The Gospel according to God: Rediscovering the Most Remarkable Chapter in the Old Testament

by John MacArthur

Overview

“He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Often hailed as one of the greatest chapters in the Bible, the prophecy of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 foretells the crucifixion of Jesus, the central event in God’s ultimate plan to redeem the world.

This book explains the prophetic words of Isaiah 53 verse by verse, highlighting important connections to the history of Israel and to the New Testament—ultimately showing us how this ancient prophecy illuminates essential truths that undergird our lives today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433549601
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	02/20/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	510 KB

About the Author

John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he has served since 1969. He is known around the world for his verse-by-verse expository preaching and his pulpit ministry via his daily radio program, Grace to You. He has also written or edited nearly four hundred books and study guides. MacArthur is chancellor emeritus of the Master’s Seminary and Master’s University. He and his wife, Patricia, live in Southern California and have four grown children.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The Most Remarkable Chapter in the Old Testament

This is one of the chapters that lie at the very heart of the Scriptures. It is the very Holy of holies of Divine Writ. Let us, therefore, put off our shoes from our feet, for the place whereon we stand is specially holy ground. This fifty-third of Isaiah is a Bible in miniature. It is the condensed essence of the gospel.

Charles Spurgeon 1

No text in the entire Old Testament is more momentous than Isaiah 52:13–53:12. It is a prophecy that begins and ends with the voice of Yahweh himself. He calls our attention to a singular individual: "Behold, my servant ..." (52:13) and "the righteous one, my servant" (53:11).

The servant is the Anointed One of Israel — the Messiah. We know that for several reasons. To begin with, those opening words are a clear echo of Isaiah 42:1: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations." In the introduction we noted that Isaiah wrote four psalm-like passages prominently featuring a person the prophet calls the servant of Yahweh: Isaiah 42:1–9; 49:1–13; 50:4–11; and 52:13–53:12. All of them (often referred to as Isaiah's Servant Songs) speak of the servant's gentle manner and his worldwide mission. All four are clearly messianic prophecies.

Those passages from Isaiah ring the same note as Zechariah 3:8, another famous messianic prophecy: "Behold, I will bring my servant the Branch." Of this same individual, Isaiah had previously written, "The government shall be upon his shoulder [and] of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore" (9:6–7).

So the introductory words of Isaiah 52:13 make clear that what follows is a prophecy concerning the Messiah, the promised Redeemer from Israel: "Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted."

The entire passage then focuses on the servant of the Lord — described in plain terms as a specific individual. The passage is not about any nation, tribe, people group, or general category of oppressed persons. This is about the suffering of one person, the Lord's servant, and he remains the singular focus of the passage through the end of Isaiah 53.

As we also observed in this book's introduction, the chapter and verse divisions in our modern Bibles aren't found in the original manuscripts. Though generally useful and convenient, the chapter breaks and verse numbers were not divinely inspired. In the case of our text, the break between chapters has been inserted in a rather unfortunate place. The prophecy clearly shifts from one topic to the next after Isaiah 52:12. Both the context and the content make clear that the final three verses in Isaiah 52 actually introduce (and belong to) the passage that spans all of chapter 53. So for convenience's sake, please understand that throughout this book when I speak in general terms of Isaiah 53 without citing specific verses, I have in mind the entire pericope, including those final three verses in chapter 52.

The Text

Here is the complete passage, formatted to reflect the fact that Isaiah is writing in poetic verse:

Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you —
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind —
so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.

Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned — every one — to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

That brief but pivotal portion of Isaiah is a crystal-clear prophecy about the ministry, death, resurrection, and coronation of the Messiah, written more than seven centuries before he came. It is the gospel according to God. Of all the Old Testament's messianic prophecies, this one stands out for its sublime richness and unparalleled clarity. In particular, Isaiah paints a precise prophetic portrait of Messiah's sufferings. He also explains in vivid detail the true meaning of Messiah's death as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people.

