The Beauty of our Salvation in Christ's Cross

Isaiah puts the cross of Christ in plain sight. Isaiah 53 reads like a passage straight out of the New Testament. The details of what happens to Christ are hard to miss even for a first-time reader of this incredible chapter. If we take time and back up to Isaiah 52 we find a few things leading up to the detail in Isaiah 53. 

Isaiah 52:14 (ESV) As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

Jesus was beaten beyond recognition. Think of that. He was so disfigured that people could not recognize Him. 

Isaiah 52:15 (ESV) so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

Immediately Isaiah shows the impact of the Cross. Just as the cross is startling to many, it is also salvation to many. The nations are sprinkled in the blood and kings from nations throughout the world will believe without seeing!

Then Isaiah 53 clearly depicts Christ in wonderful detail.

Isaiah 53:1–2 (ESV) Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

He grew up in the middle of nowhere. He wasn't famous or attractive to behold. He was simple. 

Isaiah 53:3 (ESV) He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Jesus was not celebrated. He was questioned and doubted. He held in His inner person the compassion that associates with those who are harrassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. 

Isaiah 53:4-5 (ESV) Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah dives right into substitutionary atonement. This doctrine is clearly enunciated throughout the Bible and most notably here in the Old Testament. God afflicted Him so that we might be accepted. God let his piercings pay for our transgressions. His wounds are our healing. His punishment is our peace. 

Finally, the doctrine is summarized to make certain the audience knows who He did it for:

Isaiah 53:6 (ESV) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

We are the rebels, and He is our ransom. What other religion presents such a compelling message? What other prophet of whatever "god" offered to take the punishment of your sins? What other prophet or seer suffered on our behalf? NONE! They all sought an audience, Jesus Christ is God, the Son who seeks to save the lost at His own cost!

Isaiah 53:7 (ESV) He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Christ stood silent before His accusers. 

Isaiah 53:8 (ESV) By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

Christ never produces natural children as His life was cut off without a wife or family. 

Isaiah 53:9 (ESV) And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Christ was placed in the tomb of a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea. So much scripture was fulfilled in one short three-year period of Jesus Christ's life. 

Isaiah wrote this before crucifixion was a thing. He wrote it before the kingdom of Judah failed and landed in exile. He wrote it while Israel was still thinking in terms of physical deliverance from their enemies. And history is split in half by the fulfillment of Isaiah's words.