Satisfaction

Isaiah 53:10-11 is one of the sections of Scripture the saints of God, “enquired and searched diligently” into the grace of the LORD (1 Peter 1:10-12). God reveals what man could not know regarding the transaction between the Father and the Son on the cross (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). Isaiah tells us it pleased the Father to bruise the Lord Jesus, the high exalted Messiah. The one who has done no violence or spoken no lie. It’s striking to read, especially when it is we  who despised and rejected the Lord, who saw no beauty in the Lord’s Christ. We esteemed him not, nor believed the report. And yet, it pleased the Lord to bruise HIM, and not us. Why? Because on the cross, the Lord Jesus was punished on our behalf. It was the Father's love for us, that sent His only begotten Son to be our sin bearer. Being made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13), Jesus bore our sins in his own body on that cursed tree (I Peter 2:24). He suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, a sin sacrifice (I Peter 3:18). It pleased the Father that Christ was fulfilling the eternal plan of redemption. It pleased the Father that through the sacrifice of the Son, he was securing the eternal salvation and happiness of the elect. It pleased the Father to deal with sin and see justice and peace come together on the cross. It pleased the Father that the Son, in his Sacrifice, would honor and glorify the attributes of God like no other event in history.

We also see something unique in verse 11. The Father saw “the travail of [Christ’s] soul.” and “shall be satisfied”. As Christ suffered, and as the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus for my sins, the Father was satisfied. When the Father said it was enough, Jesus said, It is finished.” It was unique, because this is the only time and only place where this will happen. Pharaoh has been in Hell for thousands of years and the wrath of God has not been satisfied. One day, Pharaoh will stand before God at the Great White Throne judgment, and then will be cast in the Lake of Fire. The wrath of God will not be satisfied. Crimes against an eternal and infinite God require eternal punishment. Time does not lessen the offense against the God who is beyond time. Sin against God is ever before him. A sinner will never satisfy God’s wrath against sin. But Isaiah told us the wrath of God was satisfied in Christ. The perfect, spotless, Lamb of God, bore all the sins of all His people, and offered his soul as a substitute. The Eternal Son of God, the Godman, Jesus Christ, bore that infinite wrath, and the sinless blood was shed for remission of sin, and the Father accepted his substitutionary, perfect atonement.  On the cross, we see the display of God's attributes in perfect consistency.