Many key historical details from the events surrounding the death of Messiah are expressly stated in this passage. For example, Isaiah speaks of the savage brutality of the wounds that were inflicted on him (52:14), his utter silence before his accusers (53:7), his death (vv. 8–9), the place of his burial (v. 9), and the ultimate triumph of his finished work (v. 11). The prophet even alludes to his resurrection from the dead: "He shall prolong his days [and] the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand" (v. 10).

The passage is also loaded with doctrinal themes: substitutionary sacrifice (vv. 4–6, 10), the forgiveness of sins through the shedding of Messiah's lifeblood (v. 5), the sinlessness of this "despised and rejected" servant who dies for his people (v. 9), the sovereign initiative of God in providing atonement for sinners (vv. 10–11), the justification of many (v. 11), and the intercessory work of the one who offers himself as a sacrifice (v. 12).

Who Is This Suffering Servant?

Ancient Jewish commentators recognized and acknowledged the messianic significance of Isaiah 53. An early belief among some rabbis was that Messiah would be pale and sickly — regarded as a leper — because of how the suffering servant is described in Isaiah 53:3: "despised and rejected ... as one from whom men hide their faces." The Talmud is a massive compendium of rabbinical teaching covering several centuries of tradition, commentary, legal opinions, philosophy, ethics, and other matters of Jewish custom. It dates from the fifth century after Christ but includes a record of oral traditions from as early as two or three centuries before Christ. One section of the Talmud features a discussion about Messiah and what he was to be called. "What is his name?" the writer asks. Someone answers "Shiloh," based on Genesis 49:10 ("The sceptre shall not depart ... until Shiloh come," KJV). However, the writer says, "[our] Rabbis maintain that his name is 'the leprous one of the school of Rabbi Judah the Prince,' as it is said 'Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.'" Clearly those rabbis recognized the messianic significance of Isaiah 53, even though they misunderstood key details of it.

Here, for example, is how Isaiah 53 was used in a formal Jewish prayer taken from a ninth-century (AD) liturgy for the Day of Atonement:

Messiah our righteousness (or "our Righteous Messiah") has departed from us: Horror hath seized upon us, and we have none to justify us. He hath borne the yoke of our iniquities and our transgressions, and is wounded because of our transgression. He beareth our sins on His shoulder, that He may find pardon for our iniquities. We shall be healed by His wound at the time the Eternal will create Him (Messiah) as a new creature. O bring Him up from the circle of the earth, raise Him up from Seir to assemble us the second time on Mount Lebanon, by the hand of Yinnon.

A learned and highly esteemed sixteenth-century rabbi surveyed Jewish literature on Isaiah 53 and noted that from a strictly Jewish perspective, the passage is "difficult to fix or arrange in a literal manner." He nevertheless acknowledged that "our rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of the King Messiah." A traditionalist himself, the rabbi therefore wrote, "We shall ourselves also adhere to the same view." But in order to avoid conceding that the passage speaks of Jesus, he quickly added, "The Messiah is of course David."

For those who lived in the Old Testament era, some measure of confusion about how to interpret this passage was understandable. Like most of the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah, Isaiah 53 was somewhat shrouded in mystery until the fulfillment of the prophecy made its meaning clear. The apostle Peter acknowledges that even "the prophets ... searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of [Messiah] in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of [Messiah] and the subsequent glories" (1 Pet. 1:10–11).

And make no mistake, the Old Testament is full of prophecies about Messiah that point only to Jesus. He is the central theme not only of New Testament preaching (Acts 5:42; 8:12; 9:27; 11:20; 17:18; Rom. 16:25; Titus 2:8), but also of Old Testament prophecy. After Jesus called Philip to follow him, Philip "found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph'" (John 1:45). Indeed, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10).

In John 5:39 Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me." Later in that discussion the Lord added, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me" (v. 46). In Matthew 5:17 he said to those listening to the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them"— a claim that he repeated throughout his earthly ministry (see Matt. 26:24, 31, 54, 56; Mark 9:12; 14:26–27; Luke 4:16–21; 18:31; 22:37; John 13:18; 15:25; 17:12; 19:28).

