Jesus was to see his seed

JESUS WAS TO SEE HIS SEED
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Isaiah53:10 10Yet it was the LORD's will to crush
him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD
makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his
offspringand prolong his days, and the will of the
LORD will prosper in his hand.
Our Expectation
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Scripture: Isaiah53:10
From: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 37
Our Expectation
“He shall see his seed.” — Isaiah liii. 10.
THE first thought suggestedby this text is, that Jesus is still alive; for to see
anything is the actof a living person. Our Lord Jesus died. We know that he
died. We are glad that there is overwhelming evidence that, not in

appearance, but in fact, he died. His side was pierced; he was given up by the
Roman authorities for burial; the imperial authorities were sure of his death.
The soldierhad made assurance doubly sure by piercing his side. His disciples
buried him. They would not have left him in the cave if they had felt any
doubt about his death. They went in the morning after the Sabbath to embalm
him. They were all persuaded that he had really died. Blessedbe the dying
Christ! Here our living hopes take their foundation. If he had not died, we
must have died for ever. The more assuredwe are of his death, the more
assuredwe feel of the life of all who are in him.
But, my brothers, he is not dead. Some years ago, someone, wishing to
mock our holy faith, brought out a handbill, which was plastered
everywhere— “Canyou trust in a dead man?” Our answerwould have been,
“No;nobody can trust in a man who is dead.” But it was knownby those who
printed the bill that they were misrepresenting our faith. Jesus is no longer
dead. He rose againthe third day. We have sure and infallible proofs of it. It is
an historical fact, better proved than almost any other which is commonly
receivedas historical that he did really rise again from the grave. He arose no
more to die. He has gone out of the land of tears and death. He has gone into
the regionof immortality. He sits at the right hand of God, even the Father,
and he reigns there for ever. We love him that died, but we rejoice that he
who died is not dead, but ever liveth to make intercessionforus.
Dearchildren of God, do not be afraid that Christ’s work will break down
because he is dead. He lives to carry it on. That which he purchased for us by
his death, he lives to secure for us by his life. Do not let your faith be a sort of
dead faith dealing with a dead man; let it be instinct with life, with warm
blood in its veins. Go to your own Christ, your living Christ; make him your
familiar Friend, the Acquaintance of your solitude, the Companion of your
pilgrimage. Do not think that there is a greatgulf betweenyou, a living man,
and him. The shades of death do not divide you from him. He lives, he feels, he
sympathizes, he looks on, he is ready to help, he will help you even now. You
have come in to the place where prayer is wont to be made, burdened and
troubled, and you seek relief; let the thought that your Lord is a living Friend
ease you of your burden. He is still ready to be your strong Helper, and to do
for you what he did for needy ones in the days of his sojourn here below. I

want even you, who do not know him, to remember that he lives, that you may
seek him to-night— that ere another sun shall rise you may find him, and,
finding him, may yourselves be found, and saved. Do not try to live without
the living, loving Friend of sinners. Seek his healing hand; then beg for his
company; getit; keepit; and you shall find that it makes life below like
heaven above. When you live with the living Christ, you will live indeed. In
him is light, and the light is the life of men.
And now to the text itself, with brevity. I have to observe upon it, first, that
Christ’s death produced a posterity. “Whenthou shalt make his soul an
offering for sin, he shall see his seed.” Evidently the death of Christ was
fruitful of a seedfor him. Secondly, that posterity remains. Our Lord Jesus
Christ does not look to-day on emptiness: he is not bereavedof his household,
but still he sees his seed. And, thirdly and lastly, that posterity is under his
immediate eye at all times, for “He shall see his seed.”
I. Well, first of all, THE DEATH OF CHRIST HAS PRODUCED A
POSTERITY. We do not read here that the Lord Christ has followers. That
would be true; but the text prefers to sayhe has a seed. We read just now that
the Lord Jesus has disciples. Thatwould be distinctly true; but the text does
not so read. It says, “He shall see his seed.” Why his seed? Why, because
everyone, who is a true followeror disciple of Christ, has been born by a new
birth from him into the position of disciple. There is no knowing Christ except
through the new birth. We are naturally sold under sin, and we cannot
discern the spiritual and real Christ until we have a spirit createdwithin us by
the new birth, of which he said, “Ye must be born again.” This is the gate of
entrance into discipleship. None can be written in the roll of followers of
Christ unless they are also written in the registerof the family of God— “this
and that man was born there.” Other men can getdisciples for themselves by
the means that are usual for such ends; but all the disciples of Christ are
produced by miracle. They are all discipled by being newly-created. Jesus, as
he looks upon them all, can say, “Behold, I make all things new.” They all
come into the world, of which he is King, by being born into it. There is no
other way into the first world but by birth: and there is no other wayinto the
secondworld, wherein dwelleth righteousness,but by birth, and that birth is
strictly connectedwith the pangs of the Saviour’s passion, “whenthou shalt

make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.” See, then, the reason
why we have here the remarkable expression— “his seed.”
Learn from this that all who truly follow Christ, and are savedby him,
have his life in them. The parent’s life is in the child. From the parent that life
has been received. It is Christ’s life that is in every true believer— “Forye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appearwith him in glory.” We have our
natural life, and this makes us men: we have our spiritual life, and this makes
us Christians. We take life from our parents, this links us with the first Adam:
we have taken life from Christ, and this joins us to the secondAdam. Do not
mistake me; that same life which abides in Christ, at the right hand of God, is
that everlasting life which he has bestowedupon all those who put their trust
in him. That waterspringing up into everlasting life he gave us. He made it to
be in us a well of waterspringing up. The first drops of that living spring, the
whole outcome of the spring, and the spring itself, came from him.
Let me put it to you, beloved hearers. Do you know anything about this
new birth? Do you know anything about this divine life? There are multitudes
of religious people, very religious people;but they are as dead as door-nails.
Multitudes of religious persons are like waxworks, well-proportioned, and you
might mistake them by candle-light for life; but in the light of God you would
soondiscoverthat there is a mighty difference, for the best that human skill
can do is a poor imitation of real life. You, dear hearer, dressedin the
garments of family religion, and adorned with the jewels of moral virtue, may
be nothing beyond “a child of nature finely dressed, but not the living child.”
God’s living children may not seemto be quite so handsome, nor so
charmingly arrayed as you are, and in their own esteemthey may not be
worthy to consortwith you; but there is a solemndifference betweenthe living
child and the dead child, howeveryou may try to concealit. Righteous men
know themselves to be sinners: sinners believe themselves to be righteous
men. There is more truth in the fear of the first than there canbe in the faith
of the second;for the faith of the secondis founded on a falsehood. Beloved,
we become, I sayagain, the followers ofChrist by being made partakers of his
life, and unless his life be in us, we may say what we will about Christ, and
profess what we like about following him; but we are not in the secret. We are

out of the spiritual world altogether— that world of which he is the Head, the
Creator, the Lord. You see why the word “seed” is used. We come to him by
birth: we are partakers of his life.
Furthermore, believers in our Lord are said to be his seedbecause they are
like him. I wish that I could say this with less need to qualify it; but the man
who really believes in Jesus, and in whom the divine life is strong and
powerful, is like to Jesus, and especiallylike to Jesus in this — that, as the
Christ consecratedhimselfwholly to God’s service and glory, so has this
believer done; and as the Christ founded his successes onbeing dead and
buried, surrendering honour, and comfort, and life itself, for his work, so
should the true believer be willing to give up anything and everything, that he
may achieve his life-purpose, and bring glory to God. “As he is, so are we in
this world”—thatis, we are bent upon the glory of God; filled with love to
men, and anxious for their salvation, that God may be glorified thereby. You
know best, brothers and sisters, whetherthis is true of you; but if we have not
the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his. If we are not like Christ, it is not
possible that we are his seed, for the seedis like the parent. Surely, children
are like their father— not all to the same degree;but still there is the evidence
of their sonship in their likeness to him from whom they came. Our Lord’s
true people are like him, or they could not be styled “his seed.” Alas, the old
nature blots and blurs the resemblance!The stamp of the first Adam is not
altogetherremoved; but it ought to grow fainter and fainter, while the lines of
the divine portrait should grow strongerand clearer. Is this the experience of
our life in Christ? I pray that it may be so. It should cause us greatsearching
of heart if there is not in us an increasing likeness to our Lord.
There is this to be said also for those who are calledhis seed—thatthey
prosecute the same ends, and expectto receive the same reward. We are
towards Christ, his seed, and thus we are heirs to all that ho has — heirs to his
business on earth, heirs to his estate in heaven. We are to be witnesses to the
truth as Jesus was, and to go about doing goodas he did, and to seek and save
the lostafter his example. This we must inherit, as a sonfollows his father’s
business. All that Christ has belongs to his seed. As a man hands down to his
posterity his possessions, ChristJesus has made over to his people all that he
is, and all that he has, and all that he ever will be, that they may be with him,

and behold his glory, and shine with him as the stars for ever and ever. We
are his seedin this respect— that he has takenus into his family, and given us
the family patrimony, and made us partakers ofall things in himself.
Now, beloved, this is all through his death. We are made his seedthrough
his death. Why through his death principally? Why, because it was by reason
of his death for us that the Father could come and deal with us, and the Spirit
could breathe upon us, and newcreate us. There was no dealing with us by a
just God until the atoning Sacrifice had rolled away the stone that blockedthe
way, namely, the necessitythat sin should be punished. Christ having died for
us, we came into another relation to justice, and it became possible for us to be
regenerated, and brought into the household of God. Beloved, I think that you
know, in your own experience, that it was his death that really operatedmost
upon you in the matter of your conversion. I hear a greattalk about the
example of Christ having great effectupon ungodly men; but I do not believe
it, and certainly have never seenit. It has great effectupon men when they are
born again, and are saved from the wrath to come, and are full of gratitude on
this account;but before that happens, we have known men admire the
conduct of Christ, and even write books about the beauty of his character,
while, at the same time, they have denied his Godhead. Thus they have
rejectedhim in his essentialcharacter, andthere has been no effectproduced
upon their conduct by their coldadmiration of his life. But when a man comes
to see that he is pardoned and saved through the death of Jesus, he is moved
to gratitude, and then to love. “We love him because he first loved us.” That
love which he displayed in his death has touched the mainspring of our being,
and moved us with a passionto which we were strangers before;and, because
of this, we hate the sins that once were sweet, and turn with all our hearts to
the obedience that once was so unpleasant. There is more effectin faith in the
blood of Christ to change the human characterthan in every other
consideration. The cross once seen, sinis crucified: the passionof the Master
once apprehended as being endured for us, we then feel that we are not our
own, but are bought with a price. This perception of redeeming love, in the
death of our Lord Jesus, makes allthe difference:this prepares us for a
higher and a better life than we have ever knownbefore. It is his death that
does it.

