When I was in my teens, I heard a story that had a great impact on me. A young Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer was marooned by an unusually heavy snowstorm and eventually found dead in a remote cabin. On the table near his frozen body was a note: “Dear Mother, when I was home I told you that I didn’t want to go to church because I didn’t believe in God. Now that I am dying, I am haunted by the question, ‘Will God forgive me for all my sins?’”

The dominant fear for most people when they are facing death is not the fear of non-existence, it’s the fear of punishment for sin. Even the law of karma in Hinduism, which offers no hope of forgiveness, acknowledges the reality of guilt and punishment by teaching that the greater our sinfulness in this life, the
more undesirable will be our next reincarnation.

The fact is that most religions, even the pantheistic Eastern belief systems, enslave their adherents to sacrificial rites and ceremonial rituals aimed at appeasing their angry gods. God, it seems, has built into all people everywhere an innate conviction that they need a redeemer, a savior.

It’s evident that Isaiah was aware of this need in that he referred to God as “Savior” eight times and as “Redeemer” thirteen times. Amazingly, in this he paints a comprehensive portrait of both Christ’s first coming and of His return for the restoration of Israel. But he does not acknowledge the time element between the two comings. Moreover, most of these prophecies are so intermingled with the warnings, assurances, and exhortations Isaiah addressed to his contemporaries that we would not understand them clearly if we did not possess the information we have in the New Testament. This explains why even the apostles were confused and bewildered when Jesus went to the cross. We will see this as we survey some of the high points in Isaiah’s portrayal of Christ as the Savior of sinners and the Redeemer of national Israel.

 

Christ’s Coming As Savior Of Sinners.
The details of Isaiah’s predictions about the coming of Jesus as the Savior of sinners span the entire time of our Lord’s sojourn on earth.

A prediction of the preparatory ministry of John the Baptist (Isa. 40:3-5; Mt. 3:3; Mk. 1:3; Lk. 3:4-6).
Isaiah promised the Israelites that the day would come when God would remove all obstacles to their return from the Babylonian captivity he had predicted. The Gospel writers present John the Baptist as announcing a spiritual deliverance far more than the deliverance from Babylon.

A prediction of the virgin birth of Jesus (Isa. 7:14; Mt. 1:23).
God sent Isaiah to Judah’s king Ahaz to assure him that he had nothing to fear from the alliance of the ten-tribed northern kingdom and Syria and gave as a sign the promise, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel” (7:14). The prophecy goes on to say that very early in the life of this child, both Syria and the northern kingdom would be laid waste (vv.15-17). Isaiah 8:1-4 tells us that this part of the prophecy was fulfilled shortly after Isaiah’s marriage to the woman to whom he was engaged when he met with Ahaz. She bore a son named Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz who was still a small child when both the northern tribes and Syria were defeated by the Assyrians. Matthew tells us that the pregnancy of Mary before she and Joseph had come together was the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14. Additionally, only Jesus could fulfill the meaning of the name “Immanuel” (“God with us”) in its full expression.

A description of the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ (Isa. 9:6-7; Lk. 1:26-35).
Isaiah declared that a child would be born as a gift from God and that “Mighty God” and “Everlasting” would be among the titles He would bear. The gospel of Luke gives us the angel’s message to Mary, explaining how this combination of deity and humanity would be fulfilled in the Son she was to bear.

A description of the vicarious suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ as the suffering Servant (Isa. 52:13–53:12; the entire New Testament).
Beginning in chapter 42 of Isaiah, we find many references to the “Servant of the Lord.” From chapters 42–48 the “Servant” is sometimes Israel or a godly remnant with indirect references to Jesus Christ. But in chapters 49–53, the “Servant” is clearly the Lord Jesus:

  • The Servant’s extreme humiliation through a beating that grotesquely disfigures Him will be followed by such exaltation that men will bow in awe before Him (52:13-15; Phil. 2:1-11).
  • The Servant will be despised and rejected because His appearance will differ from Jewish Messianic expectations (53:1-3).
  • The Servant will suffer and die a violent death for our transgressions as the Lord lays on Him the suffering we deserve (53:4-6).
  • The Servant will suffer without retaliation even though He is innocent of all the charges made against Him (53:7; 1 Pet. 2:21-23).
  • The Servant will die with the wicked (plural—the two criminals crucified with Him) but will be buried with the rich (singular—the grave of Joseph of Arimathea in which His body was laid) (53:9; Mt. 27:57-60).
  • The Servant will be “crushed” (die through the most intense mental and physical suffering imaginable) to provide a once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin (53:10; 2 Cor. 5:21).
  • The Servant will live after dying, justify many, and take His place of highest exaltation (53:10-12; Mt. 8:17; Acts 2:29-36: Phil. 2:9-11).

The New Testament contains many more allusions to Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus Christ. When we take them seriously, we cannot help but marvel that these prophecies were written about 700 years before they were fulfilled.

 

Christ’s Return As Redeemer Of Israel.
Nothing in Isaiah suggests that a lengthy span of time will separate Christ’s coming as Savior from sin and His return as Redeemer of Israel. But both of these comings are clearly in view throughout. Because the prophecies about Israel’s repentance and restoration were not fulfilled at Christ’s first coming, it’s necessary to look for a fulfillment at a later time. These endtime prophecies,
intertwined with messages applicable to Isaiah’s contemporaries and predictions of the first coming, include grim warnings of endtime judgments and bright promises of worldwide blessings.

Serious Warnings Of Endtime Judgments

  • God warns Jerusalem that He will give her “the cup of His wrath,… the goblet that makes men stagger” (51:17).
  • God (speaking in retrospect after the endtime great tribulation) portrays Himself as treading a winepress with His garments made red by the spattering grape juice. This symbolizes His trampling of the nations in His anger (63:3-6).
  • God speaks of a coming “Day of the Lord” in which He will cause the sun, the moon, the stars, and their constellations to be darkened (13:1,10), with stars falling like withered leaves (34:4) and the earth trembling under His wrath (13:13; 24:18).
  • God will devastate the earth, causing Babylon and Edom to become places of abject desolation for the rest of earth’s history (24:1-13,19-20; 34:2,5,10).

Bright Promises Of Worldwide Blessing.
The judgments of the endtime Day of the Lord will be followed by unparalleled blessing for Israel and the nations—which we depicted earlier.

  • Israel will experience a restoration beyond any in her previous history, a regathering foreshadowed by previous returns (27:12-13; 40:10; 49:22; 52:10).
  • God, in the person of the exalted Christ, will return to Zion as her Redeemer and as King over the saved Jewish community (59:20-21; Rom. 11:26).
  • Jesus Christ will rule the nations, receiving the willing worship of Gentiles and bringing about perfect justice, worldwide peace, universal prosperity, healing of all diseases and deformities, a greatly increased lifespan, and a friendly natural world (2:1-5; 11:1-16; 35:1-6; 42:7; 65:25).

As members of the body of Christ, who believe in His resurrection and ascension to heaven, we can anticipate His return with the assurance that all God has promised He will bring to pass.

 

SEEING GOD

  • In God’s provision of a way by which He can righteously forgive sinners, we see His wisdom and love.
  • In God’s promise of a virgin-born divine-human Redeemer whom He would make the substitute sacrifice for our sins (Isa. 53), we see the depth of His love.
  • In God’s grim warnings of endtime judgments (13:13; 51:17; 63:3-6), we see that His holiness makes it impossible to leave sin unpunished.
  • In God’s promises of Israel’s conversion and restoration, we see the triumph of His grace.

 

SEEING OURSELVES

  • In the fact that people everywhere have an innate conviction that they need a redeemer, we see why all who fail to repent are “without excuse.”
  • In the terrible suffering that Messiah endured when God laid on Him the penalty for our sins, we see the depths of our depravity.
  • In the fact that God must use a time of wrath to bring Israel to repentance, we see our own stubborn pride.
  • In the exaltation of Jesus Christ during the Kingdom Age, we see something of the blessedness that awaits us as His co-regents.