Messiah in the Old Testament

In fact, the Old Testament is so full of teaching about Messiah that when the disciples were confused about Jesus's death and unprepared for his resurrection, he rebuked them for their ignorance of the Scriptures. Remember that after his resurrection he said to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, "'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25–27). Later that same evening the Lord said to the eleven remaining apostles who were gathered in the upper room,

"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms [the three divisions of the Old Testament] must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:44–47)

As we noted in the introduction, Scripture does not record the specific content of our Lord's teaching that afternoon on the road to Emmaus. But it would undoubtedly have included both direct, explicit predictions concerning him and many symbols that pictured him. The latter would include Noah's ark, which pictures him as the true ark into which sinners enter and are kept safe through the waters of divine judgment (cf. 1 Pet. 3:20–21); the ram Abraham offered as a substitute for his son Isaac (Gen. 22:13); the Passover lambs, which pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, the final sacrifice (Exodus 12; Num. 9:12; cf. 1 Cor. 5:7; John 1:29); the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16), which pictured him as the true bread from heaven (John 6:32–35); the bronze serpent that was lifted up (Num. 21:4–9; cf. John 3:14), which symbolized his crucifixion; and the five major offerings in Leviticus (burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings), of which he is the fulfillment. The Day of Atonement pictures him both in the sacrifice on the altar and in the scapegoat that bore away sin (Lev. 16:7–10). The rock that gave water in the wilderness (Ex. 17:5–6; Num. 20:8–11) prefigured him as the source of spiritual provision for his people (1 Cor. 10:4). And Jonah's emergence alive after three days and nights in the stomach of a large fish was a prophetic picture of Jesus's resurrection from the dead (Matt. 12:39–41).

Jesus is the rejected cornerstone (Ps. 118:22; cf. Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20); "the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders" (Zech. 11:4–14); the stone cut out without human hands who will destroy Antichrist's empire at his second coming (Dan. 2:34–35, 44–45); and the Branch out of David's family tree — "a shoot from the stump of Jesse" (Isa. 11:1–5; Jer. 23:5; 33:15; Ezek. 17:22–23; Zech. 3:8; 6:12). Psalm 72 pictures Christ's millennial reign as King (see especially verses 7 and 17). In some of the messianic prophecies Jesus is referred to as "David," since he is the greatest of David's descendants, the ultimate fulfillment of God's promise to David in 2 Samuel 7, and the culmination of David's kingly line (Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23–24; 37:24–25; and Hos. 3:5). Since all those prophecies that refer to Messiah as "David" came many years after David died, they clearly referred to someone yet to come, who would embody what David's throne was meant to signify.

Of course the Old Testament also contains many direct predictions concerning our Lord's first coming. In the protoevangelium (the "first gospel") recorded in Genesis 3:15, he is the seed of the woman (cf. Gal. 4:4) who will destroy Satan (1 John 3:8). He is the great prophet of whom Moses wrote (Deut. 18:15–22; cf. Num. 24:17–19; Acts 3:22–23). Daniel 7:13–14 describes him as the glorious Son of Man (a title Jesus used of himself more than eighty times in the Gospels). This is the Messiah, who will return on the clouds of heaven (Matt. 24:30; Mark 14:62; Rev. 1:7). As the Old Testament predicted Messiah would be, Jesus was of the line of Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3; cf. Gal. 3:16), from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10; cf. Rev. 5:5), and a descendant of David (2 Sam. 7:12–16; 1 Chron. 17:11–13; cf. Matt. 1:1).

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Gospel According to God"
by .
Copyright © 2018 John MacArthur.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: The Whole Story of Salvation in Prophecy,
PART 1: THE SUFFERING SERVANT,
1 The Most Remarkable Chapter in the Old Testament,
2 About Whom Does the Prophet Say This?,
3 Astonishing!,
4 What If Some Did Not Believe?,
5 The Substituted Servant,
6 The Silent Servant,
7 The Suffering and Exalted Servant,
8 The Sin-Bearing Servant,
PART 2: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ISAIAH THE PROPHET,
9 Here I Am! Send Me,
10 Judah's Demise,
Acknowledgments,
Appendix: "The Man of Sorrows": A Sermon by Charles Spurgeon,
General Index,
Scripture Index,