And now, beloved, if by his death we have become his seed(and I think I
speak at this time to many who cantruly say they hope that it is so with them),
then let us considerthe fact for a minute. We are his seed. Theyspeak of the
seedroyal. What shall I say of the seedof Christ? Believer, you may be a poor
person, living in an obscure lane, but you are of the imperial house. You are
ignorant and unlettered, it may be, and your name will never shine in the roll
of science, but he who is the divine Wisdom owns you as one of his seed. It
may be that you are sick:even now your head is aching, your heart is faint;
you feelthat by-and-by you will die. Ah, well! but you are of his seedwho
died, and rose, and is gone into glory. You are of the seedof him “who only
hath immortality.” You may put awayyour crowns, ye kings and emperors—
earth, yellow earth, hammered, and decorated, with other sparkling bits of
soil— you may put them all away, as altogetheroutdone in value! We have
crowns infinitely more precious, and we belong to a royal house
transcendently more glorious than any of yours.
But then it follows, if we are thus of a seed, that we ought to be united, and
love eachother more and more. Christian people, you ought to have a
clannish feeling! “Oh,” says one, “you mean that the Baptists ought to get
together!” I do not mean anything of the kind. I mean that the seedof Christ
should be of one heart; and we ought to recognize that, whereverthe life and
love of Jesus are to be found, there our love goes out. It is very delightful, at
Christmas time, or perhaps at some other time in the year, for all the family to
meet; and though your name may be “Smith” or “Brown,” yetyou feel there
is some importance in your name, when all your clan have met together. It
may be a name that is very common, or very obscure; but, somehow, you feel
quite greaton that day when all the members of the family have joined to
keepunited holiday. Your love to one another gathers warmth, as the glowing
coals are drawn together. So may it be in your heart towards all those that
belong to Christ! You are of the blood royal of heaven. You are neither a
Guelph nor a Hohenzollern, but you are a Christian; and that is a greater
name than all. HE has a seed—evenhe whom, unseen, we this night adore. My
inmost soulglories in the Head of my clan—in him of the piercedhands, and
the nailed feet, who wears for his princely starthe lance-mark in his side! Oh,
how blessedlybright is he! How transcendently glorious are the nail-prints!

We adore him in the infinite majesty of his unutterable love. "We are of his
seed, and so we are near akin to him. Do not think that I am too familiar. I go
not beyond the limit which this word allows me; nay, I have scarcelycome up
to the edge of it. We are truly of the seedof Jesus, evenas the Jews are of the
seedof Israel — not born after the flesh, for he had none born to him in that
way; but born after the Spirit, wherein his seedis as the stars of heaven. We
rejoice with exultation as we read the text, “He shall see his seed.”
Thus much on our first point.
II. Now, my secondpoint is, THAT POSTERITYOF HIS REMAINS. Our
Lord always has a seed. That seems to me to be clearfrom the indefiniteness
of the text. It does not say that he shall see his seedfor so long, and then no
longer; but it stands as a prophecy fulfilled, always fulfilling, and always to be
fulfilled: — “He shall see his seed.” Christ will always have a seedto see. His
church, then, will never die out while the world standeth; and throughout
eternity that seedmust still exist in the endless state;for world without end
our Lord Jesus shallsee his seed.
I notice that the word is in the plural— “He shall see his seeds” as though
some were truly his seed, and yet for a time, at least, differed from the rest.
Our Lord said of those not yet converted, “Othersheep I have, which are not
of this fold: them also I must bring;” and again, “Neitherpray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” Christ
will see generationaftergenerationof those redeemed by his blood who shall
be born into his family, and shall callhim blessed. Insteadof the fathers shall
be the children, whom he will make princes in all the earth. The Septuagint
reads it, “He shall see a long-lived seed.” ThoughI do not think that the
version is correct, it shows that still it was thought and believed that the
Messiahwouldhave a perpetual seed. Certainly it is so. Beloved, if it had been
possible to destroy the church of God on earth, it would have been destroyed
long ago. The malice of hell has done all that it could do to destroy the seedof
Christ — the seedthat sprang from his death. Standing in the Colosseumat
Rome, I could not, as I lookedaround on the ruins of that vast house of sin,
but praise God that the church of God existed, though the Colosseumis in
ruins. Anyone standing there, when the thousands upon thousands gloated

their eyes with the sufferings of Christians, would have said, “Christianity will
die out; but the Colosseum, so firmly built, will stand to the end of time;” but
lo, the Colosseumis a ruin, and the church of God more firm, more strong,
more glorious than ever! Only read the story of the persecutions under Nero,
and under Diocletian, in the olden times, and you will wonderthat
Christianity survived the cruel blows. Every form of torture which devils
could invent was inflicted upon Christian men and women. Not here and
there, but everywhere, they were hunted down and persecuted. It makes one
thrill with horror as he reads of womentossedon the horns of bulls, or setin
red-hot iron chairs;and men smearedwith honey to be stung to death by
wasps, ordraggedat the heels of wild horses, or exposedto savage beastsin
the amphitheatre. But I will say no more about it. The gallant vesselofthe
church ploughed the red waves of a crimson sea, her prow scarletwith gore,
but the ship itself was the better for its washing, and sailed all the more
gallantly because ofboisterous winds. As to our own country, read the story of
persecutions here. You will have enough if you only read Foxe’s “Bookof
Martyrs.” I wish that every house had in it a large-typed copy of the “Book of
Martyrs.” Well do I recollect, as a child, how many hours, how many days, I
spent looking at the pictures in an old-fashioned “Book ofMartyrs,” and
wondering how the men of God suffered, as they did, so bravely. I recollect
how I used to turn to that boy of Brentford, who was first beatenwith rods,
and afterwards tied to the stake, cheerfullyto burn for Christ’s sake. I am
reminded, by the effectwhich it had upon my mind, of what was said of a
certain ancientchurch in this city of London, which was greatly persecuted.
Many, many years ago, a number of persons were noticed to be going towards
Smithfield, early one morning, and somebodysaid, “Whither are you going?”
“We are going to Smithfield.” “Whatfor?” “To see our pastorburnt.” “Well,
but what, in the name of goodness, do you want to see him burnt for? What
can be the goodof it?” They answered, “We go to see him burn that we may
learn the way.” Oh, but that was grand! “To learn the way!” Then the rank
and file of the followers of Jesus learnedthe way to suffer and die as the
leaders of the church set the example. Yet the church in England was not
destroyedby persecution, but it became more mighty than ever because ofthe
opposition of its foes.

Since then there have been laborious attempts to destroy the church of
Christ by error. One hundred years ago or so, throughout the most of our
Dissenting churches, a sortof Unitarianism was triumphant. The essential
doctrines of the gospelwere omitted, the pith of it was takenaway, the
marrow was torn out of its bones. The Church of England was asleep, too;
and everywhere it seemedas if there was a kind of orthodox heterodoxy that
did not believe anything in particular, and did not hold that there was a
doctrine worth anybody’s living for or dying for, but that all religious
teaching should be like a nose, of wax, that you might shape whichever way
you liked. It lookedas if the living church of God would be extinguished
altogether;but it was not so, for God did but stamp his foot, and, from all
parts of the country, men like Mr. Wesleyand Mr. Whitefield, came to the
front, and hundreds of others, mighty men of valour, proclaimed the gospel
with unusual power, and awaywent the bats and the owls back to their proper
dwelling-place. The same mischievous experiment is being tried now, and
there will be the same result; for the living Christ is still to the front. The King
is not off the ground yet: the battle will be won by his armies. Jehovahhas
declaredhis decree, “Yethave I setmy king upon my holy hill of Zion.” Our
Lord shall see his seedon the conquering hand yet.
Worldliness has gone a long way to destroy the church of God. I judge it to
be the worstcankerwormthat assails us. Persons come into the church with a
professionwhich they never carry out. Have we not all around us persons who
say that they are Christians, and are not, but do lie. And many who, we hope,
are Christians, are but very poverty-stricken specimens ofthe race, with little
love, little zeal (indeed, they are afraid to be too zealous), little searching of the
Word, little prayer, little consecration, little communion with God. They are
enough to kill all hope of better things. The Lord have mercy upon his poor
church when she comes to be neither cold nor hot, so that he is ready to spue
her out of his mouth! Yet, still the lukewarm can be heated: the cause is not
dead. “He shall see his seed.” Takeit as a standing miracle that there are any
godly people on the face of the earth; for there would not be one were it not
for the exertion of miraculous power. Christianity is not a natural growth: it
is constantly a divine creation. Christian life needs to have daily the baptism
of the Holy Ghost. The church must perpetually receive fresh light and life

from above, or else it would die; but still stands the promise, “He shall see his
seed.” While sun and moon endure, there shall be a people who follow the
Lamb; and even though they be so few that Elias might say, “I, only I, am left,
and they seek my life to take it away,” Godwill reserve to himself thousands
that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
III. And now I am to wind up with this third thought: THIS POSTERITY
IS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMMEDIATE EYE OF CHRIST. “He shall see
his seed.” Oh, I like this, “He shall see his seed”!He sees themwhen they are
first born anew. I keeplooking out from this pulpit for that small portion of
them that may be born in this place; and there are many watchful brethren
and sisters here, who try to speak to all that come into the place in whom
there are movings of the Spirit. If there is an anxious soul, they seek to find
him out. We cannotsee them all; but HE shall see his seed. Sometimes it is a
question whether they are his seedor not— a very greatquestion with
themselves, but none with him: he sees his seed. Some are seeking;they have
hardly found; they are longing; they have scarcelyrealized the way of faith.
Ah, well! he Bees your first desires, your humble breathings, your lowly
hopes, your trembling approaches. He sees you. There is not a child of his,
born in any out-of-the-way place, but what he perceives him at once. The first
living cry, the first living tear, he observes. “He shall see his seed.” Whata
mercy to have such a Watcher!We poor earthly pastors are of small use; but
this greatShepherd and Bishop of souls, with an eye that never misses a single
new-born lamb of grace— whata mercy to have such a Shepherd to look after
the whole flock!“He shall see his seed.”
Yes, and everafterward, whereverhis seedmay wander, he still sees them.
Some of you, perhaps, have lived long in England, but you are contemplating
going far away— to Australia or America. You wonder whether you will meet
with any friend who will help you spiritually. Do not fear. “He shall see his
seed.” “Rivers unknownto song, are not unknown to God.” And if you should
have to dwell quite alone in the bush, and have no Christian acquaintance,
still go direct to the Son of God, for “He shall see his seed.” The eye of Christ
is never off from the eye of faith. If you look to him, rest you well assuredthat
he looks to you.

