle is given in the book of Esther. In order to save her people, Esther tells her cousin Mordecai, who had brought her up, to gather the Jews to pray and fast for her for “three days” (Esther 4:16). At the end of that time she would go into the presence of King Xerxes to plead for her life and the life of her people. Anyone who went into the king’s presence uninvited would automatically come under the sentence of death, unless the king should hold out to her the golden sceptre. On the third day she goes into the king’s presence. He holds out the golden sceptre and she is, as it were, raised to life. The result is salvation for her people.

3) A third example is the story of the prophet Jonah, which Jesus himself spoke of as an illustration of his death and resurrection (Matthew 12:40). Jonah gets himself and others into trouble by his disobedience to the Lord. The ship they are on is in danger of sinking. Jonah confesses his sins and puts himself in the place of death by offering to be thrown overboard. He is swallowed by the whale and after “three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17) is vomited onto dry land. Not only are the other sailors converted (1:16), but the city of Nineveh repents and is spared judgement (chapter 3).

George Mueller was a wonderful man of faith who fed and clothed, first 1,000 children, and later 2,000, in the orphanages he built in Bristol in the latter 19th century. He also gave away thousands of pounds to Christian work: money he received in answer to prayer. It is recorded that when someone asked the secret of his service, he replied, “There was a day when I died.” As he spoke, he bent lower, until he almost touched the floor. He continued, “Died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”

For other examples where we find an illustration of the resurrection when the “third day” is mentioned, see:
Genesis 1:9-13: resurrection, the secret of a fruitful life.
Exodus 5:3: resurrection, the place where the journey begins.
Numbers 10:33: Jesus went before to find a resting place for us.
Hosea 6:2: where we find spiritual healing and his living presence.

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