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The Gospel according to God is a beautifully written exposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is revealed through the prophet Isaiah. Like Philip in the chariot of the Ethiopian court official, MacArthur takes up his pen and, beginning from Isaiah, preaches Jesus to us! The work is scholarly yet devotional––a resource for teaching the gospel to the church and a tool for the evangelization of both Jew and Gentile.”
—Paul David Washer, Director, HeartCry Missionary Society; author, Recovering the Gospel series; Knowing the Living God; Discovering the Glorious Gospel; and Discerning the Plight of Man

“John MacArthur’s skillful exposition of Isaiah 53 brings us face-to-face with the gospel of Christ crucified. In the death of our divine substitute, we behold the height of God’s love and the depth of our iniquity. The clarity of this prophecy is all the more astonishing when we realize that God revealed it to Israel seven centuries before Jesus came. Though Christians hold to different understandings of God’s covenant and the end of the age, we find ourselves drawn together as we bow at the foot of the cross in adoration and humble joy.”
—Joel R. Beeke, President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; author, Reformed Preaching; coauthor, Reformed Systematic Theology

“MacArthur gets better and better. The Gospel according to God is sure to become the definitive treatment of Isaiah 53 for years to come. An outstanding achievement by one of our leading pastor-theologians.”
—Derek W. H. Thomas, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina; Chancellor’s Professor, Reformed Theological Seminary; Teaching Fellow, Ligonier Ministries

“This master expositor and skilled theologian has spent his entire ministry defining and defending the gospel of Jesus Christ. In these pages you will discover the biblical basis for the good news of salvation found in the person and work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Your heart will be thrilled as you behold the glory of God in the image of him who is the only Savior of sinners, the Lord of heaven and earth. Here is yet another doctrinally profound yet easily accessible book by this best-selling author. Whatever MacArthur writes, read it for the good of your soul. This book is no exception.”
—Steven J. Lawson, President, OnePassion Ministries; Professor of Preaching, The Master’s Seminary; Teaching Fellow, Ligonier Ministries

“The Gospel according to God is John MacArthur’s powerful, clear, scriptural exposition of Isaiah 52:13–53:12. It is a particular delight to ‘listen’ in these pages to MacArthur preach the gospel from the Old Testament. Linger here awhile and learn of Christ from the passage God used to transform the life of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:27–38).”
—Ligon Duncan, Chancellor and CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary

“Isaiah 52:13–53:12 shows the height, depth, and width of the wisdom of God and even the infallibility of his Word. And all that richness is made clear in this book by one of the most gifted and Bible-saturated teachers of our times. MacArthur has done it again; this is the result of searching, believing, and exposing the Scriptures for almost half a century. As you read this profound study, our Redeemer looks more gracious, merciful, desirable, and worthy. This is a must-read!”
—Miguel Núñez, Senior Pastor, International Baptist Church of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

“As an eight-year-old boy in a Scottish state school I was ‘forced’ to learn Isaiah 53 by heart. The teacher said it was about Jesus. She was right. But I wish she had been able to read The Gospel according to God. Then she could have shown me how Isaiah’s prophecy would be fulfilled in detail. And she could have helped me to understand the meaning of the terrible loneliness, violence, shame, and rejection the Savior endured for me. That’s what The Gospel according to God does. And it does it with all the Bible-saturated boldness we have come to expect from its author, John MacArthur.”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson, Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary; Teaching Fellow, Ligonier Ministries

“We have all gained immensely from the pen and preaching of John MacArthur for almost half a century due to his unflinching fidelity to the Scriptures. In The Gospel according to God he is again in his element as he deals with a matter at the very heart of the Christian gospel—Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Isaiah 53 is a rare but amazingly rich vein of gospel truth, and Dr. MacArthur mines it with his usual precision and evangelical warmth. If you want to gain a fresh view of Calvary’s love to enlarge your mind and heart, this is the book to buy and read!”
—Conrad Mbewe, Pastor, Kabwata Baptist Church, Lusaka, Zambia