The beauty of it is, that this look of Christ, whereby he sees his seed, is one
of intense delight. I cannot preachupon that most precious topic, but I wish
you to think it over: it is a divine pleasure to the Lord Jesus to look at you: it
is promised him as a rewardfor his death. Mother, you know yourself what a
pleasure it has been for you to look at your daughter, and to see her grow up.
You would not like to tell her all you have thought of her: you have lookedat
her with intense delight. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ looks atyou in just the
same way. Love is blind, they say. Jesus is not blind; but he does see in his
people much more than they ever will see in themselves. He sees their hopes,
their desires, their aspirations;and he often takes the will for the deed, and
marks that for a beauty which now may be half-developed, and therefore not
all we could wish it to be. It is, at present, the caricature ofa virtue; but it is
well meant, and will come right, and the Lord sees it as it will be, and he
rejoices in it. Oh, what blessedeyes those are of his that can spy out beauties
which only he cansee!Since he has createdthem, and put them there himself,
he sees them. “He shall see his seed.” He suffered so much for our redemption,
that he must love us. We costhim so much, that he must delight in us.
“The Son with joy looks down, and sees
The purchase of his agonies.”
“He shall see his seed.”
Brethren, our Saviour will always behold his redeemed ones. He will see all
his seedto the last. When they come to the river which divides them from the
celestialcountry, “he shall see his seed.” It may possibly be gloomywith some
of you; but it is not often dark at death-time. Many of the Lord’s children
have a fine candle to go to bed with. Even if they go to bed in the dark, they
fall asleepthe sooner;but in either case,their Lord will see them if they
cannot see him. When you cansee nothing, and the brain begins to reel, and
thought and memory flee, he sees his seed.
But what a seedhe will have to see in the morning! I am not yet an old
man, as some suppose from the many years of my ministry, but I am often
looking forward to that blessedmorning, when all the sacredseedshallmeet
around the throne. I believe the Christ will come in to see allhis beloved

purchased ones;and he will searchto see whether we are all there. Then shall
the sheeppass againunder the hand of him that telleth them, and he will
count them, for he knows whom he bought with his blood, and he will see that
they are there in full tale. I think that I hear the reading of the register, the
muster-roll. Will you be there to answerto your name? Dear friends, all the
Lord’s seedwill be there— all that were born into his house with a new birth.
They shall answer, “Ay, ay, ay, we are here; we are here!” Oh, but the joy we
shall have in being there— the delight in beholding his face;yet, if all our joys
are put together, they will not equal the joy that he will have when he finds
them all there for whom he shed his blood—all whom the Father gave him—
all who gave themselves to him—all who were born as his seed—notone lost!
“Of all whom thou hastgiven me, I have lostnone.” Oh, the joy, the delight, of
our Well-belovedin that day! Then shall he see his seed!
And I believe that it will be a part of his heaven for him to look upon his
redeemed. He is the Bridegroom, they make up the bride; and the
bridegroom’s joy is not in seeing his bride for once on the wedding-day, but he
takes delight in her as long as they both live. A true husband and a true
spouse are always lovers:they are always linked togetherby strong ties of
affection;and it is so with that model Husband, the Lord Christ, and his
perfect church above. He loves his people no less, and he could not love them
any more, than when he died for them, and so for ever “he shall see his seed.”
Thus have I talked with you in a very poor and feeble way, as far as my
speechis concerned:but the doctrine is not feeble, the gospelis not poor. O
you that are the seedof Christ, go out and magnify him by your lives! Be
worthy of your high calling. Show the nobility of your pedigree by the
magnanimity of your lives. And, you that are not among his seed, see where
you are! What can you do? All that you can do will bring you no further: you
must be born again;and this is the work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of
God works the new birth in his own way, but he works according to the
gospel. Whatis the gospel? “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”
I give you the gospelwithout mutilating it, just as I getit in the gospelby
Mark, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Obey the precept,
and the promise is yours. God help you to believe in the Lord Jesus, andso to
have eternal life! The moment you believe in Jesus Christ you are born again.

May he, by his Holy Spirit, sealthe message withhis blessing to everyone in
this house, for his own name’s sake!Amen.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
A Soul-offering
Isaiah53:10
R. Tuck
This prepares us to see that the realsacrifice for sin, which our Redeemer
offered, was the full surrender of his will, his self, to God, which found
expression, for us to apprehend it, in his bodily sufferings on the cross (see
Hosea 9:14).
I. SIN IS A SOUL-THING. It is not an act; it is a man acting.
II. PENALTY IS A SOUL-THING. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
III. SALVATION IS A SOUL-THING. Christ bore the soul-penalty; Christ
brought life for dead souls. The infinite depth of Christ's suffering lay hidden
- in behind - in the Redeemer's soul, finding only once what seemeda suitable
utterance in human language, and that a cry of immeasurable distress, "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsakenme?" - R.T.

Biblical Illustrator
Yet it pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him.
Isaiah53:10, 11
"It pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him
J. Durham.
The Lord's hand was supreme in the business —
1. In respectof His appointing Christ's sufferings. It was concludedin the
counselof God that He should, suffer.
2. In respectof the ordering and overruling of His sufferings. He, who governs
all the counsels, thoughts and actions of men, did, in a specialmanner, govern
and overrule the sufferings of the Mediator;though wickedmen were
following their own design, and were stirred and actedby the devil, who is
said to have put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ — yet God had the
ordering of all who should betray Him, what death He should die, how He
should be pierced, and yet not a bone of Him be broken.
3. In respectof His having had a hand actively in them (John 19:11;Matthew
27:46;Romans 8:32; Zechariah13:7).

(J. Durham.)
The goodpleasure of God in redemption
J. Durham.
The goodpleasure of God. Which the prophet marks to show —
1. That all the goodthat comes by Christ to sinners is bred in the Lord's own
bosom.
2. The concurrence of all the Persons ofthe Trinity in promoting the work of
the redemption of sinners.
(J. Durham.)
The Divine complacencyin the sorrows ofChrist
A. Mursell.
There are many expressions in Scripture, which, without explanation, are
repugnant to human instincts of justice, and shocking to our intuitions of love.
This is a case in point. He had done nothing overtly or morally to deserve
severity, "yetit pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him." It revolts our first feeling of
equity and compassion;and when the statement is applied to Him of whom we
are taught that God is love, we shrink at the sternness of the words. Had it
been said the Lord found it necessaryto put Him to grief, it would, have been
mysterious enough, and we should have found ourselves asking "Why?" and
catechizing our speculative ideals of Divine equity and of moral necessity. But
to read that it pleasedthe Lord to inflict this bruise and to impose this grief is
a riddle which seems as harsh as it is contradictory.
(A. Mursell.)
The unity of the Fatherand the Son in atonement

A. Mursell.
All this confusion and injustice arises from sustaining too literally in our
minds the figure of duality which excludes the Father from participation in
the sacrifice, andthe Sonfrom the acquiescentwillinghoodof its executive. It
is not the punishment of an innocent Son by an angry Father that we have to
consider, but rather the co-operationof the entire Godheadin the tragedy of
sorrow out of which the redemption of mortality was born. Under the figure
of Father and Son, the Deity devoted the full strength and tenderness of the
Divine characterand resource to the salvationof our race. And, in this
respect, there was, and ever will be, a Divine complacencyin the sorrow and
suffering from which that redemption sprang.
(A. Mursell.)
Christ's complacencyin the Divine sorrows
A. Mursell.
Our topic is the Divine complacencyin the sorrows of Christ. It will bear
transposition; and we can speak ofChrist's complacencyin the Divine
sorrows. Here is a blending of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, as full of
mystery as of love, but the key to whose mystery is carriedin the bosom of its
love. The sorrows ofChrist were endured in pursuance of the settledand
ancient purpose of God. Notof the purpose of a Father to afflict His Son, but
of the purpose of the Divine Creatorto redeem His universe. There was a
compactof pity and of power in the heart and arm of God as soonas man had
lapsed, that his lapse should be atonedand his fall restored. The Creatorwas
not to be baffled in His plan. His life was bound up in that of His Maker;and
because He lived man must live also. Notonly because He loved us, but
because He would not be defeated, did the mind of Deity set itself to untie the
knot which the serpent had encoiledaround the creature of God's image.
(A. Mursell.)

Divine love and Divine suffering
A. Mursell.
1. The sorrows which atonement involved became a source of complacencyto
the Divine mind, inasmuch as the Lord foresaw their certain issues.
2. Norcould this complacencyin sorrow fail to be augmented by the thought
of the universal interest those sorrows would awaken. Earth, for whose sake
they were endured, was the last to show that interest.
3. This complacencywas made complete because the sorrows it confronted
removed the barrier from the exercise ofinfinite beneficence and love. What
is more tantalizing to a soul aflame than love restrained?
(A. Mursell.)
The bruising of the Sonof God the pleasure of His Father
W. Taylor.
I. WHOM DID JEHOVAH BRUISE?
II. HOW DID HE BRUISE HIM?
III. WHY DID HE TAKE PLEASURE IN BRUISING HIM?
1. That He might execute His pleasantdecrees.
2. That He might fulfil His pleasantpromises.
3. That He might redeemthe chosenobjects ofHis love.
4. That He might promote His Son to the highest honours.
5. That He might exalt His own glory to the uttermost.
(W. Taylor.)

The bruising of Jesus
J. Wylie, D.D.
The Fatherwas "pleased" to bruise Emmanuel.
I. BECAUSE OF THE HOLY SUFFERER'S PERFECT SYMPATHYWITH
HIS PURPOSE, as being the vindication of the Divine holiness, "the
magnifying of the Divine law," and the upholding of the Divine government.
II. BECAUSE UNDER THIS "BRUISING" JESUS WAS MANIFESTING
THE DIVINE LOVE AND SYMPATHY FOR AND WITH US — perfect as it
was God's, and yet true brotherly, as it was man's.
III. BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DESIRED TO SEE IN US.
(J. Wylie, D.D.)
God's purpose in the awful tragedy of the Cross
Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.
It is so utter a perversionof justice, so signala triumph of wrong over right,
so final a disappearance into oblivion of the fairestlife that everlived, that
men might be tempted to say, God has forsaken His own. On the contrary.
God's own will and pleasure have been in this tragedy. "Yet it pleasedthe
Lord to bruise Him." The line as it thus stands in our English Version has a
grim, repulsive sound. But the Hebrew word has no necessarymeaning of
pleasure or enjoyment. All it says is, God so willed it. His purpose was in this
tragedy.
(Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
Christ's sufferings; their cause, nature and fruits

The prophet is still dealing with the Jews scandals. Whilstyou look only to the
outward meanness and sufferings of Christ, you overlook the designof God in
Him.
I. THE WILL OF GOD. "It pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him," etc., that is the
cause ofHis sufferings.
II. THE NATURE OF HIS SUFFERINGS. "WhenThou shall make His soul
an offering for sin."
III. THE FRUITS OF HIS SUFFERING.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Christ's sufferings Divinely ordained
All the sufferings of Jesus Christ were laid on Him by the ordination and
appointment of, God the Father. This appears by Scripture, which asserts —
1. The choice of Christ's person, and the designationand deputation of Him to
the office of Mediator(Isaiah 42:1; John 6:27; Romans 3:25; 1 Peter1:20).
2. The bestowing the personof Christ upon us, so that He was made ours
(John 3:16).
3. The determining of all the sufferings of Christ; not a sorrow, but God had it
in His thoughts before all worlds (Acts 2:23; Luke 22:22; Acts 4:27, 28).
4. There are some expressions whichseemto imply as if there were more than
a bare knowledge and permissionin this greataffair, as if there were some
kind of action in Christ's sufferings. It will be worthy the inquiring, then,
what acts of God, what efficiencythere was from Him towards the sufferings
of Christ?(1) Thus far Godconcurred, by a withdrawing of His presence and
the sight of His favour.(2) By sustaining the wickedinstruments in their
natures, beings, and actings, whilst they were drawing out their spite and
violence againstChrist (Acts 17:28; John 19:11).(3)By serving His love and
glory by their wickedness, thatbruised and afflicted Christ.The reasons ofthis
point are —

