Introduction

Isaiah proclaims an awesome God, dwelling in a high and holy place (57:15), enthroned in heaven and the earth is his footstool (66:1), enthroned above the circle of the earth and all its people are like grasshoppers (40:22). All the nations are as dust on the scales and like a drop from a bucket (40:15). He created the universe alone (44:24) and rules completely alone; he will not share his glory with any created being (42:8). He has made a plan for the whole world, and he has the sovereign power to execute his plan to the smallest detail with his mighty, outstretched hand (14:26). He created the human race for his own glory (43:7), forms each person in his or her mother’s womb (44:2), and has spoken laws by which we are to be governed and judged (33:22). With justice he will judge every nation and all individuals on earth (59:15-16). He displays his love in his gracious care for all his creatures (34:14-15), and he displays his fierce wrath against all transgressors of his laws (13:9). It is this God who sent his only begotten Son into the world to bring salvation to the ends of the earth (49:6).

Human beings were created in the image of God, formed for his glory and pleasure (43:7). We joined Satan in his arrogant rebellion against God’s sovereign rule (14:13-14) and fell into total depravity through our sin. The sins of religious Israel, despite its endless machinery of old-covenant religion, are repugnant in God’s sight (1:11; 66:3); these people honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him (29:13). The sins of the pagan nations, who follow idols and carry their burdensome and lifeless gods, will sink them into the grave (45:20; 46:1). No one is righteous in God’s sight; all our best actions are like filthy rags (64:6). Even the godly prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “Woe is me for I am ruined” when he stood in the presence of the holy Judge (6:5). Our endless sacrifices and fasts are worthless because of our heartless oppression of the poor and our callous indifference to the glory of God (58:3-4). We are in danger of eternity in endless burning under the just wrath of God (33:14; 66:24).

Isaiah had the clearest vision of the preincarnate Christ of any Old Testament prophet. He saw him seated on a throne, high and exalted, whose holiness is the endless wonder of the godliest angels (6:1-3). Christ would be born of a virgin and be Immanuel, “God with us” (7:14). He would be born a child, a son of David, to be our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, and the government of the world would be on his shoulders (9:6). He would spring up like a shoot from Jesse’s stump and be anointed with the Spirit of God so that he can rule the nations justly (11:1-5; 61:1). He would live a sinless life (53:9) and do great signs and wonders of healing (35:5). As the “Suffering Servant” (49; 50; 53), he would die an atoning death: “We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all” (53:6). No chapter in the entire Bible so clearly expounds the principle of substitutionary atonement by which Jesus Christ saves sinners as does Isaiah 53. And Isaiah also makes it plain that Christ would rise from the dead (53:11), destroying death forever (25:7). And by his gentle care of “bruised reeds” (broken-hearted sinners) and his proclamation of peace, he would gradually build a kingdom (42:1-4). By his relentless zeal for the holiness of his bride, he will continue to speak to her until she is perfectly glorious (62:1). But his terrifying wrath will consume all the wicked rebels who oppose his kingdom, bringing just vengeance on them all (63:1-4).

No book in the Bible so clearly exposes the falsehood of salvation by religious works (1:11) as does Isaiah. It is by repentance and faith alone (30:15) that sinners are justified in the sight of such a holy Judge. This faith is a gift of God’s revelation to the elect (53:1). Good works cannot save us (64:6); faith in Christ alone can. God dwells in a holy place but also with broken-hearted, humble sinners who reject their own righteousness and trust in Christ alone (57:15). After we are justified (53:11) and transformed by grace, God then calls us to a lifetime of good works in the pattern of his holy law (1:17).

Isaiah also clearly predicted the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Through him we hear God the Father say to his eternal Son,

It is not enough for you to be my servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth. (49:6)

The worldwide spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ would begin in Jerusalem, for the law would go out from Zion. And many peoples would “come to Zion” (the city where God dwells with his redeemed people) spiritually by their faith in Christ, and would also say, “Come,” to their surrounding lost neighbors (2:3). So this message of Christ would spread to the distant coastlands and the furthest islands (66:19). The vast wealth of the nations will flow into “Zion” (the heavenly Jerusalem) by the conversion of the elect from all over the earth (60:5-7). The final triumph of the gospel will be a multitude of the redeemed from every nation on earth in the new heavens and new earth, who will eternally worship God. The terror of eternal hell will be visible to them, feeding forever their sense of God’s lavish grace to them in Christ (66:22-24).