1. Becauseallthings fall under His decrees and the care of His providence,
and therefore certainly this matter of Christ does.
2. Becausethis was the specialdesignand contrivance of Heaven to bring
forth Christ into the world; all other dispensations lookedthis way.
( T. Manton, D. D.)
God's eternal pleasure revealedin Christ
The plot of the Gospelwas long since drawn in heaven, and lay hid in God's
breast, till He was pleasedto copy out His eternal thoughts, and give the world
a draught of them.
( T. Manton, D. D.)
God working His own counselthrough human agency
How is the creature to blame, then, for smiting and bruising of Christ? Or if
to blame, how is God clear?
1. Forthe creatures'blame. They are faulty —(1) BecauseGods secret
thoughts and intents are not their rule. Hidden things belong to God; and it is
He that workethaccording to the counselof His own will.(2) They had other
ends, though God turned it for good. "With wickedhands ye have taken, and
crucified, and slain."(3)God's decrees did not compel them to evil; it implieth
things will be, though it doth not affectthem.
2. Forthe justifying of God when He judgeth. His justice cannot be
impeached, because He infuseth no evil, enforcethto no evil, only ordaineth
what shall be. His goodnesscannotbe impeached for suffering things which
He can turn to such advantage for His own glory and the creature s good. God
s decrees are immanent in Himself, working nothing that is evil in the
creatures.
( T. Manton, D. D.)

When Thou shalt make His Soul an offering for sin.
Christ an offering .for sin
J. Durham.
1. It is here supposedthat there is sin on the person, and that wrath due for
sin is to be removed.
2. That there is an inability in the person to remove the sin, and yet a necessity
to have it removed, or else he must suffer.
3. The intervening, or coming of something in the place of that person who is
guilty of sin, and liable to wrath.
4. The acceptance ofthat which interveneth by God, the party offended, and
so a covenant whereby the Lord hath condescendedto acceptthat offering.
(J. Durham.)
Christ a guilt-offering
Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.
(R.V., marg.): — Hebrews asham(Leviticus 5:14; Leviticus 6:7), to be
carefully distinguished from the sin-offering (Hebrews chattah, Leviticus 4:1;
Leviticus 5:13). Sin is viewedas a sacrilege, aninvasion of God s honour: the
asham is the satisfactionpaid for it, viz. the innocent life of the Righteous
Servant.
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The guilt-offering
Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.

There is a historicalpassagewhich, though the term "guilt-offering" is not
used in it, admirably illustrates the idea. A famine in David's time was
revealedto be due to the murder of certain Gibeonites by the house of Saul.
David askedthe Gibeonites what reparation he could make. They saidit was
not a matter of damages. But both parties felt that before the law of God
could be satisfiedand the land relieved of its curse, some atonement, some
guilt-offering, must be made to the, Divine law. It was a wild kind of
satisfactionthat was paid. Seven men of Saul's house were hung up before the
Lord in Gibeon. But the instinct, though satisfiedin so murderous a fashion,
was a true and a grand instinct — the conscience ofa law above all human
laws and rights, to which homage must be paid before the sinner could come
into true relations with God, or the Divine curse be lifted off.
(Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
The Monarchself-surrender, a trespass-offering and a sin
C. Clemance, D.D.
-offering: — What this suffering meant, the prophet indicates in several
phrases which we will link together. "His soul shall make a guilt-offering"
(ver. 10). "He shall bear their iniquities "(ver. 11). "He bare the sin of many"
(ver. 12). These three expressions are derived from the Mosaic ritual; the first,
from the trespass-offering, the second, from the law concerning the scapegoat,
the third from the sin-offering. Inasmuch, however, as the sending awayof the
scapegoatwas a part of the ceremonialconnectedwith the sin-offering on the
greatday of atonement, we may let the secondand third expressions blend
into one. And then we get the thought that this suffering Servant would at
once fill up the varied meanings of the sin-offering and of the guilt-offering.
(C. Clemance, D.D.)
In Messiah's offering
Delitzsch, C. Clemance, D. D.

1. That there was a distinction betweenthe significance ofthe trespass-
offerings and that of the sin-offerings is seenin the factthat eachkind of
offerings had its own specific ritual and set of laws (Leviticus 11:25; Leviticus
7:1). But it is not so easyto point out wherein that distinction lay. They had
some points in common. Both recognizedsin in some form or other. Though
every sin might not be a trespass, yetevery trespass was a sin, hence (at least
in one case)the trespass was to be atoned for by a sin-offering (Leviticus 5:6).
Both of them were for sins of omissionand for sins of commission. Both were
for inadvertent and for knownsins. Both were for sins againstconscienceand
againstGod. Both were for some sins againstproperty. Both were for open
and for secretsins. So that it is not surprising that the two frequently seemto
overlap. Still a careful study will help us to draw out some distinctions
betweenthem —(1) The sin-offering recognizedsinfulness as uncleanness
common to the race;the trespass-offering recognizedsinin the specific acts of
any personamong them (cf. Leviticus 5:17 with Leviticus 16:15, 16).(2)The
sin-offering regardedall sin; the trespass-offering onlysome sins (Leviticus
16:34;Leviticus 5:1, 14, 15).(3)The sin-offering was for all the people,
recognizing their oneness;the trespass-offering was fordistinctive cases,
recognizing their individuality (Leviticus 16:21;Leviticus 5:1, 14, 17).(4)The
sin-offering conveyedthe idea of propitiation; the trespass-offering embodied
that of satisfaction, as, overand above its recognitionof injury done towards
God or man, there were specific injunctions concerning restitution, intimating
a certain value as the standard required (Leviticus 16:21, 22;Leviticus 5:18;
Numbers 5:5-8).(5) The sin-offering had its aspectGod-ward;the trespass-
offering rather lookedman-ward (Leviticus 4:4-6; Leviticus 14:14).(6)The
ritual of the sin-offering symbolized pardon, "covering," the "bearing away"
of sin; that of the trespass-offering symbolized purification or cleansing from
sin (cf. Leviticus 16:16, 17;Leviticus 14:14).(7)The treatment of the sin-
offering indicated far deeperreproach than the treatment of the trespass-
offering (Leviticus 4:11, 12; Leviticus 7:6). As the sin that poisons all is far
more serious than the transgressions whichmark eachone, so, on the day of
expiation, "the victim, because it was (symbolically) laden with the
uncleanness and guilt of the whole people, and was consequentlyunclean,
must be taken outside the camp and there burned"(Delitzsch).(8) The attitude
of the sinner in the sin-offering was that of believingly recognizing the

sacrifice as his substitute God-ward; but in the case ofthe trespass-offering he
must also be ready with his compensations man-ward (Leviticus 16:20-22;
Leviticus 5:16; Leviticus 6:1-7).(9)In the sin-offering the priest is always the
representative of the offerer;in the trespass-offering he is generallythe
representative of God. "Thus the trespass-offering was a restitution or
compensationmade to God, in being paid to the priest, a payment or penance
which made amends for the wrong done — a satisfactioin a disciplinary
sense."
2. The prophet in the chapter before us declares that the trespass-offering and
the sin-offering will be fulfilled in this Servantof God; that His work for man,
towards God in reference to sin, will take into accountall the aspects ofsin,
will honour all the claims of God, and will meet all the need of man. And so, in
fact, we find it when we come to examine the representations of the work of
our Lord Jesus, as givenus in the New Testament.(1)Our Saviour as the sin-
offering, "sufferedwithout the gate" (Hebrews 13:11, 12).(2)He atones for
sin, and for sins (Hebrews 9:26; Galatians 1:4).(3)He "bears away" a world's
sin, yet "gave Himself for our sins" (John 1:29; Galatians 1:4).(4)The sins of
all are laid on Him, and yet the individual can say, "He gave Himself for me (1
John 2:2; Galatians 2:20).(5)He is the propitiation, and yet the ransom-price
(1 John 4:10; Matthew 20:28).(6)His sacrifice avails towards God, yet is
effective towards man (Hebrews 9:12-24;Hebrews 10:10).(7)By His work our
guilt is pardoned, our sin covered; through it our natures are cleansed
(Romans 4:7, 8; 1 Peter1:2).(8) As He is our propitiation, there is a
reconciliationto be accepted;as He is our ransom-price, our acceptanceof
Him is attended with repentance towards God, and restitution towards man
(Romans 5:8-11; Acts 26:20;Matthew 5:23, 24; Luke 19:7-10).(9)As our
mediating High Priest, He is our representative before God. He pleads His
blood before the throne; yet is He also the voice of God to us, through whom
our pardon is proclaimed (Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:25; Matthew 9:6). Thus
all the ground is coveredby the one great Sacrifice, andnothing is left
undone!
3. Let us learn, then — of the unity there is betweenthe law and the Gospel.
We have this prophecy standing sevenhundred years after the giving of the
one, seven hundred years before the announcement of the other: yet we find

the very phrases of the prophet are adopted from the Mosaic ritual, pointing
to its fulfilment in the Messiah;while the New Testamentteachings as to the
work of Christ are based on both ritual and prophecy, carrying them both on
to their fulness of meaning, and revealing their wealth of glory.(2) We may
well look on with profound reverence as the MostHigh brings out, in ritual,
prophecy, and Gospel, that truth which men are most ready to let slip — viz,
the exceeding sinfulness of sin!(3) In Gospel:prophecy, and ritual, there is, in
order to meet the world's need, not only a central Figure, but a centralfact. In
the ritual, the priest and the offering. In the prophecy, the Messiahand His
offering. In the Gospel, the Christ and His offering. Here is a threefold cord,
"not easilybroken."(4)Neverlet us forgetthe double aspectof the work of
Christ — large enough to coverall the ground; minute enough to point out me
and to save me!(5) We are not saved in sin but from it.(6) Let us not fail to
catchthe keynote of the law and of the Gospel, viz. that nothing is right with a
sinful man till relations betweenhim and God are right.
(C. Clemance, D. D.)
Expiation
Both Jews and Gentiles knew pretty wellwhat an offering for sin meant. The
Gentiles had been in the habit of offering sacrifices.The Jews, however, had
by far the cleareridea of it.
I. SIN DESERVES AND DEMANDS PUNISHMENT.
II. THE PROVISION AND ACCEPTANCEOF A SUBSTITUTE FOR
SINNERS IS AN ACT OF GRACE.
III. JESUS IS THE MOST FITTING PERSONTO BE A SUBSTITUTE,
AND HIS WORK IS THE MOST FITTING WORKTO BE A
SATISFACTION.
IV. CHRIST'S WORK, AND THE EFFECTS OF THAT WORK ARE NOW
COMPLETE.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)

Christ's death and the law of God
Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.
By His death the Servant did homage to the law of God. By dying to it He
made men feel that the supreme end of man was to own that law and be in a
right relation to it, and that the supreme service was to help others to a right
relation. As it is said a little farther down, "My Servant, righteous Himself,
wins righteousness formany, and makes their iniquities His load.
(Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.)
The guilt-offering
F. B. Meyer, B. A.
It is strange but true, that the saddest, darkestday that everbroke upon our
world is destined to cure the sadness and dissipate the darkness forevermore.
It is to the passionof the Redeemerthat loving hearts turn in their saddest,
darkest, most sin-conscioushours to find solace, light, and help.. As though to
obviate the possibility of mistaking its meaning, we are reminded again, and
yet again, that the death of the Divine Servant was no ordinary episode;but
distinguished from all other deaths, from all martyrdoms and sacrifices,in its
unique and lonely grandeur — the one perfectand sufficient sacrifice and
oblation for the sins of the whole world. The prophet s thought will become
apparent, if we notice — I THE COMMON LOT OF MAN. It may be
summed up in three words — suffering, sin, death.
II. THE NOTABLE EXCEPTION OF THIS CHAPTER. The Divine Servant
presents a notable exceptionto the lot of man; not in His sufferings, for He
was "a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" nor in His death, for He
died many deaths in one (ver. 9, R.V., marg.); but in His perfect innocence
and goodness. He had done no violence, neither was any deceit m His mouth.
The Divine Servant has passedthrough every painful experience;has drunk
to its dregs every cup; has studied deeply every black-letteredvolume in the

library of pain. In His case,atleast, man's hastily-formed conclusions are
falsified. Generallywe pass from singular suffering to discoverits cause in
some hidden or remote transgression. In the case ofJesus Christ, however,
this explanation of His unique sufferings was altogetheratfault. Another
explanation must, therefore, be forthcoming to accountfor the sufferings of
the innocent Saviour. The explanation lay hid as a secretconcealedin a
hieroglyph, in the vast system of Levitical sacrifice which foreshadowedthe
"offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." So, under the Divine
guidance, men were led from the conclusions ofver. 4 to those of ver. 5. These
conclusions expressedhere as the verdict of the human conscience, after
scanning the facts in the light of history, are confirmed and clenchedby the
unanimous voice of the New Testament. This is the greatexceptionwhich has
casta new light on the mystery of pain and sorrow. It may be that there is
other suffering, which, in a lower sense and in a smaller measure, is also
redemptive, fulfilling Divine purposes in the lives of others;though no
sufferer is free from sin as Christ was, and none has ever been able to expiate
sin as He.
III. THE PERSONALAPPLICATION OF THESE TRUTHS. "Thoumust
make his soul a guilt-offering" (R.V., marg.) This term, "guilt-offering,"
occurs in the Book of Leviticus. If a man committed a trespass in the holy
things of the Lord, he was directed to selectand bring from his flock a ram
without blemish. This was his "guilt-offering" — the word used here. He was
to make a money restitution for his offence;but the atonement was made
through the ram (Leviticus 5:1-16). Similarly, if a man sinned againsthis
neighbor, either in oppressing him or withholding his dues, or neglecting to
restore property which had been entrusted to him, he was not only to make
restitution, but to bring his guilt-offering to the Lord — a ram without
blemish out of the flock — and the priest made an atonement before the Lord,
and he was forgiven concerning whatsoeverhe had done to be made guilty
thereby (Leviticus 6:1-7). Is there one of us who has not committed a trespass
and sinned in the holy things of the Lord? Is there one of us who has not failed
in his obligations to neighbour and friend? How certainly we need to present
the guilt-offering! There is no mention made of the necessityof summoning
priestly aid. This is the more remarkable, when we considerthe strict

Levitical system in which Israel was cradled. It would seemthat in the great
crisis of its need, the soul of man reverts to an earlier cult, and goes back
beyond the elaborate systemof the temple to the practice of the patriarchal
tent, where eachman actedas his own priest, and offered the guilt-offering
with his own hand. No third personis neededin thy transactions with God.
Jesus is Priest as well as Sacrifice.
(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The atonementand its results
H. Melvill, B.D.
I. THE THING DONE. "Whenthou shalt make His soul an offering for sin."
"Without shedding of blood there is no remission." This sentence, written by
the finger of God on the page of Scripture, is also written as a receivedtruth
on every page of the history of heathenism. Howeverwe may recoilfrom the
fearful superstitions of Paganism, and weepover that sad ignorance which
can suppose God delighted even with human sacrifice, neverlet it be forgotten
that in the bloodiestrites of idolatry there are the vestiges ofa truth which is
the very sum and substance of Christianity. We can turn our gaze to the
evidence of what is callednatural religion, accompanied, it may be, and
loaded with what is abominable; and there we find monuments in every age
that God, at some time or another, hath brokenthe silences ofeternity, and
spokento His apostate creatures, andtaught them that unless there could be
found a sufficient sin-offering, the sinful must bear for ever the burden of His
displeasure. Thus from the first God gave notices of the plan of redemption,
and gradually prepared the way for that oblation which could alone take
awaysin. In the deep recesses ofChrist's undefiled spirit was paid down the
debt which man owedto God.
II. ITS CONSEQUENCES.
(H. Melvill, B.D.)

He shall see His seed
Notable effects following Christ's sufferings
J. Durham.
1. "He shall see His seed." Menby the suffering of death are incapacitatedto
increase their offspring, but this is a quickening suffering and death that hath
a numerous offspring.
2. "He shall prolong His days," which seems to be anotherparadox; for men's
days are shortenedby their sufferings and death; but though He be dead and
buried yet He shall rise again and ascend, and sit down at the right hand of
the Fatherand live for ever, to make intercessionfor His people.
3. A third effect, which is the upshot of all, is, "the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand." God hath designedHim for a work — the greatwork of
redemption — even the bringing of many sons to glory. He shall pull many
captives from the devil, and set many prisoners free; He shall, by His
sufferings, overcome the devil, death and the grave, and all enemies;shall
gather the sons of God togetherfrom the four corners of the earth.
(J. Durham.)
Christ seeing His seed
J. Durham.
1. A relation implied betwixt Christ and believers. They are "His seed," such
as in the next verse are said to be "justified" by Him.
2. A prophecy of the event that should follow Christ's sufferings. Our Lord
Jesus should not only have a seed, but a numerous seed.
3. Considering the words as a promise they hold out this — that though our
Lord Jesus suffer and die He shall not only have a seed, but shall "see His
seed." He shall outlive His sufferings and death and shall be delighted in
seeing them who shall get the goodof His sufferings.

(J. Durham.)
Believers Christ's seed
J. Durham.
1. They have their being of Him.
2. In respectof the likeness that is betwixt Him and them.
3. In respectof the care that He hath of them.
4. In respectof the portion which they getfrom Him.
5. Becauseofthe manner of their coming to the possessionofthat, which
through Him they have a claim to. They have a claim to nothing, but by being
heirs to and with Him.
(J. Durham.)
Christ seeing His seed
Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.
In "shall see His seedand have long life," the figure of a patriarch blessed
with longevity and numerous descendants (Genesis1:22, etc.)is in the prophet
s thoughts.
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.)
The Atonement indicates the dignity of man
James Duckworth.
Men do not launch lifeboats to pick up corks, and we may rest assuredthat in
the atonementthere is a just proportion betweenmeans and ends.

(James Duckworth.)
Messiah
R. Muter, D. D.
contemplating His spiritual offspring: —
I. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL BORN AND BROUGHT IN.
II. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL EDUCATED AND BROUGHT UP.
III. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL SUPPORTED AND BROUGHT
THROUGH.
IV. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL PERFECTED AND BROUGHT HOME.
(R. Muter, D. D.)
Christ's spiritual Offspring
R. Muter, D. D.
I. MESSIAH'S GLORY IS INSEPARABLY CONNECTEDWITH THE
HAPPINESS OF HIS OFFSPRING.
II. THE APPLICATION IS NOT LESS CERTAIN THAN THE PURCHASE
OF REDEMPTION.
III. A SEASONABLE AND POWERFULANTIDOTE AGAINST UNDUE
DEPRESSIONOR ALARM ABOUT THE LOW STATE OF RELIGION IN
THE CHURCH.
IV. IT IS OUR DUTY AND HONOUR TO CONCUR IN CARRYING THIS
SCRIPTURE INTO EFFECT.
(R. Muter, D. D.)

Seeing His seed
C. Clemance, D.D.
(with John 17:2, and Ephesians 5:25-27):— "His Seed." This clearlyimplies
that the Messiahshould be the living Head of a new spiritual race. As Adam
was the head of the human family, and Abraham the header the Hebrew
people, so the Lord Jesus was to be the head of a spiritual seed. The Psalmist
in the secondPsalm, plainly a Messianic one, declares:"Ask of Me, and I will
give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for Thy possession." OurLord Jesus Himself spoke of those who would
be saved by Him as given to Him by the Father. And apostles speakofthe
Church as composedof men gatheredto the Lord, and belonging to Him.
Preciselythis thought is expanded in Ephesians 5:25-27.
I. CHRIST'S SURRENDER OF HIMSELF WAS THE EXPRESSIONOF
HIS LOVE.
II. A LIVING CHURCH, THE CREATION OF HIS LOVE. Just as the
sculptor, before he begins to chip the marble into shape, sees with his mind's
eye the figure which is first conceivedby his genius and then fashionedby his
skill — so with our Divine Redeemer. He from eternity, before man was
created, beheld him coming into being, placed on His own footing, falling,
redeemed, saved. And, as the result of His atoning work, there rises up,
through His Spirit, the fufilment of His own ideal, a new creation, a living
Church, distinguished the marks of forgiveness, justification, renewaland
eternal life.
III. CLEANSING THE CHURCH, THE CONTINUOUS ACTION OF HIS
LOVE. "That He might sanctifyand cleanse it." Then He does not love the
Church because it is clean, but He first loves it that He may make it clean.
IV. PERFECTING THE CHURCH, THE FAR-OFF VISION OF HIS LOVE.
"A glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing."
V. PRESENTINGTHE CHURCH TO HIMSELF, THE REALIZATION OF
THE IDEAL OF HIS LOVE.

(C. Clemance, D.D.)
The posterity of Christ
Jesus is still alive, for to see anything is the actof a living person. Do not be
afraid that Christ's work will break down because He is dead. He lives to
carry it on.
I. THE DEATH OF CHRIST HAS PRODUCED APOSTERITY. We do not
read that the Lord Jesus has followers. Thatwould be true; but the text
prefers to say He has a seed.
1. All who truly follow Christ and are saved by Him have His life in them.
2. Believers in Christ are said to be His seedbecause they are like Him.
3. They prosecute the same ends, and expect to receive the same reward. We
are towards Christ His seed, and thus heirs to all that He has — heirs to His
business on earth, heirs to His estate in heaven. They speak of the seedroyal.
What shall I say of the seedof Christ? You may be a poor person, but you are
of the imperial house. You are ignorant and unlettered, it may be, and your
name will never shine on the roll of science, but He who is the Divine Wisdom
owns you as one of His seed. It may be that you are sick;by and by you will
die. But you are of His seed, who died, and rose, and is gone into glory. You
are of the seedof Him, "who only hath immortality." It follows if we are thus
of a seed, that we ought to be united, and love eachother more and more.
Christian people, you ought to have a clannish feeling l
II. THAT POSTERITYOF HIS REMAINS. If it had been possible to destroy
the Church of God on earth, it would have been destroyed long ago.
1. Only read the story of the persecutions under Nero, etc. As to our own
country, read the story of persecutions here.
2. There have been laborious attempts to destroy the Church of Christ by
error.
3. Worldliness has gone a long way to destroy the Church of God.

III. THIS POSTERITYIS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMMEDIATE EYE OF
CHRIST. "He shall see His seed." He sees them when they are first born
anew. WhereverHis seedmay wander, He still sees them. This look of Christ
is one of intense delight. He will see all His seedto the last. What a seedHe
will have to see in the morning. It will be a part of His heaven for Him to look
upon His redeemed.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
The enduring life of Christ after His sufferings
C. Clemance, D.D.
(with Hebrews 7:15, 16, 25). —
The enduring life of Christ after His sufferings: — In these passageswe have
given to us, first in Hebrew prophecy, and then in Christian teaching, the
doctrine of the enduring life of the Christ after His sufferings are over. The
Old Testamentprophet sees from afar the new life of the Messiah, in a blaze
of glory. The New Testamentprophet declares the life alreadybegun, and
indicates the purposes for which that life is being spent as well as the glory
with which it is crowned. The words quoted from the Epistle to the Hebrews
are a goalrather than a starting-point. They teach the following truths —
1. Jesus Christis now exalted: He is a Priestupon His throne.
2. In Him there is the powerof an indissoluble life.
3. Becauseofan indissoluble life, there is an intransmissible priesthood.
4. This life and this priesthoodare in action for the purpose of saving.
5. Since the life is indissoluble, and the priesthood intransmissible, there is an
infinitude of saving power.
(C. Clemance, D.D.)

The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand
The "pleasure ofJehovah
Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.
is the Servant's religious mission (Isaiah 42:1, 4, 6; Isaiah 49:6, 8).
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.)
The successofChrist in His work
G. Campbell.
I. WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BYTHE PLEASURE OF THE
LORD, the work which is here said to prosper?
1. What is the work to which the declarationrefers? The term "pleasure of
the Lord," as here used, must he consideredas expressive of His gracious
design to save a number of the human race from sin and all its fatal
consequences;to render them perfectin holiness;and put them in full
possessionofhappiness in the heavenly state. It includes in it, therefore, what
has been termed the work of grace in the soul while here, and the full fruition
of glory hereafter. In this work there are two things to be considered —
(1)The purchase of redemption.
(2)Its application.
2. Why is this work called"the pleasure of the Lord"?
(1)It is the free and sovereignpurpose of His will.
(2)It is a purpose in the accomplishmentof which He takes greatdelight.
II. WHAT PART HAS THE REDEEMERIN THIS WORK? The
managementof it is wholly committed to His care. It is "in His hand."
1. Reconciling sinners unto God is a principal part of the work of salvation
committed to the care of the Redeemer.

2. It belongs to the Redeemer, as their Saviour, to preserve His people from
every thing that is evil in death.
3. The Redeemerhas it in charge to perfectthe salvationof His people, by
putting them in full possessionof glory, honour and immortality, in the
heavenly state.
III. WHAT ASSURANCE WE HAVE, THAT THIS WORK SHALL
PROSPERIN THE HAND OF THE REDEEMER,so as to be fully and
finally accomplished. The language ofthe text. What is here assertedis
supported by many other passagesofthe Word of God. Consider —
1. The characterof Him to whom the work is entrusted.
2. The merit of His obedience, and the perfection of His atonement.
3. The progress He has already in the work.
(G. Campbell.)
The salvationof sinners the pleasure of God
EssexRemembrancer.
This will appearif we glance at the means which He has graciouslyprovided
for its accomplishment.
I. HE HAS GIVEN HIS ONLY-BEGOTTENSON.
II. HE HAS HAS GIVEN US HIS WORD.
III. HE HAS ESTABLISHED A GOSPELMINISTRY. The salvationof
sinners is the pleasure of the Lord, and this shall prosper in the hands of
Christ.
1. Omnipotence has promised it, as the reward of His obedience and death.
2. He is gone to carry it on before the throne of God.

3. He will descendto complete it when He shall come to judge the world in
righteousness. Have we entrusted our souls into His hands?
(EssexRemembrancer.)
Human redemption a pleasure to the Almighty
Homilist.
I. HUMAN REDEMPTION IS A PLEASURE TO THE ALMIGHTY, It is not
a mere work of intellect, it is a. work of the heart. It is "His goodpleasure." It
is the highestqualification of His benevolence. It is benevolence restoring the
rebellious to order, the sinful to holiness, the miserable to blessedness. Whatis
most pleasing to a being always —
1. Engagesmostof his thoughts.
2. Enlists most of his energies.
II. HUMAN REDEMPTION IS ENTRUSTED TO CHRIST. It shall "prosper
in His hands." He has undertaken the work. Four things are necessaryto
qualify a being to succeedin any undertaking.
1. He should enter on it from a deep sympathy with it. We persevere most in
the work we most love.
2. He should foresee allme difficulties that are destined to occur. When
difficulties arise which we never anticipated, we often get baffled and
disheartened.
3. He should have powerequal to all the emergenciesofthe case.
4. He should have sufficient time for its accomplishment. Deathoften prevents
us from finishing our work. Christ has all these qualifications.
III. HUMAN REDEMPTIONIS DESTINED TO SUCCEED. It "shall
prosper." An argument for the certainty of its accomplishment.

1. Therefore do not be perplexed by the dispensations of Providence. The
result of all the outcome of the chaos will be glorious.
2. Therefore do not be discouragedin your Christian labours.
(Homilist.)
The Divine purpose fufilled
J. Parsons.
I. GOD HAS FORMED A PURPOSE OF MERCYTOWARD MANKIND.
This is intended by the expression"the pleasure of the Lord."
Notwithstanding the state to which mankind had been reduced by sin, a state
in which God, with justice, might have abandoned them to hopeless
punishment, that God has adopted towards them a far different mode of
procedure. In these mysterious depths of eternity there was a Divine
determination that a wayof recoveryshould be openedfor the guilty. This is
styled "the eternal purpose of grace," "the goodpleasure which the Father
had purposed in Himself," "the goodpleasure of His will," "the goodpleasure
of His goodness." The manifestationof this pleasure of the Lord beganon
earth as soonas the need of mercy existed. The new-economy, establishedat
an ever-memorable era, has explained what might be ambiguous, has
illuminated what might be dark, has supplied what might be deficient under
preceding dispensations, and it lays open before us in substance the whole
counselof the Eternal. We now discernthat the entire fabric of creation, and
the entire system of Providence, are subordinated to the stupendous
achievements of redemption, those achievements the attributes of the Divine
nature being united in harmony to conduct and to perform.
II. THE FULFILMENT OF THIS PURPOSE OF MERCYIS COMMITTED
TO THE LORD JESUS. "The pleasure of the Lord is in His hand," the hand
of the Messiah, the Son of God, committed to Him to be by Him accomplished.
That the Lord Jesus does sustainthis momentous trust is obvious from the
entire testimony of revelation. The Lord Jesus performs the purpose of His

mercy, we observe more particularly, by His own atonement for sin, and by
the communication of the Holy Spirit.
III. UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD JESUS, THE
PURPOSE OF MERCYSHALL BE PERFECTLYAND TRIUMPHANTLY
ACCOMPLISHED. "The pleasure ofthe Lord shall prosper in His hand."
1. The certainty of the accomplishment must appear from the mere existence
of a Divine purpose to that effect. The supreme majesty of the perfections of
God itself secures the fulfilment of whateverHe has designed.
2. The certainty rests upon the inherent excellencyofHis own characterand
work. The proper deity of the Lord Jesus Christ renders failure in His work
impossible.
3. We observe the Divine assurancessolemnlypledged to that effect. Besides
generaldeclarations to which we might easily appealthere are recorded
assurancesaddressedby the Father to the Sonin His mediatorial capacity
respecting the exaltation He was to receive as a specific recompense ofthe
shame and suffering which on behalf of men He had endured.
(J. Parsons.
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(10) Yet it pleasedthe Lord . . .—The sufferings of the Servant are referred
not to chance or fate, or even the wickednessofhis persecutors, but to the
absolute “good-pleasure” ofthe Father, manifesting itself in its fullest
measure in the hour of apparent failure. (Comp. Psalm22:15.)
When thou shalt make . . .—Better, if his soul shall make a trespass offering,
he will see his seed;he will prolong his days . . . The sacrificialcharacterof the
death of the Servant is distinctly defined. It is a “trespass offering” (Leviticus
6:6; Leviticus 6:17; Leviticus 14:12), an expiation for the sins of the people.

The words declare that such a sacrifice was the condition of spiritual
parentage (Psalm22:30), of the immortality of influence, of eternallife with
God, of accomplishing the work which the Father had given him to do (John
17:4). The “trespassoffering” was, it must be remembered, distinct from the
“sin offering,” though both belongedto the same sacrificialgroup (Leviticus
5:15; Leviticus 7:1-7), the distinctive element in the former being that the man
who confessedhis guilt, voluntary or involuntary, paid his shekels, according
to the judgment of the priest, and offereda ram, the blood of which was
sprinkled upon the altar. It involved, that is, the idea not of an atonement
only, but of a satisfaction, according to the nature of the sin.
MacLaren's Expositions
Isaiah
THE SUFFERING SERVANT-IV
Isaiah53:10.
We have seena distinct progress of thought in the preceding verses. There
was first the outline of the sorrows andrejection of the Servant; second, the
profound explanation of these as being for us; third, the sufferings, death and
burial of the Servant.
We have followedHim to the grave. What more can there be to be said?
Whether the Servant of the Lord be an individual or a collective or an ideal,
surely all fitness of metaphor, all reality of fact would require that His work
should be representedas ending with His life, and that what might follow His
burial should be the influence of His memory, the continued operationof the
principles He had setagoing and so on, but nothing more.

Now observe that, howeverwe may explain the fact, this is the fact to be
explained, that there is a whole section, this closing one, devoted to the
celebrationof His work after His death and burial, and, still more
remarkable, that the prophecy says nothing about His activity on the world
till after death. In all the former portion there is not a syllable about His doing
anything, only about His suffering; and then when He is dead He begins to
work. That is the subjectof these lastthree verses, and it would be proper to
take them all for our considerationnow, but fur two reasons, one, because of
their greatfulness and importance, and one because, as youwill observe, the
two latter verses are a direct address of God’s concerning the Servant. The
prophetic words, spokenas in his own person, end with Isaiah 53:10, and,
catching up their representations, expanding, defining, glorifying them, comes
the solemnthunder of the voice of God. I now deal only with the prophet’s
vision of the work of the Servant of the Lord.
One other preliminary remark is that the work of the Servant after death is
describedin these verses with constantand very emphatic reference to His
previous sufferings. The closeness ofconnectionbetweenthese two is thus
thrown into greatprominence.
I. The mystery of God’s treatment of the sinless Servant.
The first clause is to be read in immediate connectionwith the preceding
verse. The Servant was of absolute sinlessness,and yet the Divine Hand
crushed and bruised Him. Certainly, if we think of the vehemence of
prophetic rebukes, and of the standing doctrine of the Old Testamentthat
Israelwas punished for its sin, we shall be slow to believe that this picture of
the Sinless One, smitten for the sins of others, canhave reference to the nation
in any of its parts, or to any one man. Howeverother poetry may lament over
innocent sufferers, the Old Testamentalways takes the ground: ‘Our

iniquities, like the wind, have carried us away.’But mark that here, however
understood, the prophet paints a figure so sinless that God’s bruising Him is
an outstanding wonderand riddle, only to be solvedby regarding these
bruises as the stripes by which our sins were healed, and by noting that ‘the
pleasure of the Lord’ is carried on through Him, after and through His death.
What conceivable applicationhave such representations exceptto Jesus? We
note, then, here:-
1. The solemn truth that His sufferings were divinely inflicted. That is a truth
complementary to the other views in the prophecy, according to which these
sufferings are variously regarded as either inflicted by men {‘By oppression
and judgment He was takenaway’} or drawn on Him by His own sacrificial
act {‘His soul shall make an offering for sin’}. It was the divine counselthat
used men as its instruments, though they were none the less guilty. The hands
that ‘crucified and slew’were no less ‘the hands of lawless men,’because it
was ‘the determinate counseland foreknowledgeofGod’ that ‘delivered Him
up.’
But a still deeper thought is in these words. Forwe canscarcelyavoid seeing
in them a glimpse into that dim regionof eclipse and agonyof soul from
which, as from a cave of darkness, issuedthat lastcry: ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabacthani?’The bruises inflicted by the God, who made to meet on Him the
iniquities of us all, were infinitely more severe than the weales ofthe soldiers’
rods, or the wounds of the nails that pierced His hands and feet.
2. The staggering mystery of His sinlessnessand sufferings.
The world has been full from of old of stories ofgoodness tortured and evil
exalted, which have drawn tears and softenedhearts, but which have also
bewildered men who would fain believe in a righteous Governor and loving

Father. But none of these have castso black a shadow of suspicionon the
government of the world by a goodGod as does the fate of Jesus, unless it is
read in the light of this prophecy. Standing at the cross, faith in God’s
goodness andprovidence can scarcelysurvive, unless it rises to be faith in the
atoning sacrifice ofHim who was wounded there for our transgressions.
II. The Servant’s work in His sufferings.
The margin of the RevisedVersion gives the best rendering-’His soulshall
make an offering for sin.’ The word employed for ‘offering’ means a trespass
offering, and carries us at once back to the sacrificialsystem. The trespass
offering was distinguished from other offerings. The central idea of it seems to
have been to represent sin or guilt as debt, and the sacrifice as making
compensation. We must keepin view the variety of ideas embodied in His
sacrifice, andhow all correspondto realities in our wants and spiritual
experience.
Now there are three points here:-
a. The representationthat Christ’s death is a sacrifice. Clearlyconnecting
with whole Mosaic system-andthat in the sense ofa trespass offering. Christ
seems to quote this verse in John 10:15, when He speaks oflaying down His
life, and when He declares that He came to ‘give His life a ransomfor many.’
At any rate here is the greatword, sacrifice, proclaimedfor the first time in
connectionwith Messiah. Here the prophet interprets the meaning of all the
types and shadows ofthe law.
That sacrificialsystembore witness to deep wants of men’s souls, and
prophesied of One in whom these were all met and satisfied.

b. His voluntary surrender.
He is sacrifice, but He is Priestalso. His soul makes the offering, and His soul
is the offering and offers itself in concurrence with the Divine Will. It is
difficult and necessaryto keepthat double aspectin view, and never to think
of Jesus as an unwilling Victim, nor of God as angry and needing to be
appeasedby blood.
c. The thought that the true meaning of His sufferings is only reachedwhen
we contemplate the effects that have flowed from them. The pleasure of the
Lord in bruising Him is a mystery until we see how pleasure of the Lord
prospers in the hand of the Crucified.
III. The work of the Servant after death.
Surely this paradox, so baldly stated, is meant to be an enigma to startle and
to rouse curiosity. This dead Servant is to see ofthe travail of His soul, and to
prolong His days. All the interpretations of this chapter which refuse to see
Jesus in it shiver on this rock. What a contrastthere is betweenplatitudes
about the spirit of the nation rising transformed from its grave of captivity
{which was only very partially the case}, and the historical fulfilment in Jesus
Christ! Here, at any rate, hundreds of years before His Resurrection, is a
word that seems to point to such a fact, and to me it appears that all fair
interpretation is on the side of the Messianic reference.
Note the singularity of specialpoints.

a. Having died, the Servant sees His offspring.
The sacrifice ofChrist is the greatpower which draws men to Him, and moves
to repentance, faith, love. His death was the communication of life. Nowhere
else in the world’s history is the teacher’s deaththe beginning of His gathering
of pupils, and not only has the dead Servant children, but He sees them. That
representationis expressive of the mutual intercourse, strange and deep,
whereby we feelthat He is truly with us, ‘Jesus Christ, whom having not seen
we love.’
b. Having died, the Servant prolongs His days.
He lives a continuous life, without an end, for ever. The best commentary is
the word which John heard, as he felt the hand of the Christ laid on his
prostrate form: ‘I became dead, and lo, I am alive for evermore.’
c. Having died, the Servantcarries into effectthe divine purposes.
‘Prosper’implies progressive advancement. Christ’s Sacrifice carriedout the
divine pleasure, and by His Sacrifice the divine pleasure is further carried out.
If Christ is the means of carrying out the divine purpose, considerwhat this
implies of divinity in His nature, of correspondence betweenHis will and the
divine.

But Jesus not only carries into effectthe divine purpose as a consequence ofa
past act, but by His present energythis dead man is a living power in the
world today. Is He not?
The sole explanation of the vitality of Christianity, and the sole reasonwhich
makes its messagea gospelto any soul, is Christ’s death for the world and
present life in the world.
BensonCommentary
Isaiah53:10-11. It pleasedthe Lord to bruise him — Although he was
perfectly innocent, it pleasedGod, for other just and wise reasons,to expose
him to sufferings and death. He hath put him to grief — His God and Father
spared him not, though he was his only and beloved Son, but delivered him up
for us all, to ignominy and torture, delivered him by his determinate counsel
and foreknowledge, (Acts 2:23,)into the powerof those whose wickedhands
he knew would execute upon him every species ofcruelty and barbarity.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin — When thou, O God, shalt
have made thy Son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the atonement of
men’s sins. His soul is here put for his life, or for himself, or his whole human
nature, which was sacrificed, his soul being oppressedwith a sense ofthe
wrath of God due to our sins, his body crucified, and his soul and body
separatedby death. Or, the words, ‫ׁשפנ‬ ‫פאנ‬ ‫ׁשנ‬ ‫,םׁשפ‬ may be rendered, when,
or, if his soulshall make an offering for sin, or, a propitiatory sacrifice:
whereby it may be implied, that he did not lay down his life by compulsion,
but willingly. He shall see his seed — His death shall be glorious to himself
and highly beneficial to others, for he shall have a numerous seedof believers,
reconciledto God, and savedby his death. He shall prolong his days — He
shall be raised to immortal life, and live and reign with God for ever. The
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand — God’s gracious decree,for
the salvationof mankind, shall be effectually carried on by his ministry and
mediation. He shall see ofthe travail of his soul — He shall enjoy the
comfortable and blessedfruit of all his hard labours and grievous sufferings:
and shall be satisfied— He shall esteemhis own and his Father’s glory, and

the salvationof his people, an abundant recompense. Byhis knowledge — By
the knowledge of, or an acquaintance with himself, that knowledge whichis
accompaniedwith faith, love, and obedience to him; shall my righteous
servant justify many — Shall acquit them that believe in and obey him from
the guilt of all their sins, and save them from the dreadful consequences
thereof. Justification is here, as in most other places of the Scriptures, one or
two exceptedopposedto condemnation: and Christ is saidto justify sinners,
because he does it meritoriously, procuring justification for us by his sacrifice;
as God the Fatheris commonly said to justify authoritatively, because he
acceptedthe price paid by Christ for that blessing, and the pronouncing of the
sentence ofabsolution is referred to him in the gospeldispensation. Forhe
shall bear their iniquities — Forhe shall satisfythe justice and law of God for
them, by bearing the punishment due to their sins; and therefore, on the
principles of reasonand justice, they must be acquitted, otherwise the same
debt would be twice required and paid.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
53:10-12 Come, and see how Christ loved us! We could not put him in our
stead, but he put himself. Thus he took away the sin of the world, by taking it
on himself. He made himself subject to death, which to us is the wages ofsin.
Observe the gracesand glories of his state of exaltation. Christ will not
commit the care of his family to any other. God's purposes shall take effect.
And whateveris undertaken according to God's pleasure shall prosper. He
shall see it accomplishedin the conversionand salvationof sinners. There are
many whom Christ justifies, even as many as he gave his life a ransom for. By
faith we are justified; thus God is most glorified, free grace mostadvanced,
self most abased, and our happiness secured. We must know him, and believe
in him, as one that bore our sins, and saved us from sinking under the load, by
taking it upon himself. Sin and Satan, death and hell, the world and the flesh,
are the strong foes he has vanquished. What God designed for the Redeemer
he shall certainly possess.Whenhe led captivity captive, he receivedgifts for
men, that he might give gifts to men. While we survey the sufferings of the Son
of God, let us remember our long catalogueoftransgressions, and consider
him as suffering under the load of our guilt. Here is laid a firm foundation for
the trembling sinner to rest his soul upon. We are the purchase of his blood,

and the monuments of his grace;for this he continually pleads and prevails,
destroying the works of the devil.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Yet it pleasedthe Lord to bruise him - In this verse, the prediction respecting
the final glory and triumph of the Messiahcommences.The designof the
whole prophecy is to state, that in consequenceofhis greatsufferings, he
would be exalted to the highest honor (see the notes at Isaiah 52:13). The sense
of this verse is, 'he was subjected to these sufferings, not on accountof any
sins of his, but because, under the circumstances ofthe case, his sufferings
would be pleasing to Yahweh. He saw they were necessary, and he was willing
that he should be subjected to them. He has laid upon him heavy sufferings.
And when he has brought a sin-offering, he shall see a numerous posterity,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper through him.' The Lord was
'pleased'with his sufferings, not because he has delight in the sufferings of
innocence;not because the sufferer was in any sense guilty or ill-deserving;
and not because he was at any time displeasedor dissatisfiedwith what the
Mediatordid, or taught. But it was:
1. Becausethe Messiahhad voluntarily submitted himself to those sorrows
which were necessaryto show the evil of sin; and in view of the greatobject to
be gained, the eternal redemption of his people, he was pleasedthat he would
subject himself to so greatsorrows to save them. He was pleasedwith the end
in view, and with all that was necessaryin order that the end might be
secured.
2. Becausethese sufferings would tend to illustrate the divine perfections, and
show the justice and mercy of God. The gift of a Saviour, such as he was,
evinced boundless benevolence;his sufferings in behalf of the guilty showed
the holiness of his nature and law; and all demonstratedthat he was at the
same time disposedto save, and yet resolvedthat no one should be saved by
dishonoring his law, or without expiation for the evil which had been done by
sin.
3. Becausethese sorrowswouldresult in the pardon and recoveryof an
innumerable multitude of lost sinners, and in their eternal happiness and

salvation. The whole work was one of benevolence, and Yahweh was pleased
with it as a work of pure and disinterestedlove.
To bruise him - (See the notes at Isaiah 53:5). The word here is the infinitive
of Piel. 'To bruise him, or his being bruised, was pleasing to Yahweh;' that is,
it was acceptable to him that he should be crushed by his many sorrows. It
does not of necessityimply that there was any positive and direct agencyon
the part of Yahweh in bruising him, but only that the factof his being thus
crushed and bruised was acceptableto him.
He hath put him to grief - This word, 'hath grieved him,' is the same which in
another form occurs in Isaiah53:4. It means that it was by the agency, and in
accordancewith the design of Yahweh, that he was subjectedto these great
sorrows.
When thou shalt make his soul - Margin, 'His soul shall make.'According to
the translationin the text, the speakeris the prophet, and it contains an
address to Yahweh, and Yahweh is himself introduced as speaking in Isaiah
53:11. According to the margin, Yahweh himself speaks,and the idea is, that
his soulshould make an offering for sin. The Hebrew will bear either. Jerome
renders it, 'If he shall lay down his life for sin.' The Septuagint renders it in
the plural, 'If you shall give (an offering) for sin, your soul shall see a long-
lived posterity.' Lowth renders it, 'If his soul shall make a propitiatory
sacrifice.'Rosenmullerrenders it, 'If his soul, that is, he himself, shall place
his soulas an expiation for sin.' Noyes renders it, 'But since he gave himself a
sacrifice for sin.' It seems to me that the margin is the correctrendering, and
that it is to be regardedas in the third person. Thus the whole passage willbe
connected, and it will be regardedas the assurance ofYahweh himself, that
when his life should be made a sacrifice for sin, he would see a greatmultitude
who should be savedas the result of his sufferings and death.
His soul - The word rendered here 'soul' (‫םׁשפ‬ nephesh) means properly
breath, spirit, the life, the vital principle Genesis 1:20-30;Genesis 9:4;
Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy12:23. It sometimes denotes the rational soul,
regardedas the seatof affections and emotions of various kinds Genesis 34:3;

Psalm86:4; Isaiah15:4; Isaiah 42:1; Sol1:7; Sol 3:1-4. It is here equivalent to
himself - when he himself is made a sin-offering, or sacrifice for sin.
An offering for sin - (‫ׁשפנ‬ 'âshâm). This word properly means, blame, guilt
which one contracts by transgressionGenesis 26:10;Jeremiah51:5; also a
sacrifice for guilt; a sin-offering; an expiatory sacrifice. It is often rendered
'trespass-offering'Leviticus 5:19; Leviticus 7:5; Leviticus 14:21;Leviticus
19:21;1 Samuel 6:3, 1 Samuel6:8, 1 Samuel6:17). It is rendered 'guiltiness'
Genesis 26:10;'sin' Proverbs 14:9; 'trespass'Numbers 5:8. The idea here is,
clearly, that he would be made an offering, or a sacrifice forsin; that by which
guilt would be expiated and an atonement made. In accordancewith this, Paul
says 2 Corinthians 5:21, that God 'made him to be sin for us' (ἁμαρτίαν
hamartian), that is, a sin-offering; and he is called ἱλασμὸς hilasmos and
ἱλαστήριονhilastērion, a propitiatory sacrifice forsins Romans 3:25; 1 John
2:2; 1 John 4:10. The idea is, that he was himself innocent, and that he gave
up his soul or life in order to make an expiation for sin - as the innocent
animal in sacrifice was offeredto God as an acknowledgmentof guilt. There
could be no more explicit declarationthat he who is referred to here, did not
die as a martyr merely, but that his death had the high purpose of making
expiation for the sins of people. Assuredly this is not language whichcan be
used of any martyr. In what sense couldit be saidof Ignatius or Cranmer that
their souls or lives were made an offering (‫ׁשפנ‬ 'âshâm or ἱλασμὸς hilasmos)
for sin? Such language is never applied to martyrs in the Bible; such language
is never applied to them in the common discoursesofpeople.
He shall see his seed- His posterity; his descendants. The language here is
takenfrom that which was regardedas the highest blessing among the
Hebrews. With them length of days and a numerous posterity were regarded
as the highest favors, and usually as the clearestproofs of the divine love.
'Children's children are the crown of old men' Proverbs 17:6. See Psalm
127:5;Psalm 128:6 : 'Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace
upon Israel.'So one of the highest blessings which could be promised to
Abraham was that he would be made the father of many nations Genesis 12:2;
Genesis 17:5-6. In accordance withthis, the Messiahis promised that he shall
see a numerous spiritual posterity. A similar declarationoccurs in Psalm
22:30, which is usually applied to the Messiah. 'A seedshall serve him; it shall

be accountedto the Lord for a generation.'The natural relationbetween
father and son is often transferred to spiritual subjects. Thus the name father
is often given to the prophets, or to teachers, andthe name sons to disciples or
learners. In accordancewith this, the idea is here, that the Messiahwould
sustain this relation, and that there would be multitudes who would sustainto
him the relation of spiritual children. There may be emphasis on the word
'see'- he shall see his posterity, for it was regardedas a blessing not only to
have posterity, but to be permitted to live and see them. Hence, the joy of the
agedJacobin being permitted to see the children of JosephGenesis 48:11 :
'And Israelsaid unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face;and lo, God
hath showedme also thy seed.
He shall prolong his days - His life shall be long. This also is language which is
takenfrom 'the view entertained among the Hebrews that long life was a
blessing, and was a proof of the divine favor. Thus, in 1 Kings 3:14, Godsays
to Solomon, 'if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keepmy statutes and my
commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days'
(see Deuteronomy25:15; Psalm21:4; Psalm 91:16;Proverbs 3:2). The
meaning here is, that the Messiah, though he should be put to death, would yet
see greatmultitudes who should be his spiritual children. Though he should
die, yet he would live again, and his days should be lengthened out. It is
fulfilled in the reign of the Redeemeron earth and in his eternal existence and
glory in heaven.
And the pleasure of the Lord - That is, that which shall please Yahweh;the
work which he desire and appoints.
Shall prosper - (See the notes at Isaiah52:13, where the same word occurs).
In his hand - Under his government and direction. Religionwill be promoted
and extended through him. The reward of all his sufferings in making an
offering for sin would be, that multitudes would be convertedand saved; that
his reign would be permanent, and that the work which Yahweh designedand
desired would prosper under his administration.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary

10. Transition from His humiliation to His exaltation.
pleasedthe Lord—the secretof His sufferings. They were voluntarily borne
by Messiah, in order that thereby He might "do Jehovah's will" (Joh6:38;
Heb 10:7, 9), as to man's redemption; so at the end of the verse, "the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."
bruise—(see Isa 53:5); Ge 3:15, was hereby fulfilled, though the Hebrew word
for "bruise," there, is not the one used here. The word "Himself," in
Matthew, implies a personalbearing on Himself of our maladies, spiritual and
physical, which included as a consequenceHis ministration to our bodily
ailments: these latter are the reverse side of sin; His bearing on Him our
spiritual malady involved with it His bearing sympathetically, and healing, the
outward: which is its fruits and its type. Hengstenberg rightly objects to
Magee'stranslation, "takenaway," insteadof"borne," that the parallelism to
"carried" would be destroyed. Besides, the Hebrew word elsewhere, when
connectedwith sin, means to bear it and its punishment (Eze 18:20). Matthew,
elsewhere,also sets forth His vicarious atonement(Mt 20:28).
when thou, &c.—rather, as Margin, "when His soul (that is, He) shall have
made an offering," &c. In the English Versionthe change of person is harsh:
from Jehovah, addressedin the secondperson(Isa 53:10), to Jehovah
speaking in the first person in Isa 53:11. The Margin rightly makes the
prophet in the name of JehovahHimself to speak in this verse.
offering for sin—(Ro 3:25; 1Jo 2:2; 4:10).
his seed—His spiritual posterity shall be numerous (Ps 22:30); nay, more,
though He must die, He shall see them. A numerous posterity was accounteda
high blessing among the Hebrews; still more so, for one to live to see them (Ge
48:11;Ps 128:6).
prolong … days—also esteemeda specialblessing among the Jews (Ps 91:16).
Messiahshall, after death, rise again to an endless life (Ho 6:2; Ro 6:9).
prosper—(Isa 52:13, Margin).
Matthew Poole's Commentary

Yet it pleasedthe Lord to bruise him; but although he was perfectly innocent,
it pleasedGod for other just and wise reasons to punish him.
He hath put him to grief; God was the principal Cause of all his sorrows and
sufferings, although men’s sins were the deserving cause.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin; when thou, O God, shalt
make, or have made, thy Son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the
atonement of men’s sins. His
soul is here put for his life, or for himself, or his whole human nature, which
was sacrificed;his soul being tormented with the sense of God’s wrath, and
his body crucified, and soul and body separatedby death. Or the words may
be rendered, when his soul shall make, or have made, itself
an offering for sin; whereby it may be implied that he did not lay down his life
by force, but willingly.
He shall see his seed;his death shall be glorious to himself, and highly
beneficialto others;for he shall have a numerous issue of believers reconciled
to God, and savedby his death.
He shall prolong his days; he shall be raisedto immortal life, and shall live
and reign with God for ever; he shall die no more, Ro 6 9, and of his kingdom
there shall be no end, Luke 1:33.

Jesus was to see his seed

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