Who
Hath Believed Our Report
Content
Of Report
In a Brief Survey
of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans
Based on sermons
preached in PCC Worship Services, July 2003 to Sep 2005
Part 51b of 83
“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who
hath believed our report? ” (Romans 10:16).
[In our previous instalment of this article, we noted that the
apostle Paul is actually alluding to Isaiah 53 as the Old Testament report of
the gospel. In this second part, we want to survey the chapter to see how it is
indeed the good news. -JJL]
2. Content of the Report
Let’s take a brief look at the passage.
“For he [i.e. the Messiah] shall grow up
before him [i.e. the Father] as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground” (Isa 53:2).
That is to say: The Messiah’s birth and childhood would not be in
an ideal and luxurious condition. He would grow up, rather, like a tender plant
in a dry and arid desert where nothing green and fruitful is to be expected.
He would not be born in a rich and royal family. His family would
be poor and despicable. He would be born of a virgin as Isaiah 7:14 prophesied.
But his adoptive father was a carpenter and for the most part they dwelt in
Nazareth, a poor city where nothing good was known to have emerged.
What’s more…
“he hath no form nor comeliness; and
when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa
53:2b).
He is the God-Man, but His manhood was an ordinary manhood. He did
not look like an Anglo-Saxon prince as portrayed in many medieval paintings. He
probably looked like an ordinary Jewish man. He is not commended for physically
attractiveness in Scripture, unlike Moses who was a goodly child and probably
grew up as a handsome prince in the eyes of the world.
In fact…
“He is despised and rejected of men; a
man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa 53:3).
He was not the kind of person that people normally look up to. He
was the most important and glorious person who ever lived; but man despised and
rejected Him.
Though he enjoyed unmingled blessedness in
the presence of His Father from all eternity, yet as man, He was beset with
sorrows, and He was acquainted with grief. He knew what it was to be tempted.
He knew what it was to weep with pain in his heart.
But those who knew Him offered Him no comfort. Instead…
“we hid as it were our faces from him;
he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isa 53:3b).
Instead of rallying to His side, His covenant
people remained in unbelief, and would disassociate themselves from Him. The
Jews were His covenant people in the Old dispensation, as we are His covenant
people today. We did not regard Him highly as we should.
Indeed…
“He hath borne our
griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted” (Isa 53:4).
He came for our sakes. He bore our grief and sorrows. But instead
of being grateful to Him and sorrowing for Him at the thought of His suffering,
we look askance at Him. He appears to us as one who deserves to be stricken and
smitten by God and afflicted by Him.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5).
Why was He wounded? Why did God punish Him? It was for our sin. He
was punished that we might have reconciliation and peace with God. He was hurt,
that we might be healed.
For…
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6).
We have strayed from God like sheep without their shepherd. We
deserve to be chastised by God for our straying. But our chastisement was laid
upon the back of our Messiah: Verse 7,—
“He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his
mouth” (Isa 53:7).
He who is our Shepherd took on the flesh of His sheep. He went to
the cross for us. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not resist nor
complain. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. He was dumb as a sheep before
her shearers. He came to suffer and die for us. He went to the cross willingly
and meekly.
“He was taken from prison and from
judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the
land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken” (Isa
53:8).
He was arrested, imprisoned and judged. Pilate knew He was
innocent. Yet, a death sentence was passed. He was crucified on the Cross at
Calvary. He was cut off from the land of the living, dying a most terrible and
shameful death. Why did He have to suffer? He suffered for our transgression.
He was stricken for our transgression.
“And he made his
grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth” (Isa 53:9).
Our Lord died on the Cross between two criminals. Then, a rich
man, Joseph of Arimathea begged Pilate for his body. He took down the body and
after preparing the body according to the Jewish custom, he laid him in his own
grave.
Why did He have to die between the criminals? It was because He
was bearing our guilt.
Why was He buried in the tomb of the rich? It was because He was
innocent. He was tempted at all points like as we are, yet without sin. God
would not suffer Him to be buried with the wicked when His work of atonement
was completed on the Cross. It was completed when He cried out on the Cross:
“It is finished!”
What was the result of the Messiah’s suffering and death? The
result was the establishing of the Church…
“Yet it pleased
the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the
pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isa 53:10).
Who are the seed of the Messiah? They are none other than His
elect. His seed, the Church, will know the blessing of the LORD because of what
He has done!
But what of the Messiah himself? Did not Isaiah say that He would
die and be buried with the rich? Well, yes, but notice what he is saying now.
“He [i.e. the Messiah] shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days.”
What does that indicated about the Messiah? Does it not indicate
that He must die, but He would rise again? He would rise again personally, and
He would also by His death make alive His seed, the Church!
Do you see how Isaiah is narrating the entire Gospel? The Messiah
would be born in humble circumstance. He would live a life of suffering on
behalf of His people. He would be punished by His Father for the sin of His
people. He would atone for their sin. But He would rise again for their
justification.
Isaiah summarises this in the rest of the chapter—
“He shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he
was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:11-12).
Notice how thorough and accurate is Isaiah’s summary? The Lord
would bear the sin not of everyone, but for many, namely His elect. He would
justify his elect.
And when He rises from the dead, He would ascend to heaven and He
would receive of the Father a spoil or a portion. In Psalm 68, we are told that
the Lord, when He ascended on high, would receive gifts for men. Paul quoting
from the passage reminds us of how Christ, when He had ascended up on high sent
His Spirit, and all the spiritual gifts needed by the Church for her nurture.
And not only so, but Christ would make intercession at the right
hand of the throne of God on behalf of His people. These are the transgressors
mentioned by Isaiah: for not only was it our transgression that led Christ to
the Cross, but we remain sinners, having a remnant of corruption in us.
This, then, is the report that Isaiah is referring to when he
says, “Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Rom 10:16).
Can you now see Paul’s argument that the gospel was preached even
in the Old Covenant? Of course, this is not the only place where the gospel is
recorded in the Old Testament. This is the clearest record of the gospel
preached in the Old Testament! But everywhere else in the Old Testament, we
find the same theme being taught, in varying degrees of clarity.
Yet it is clear enough that the Lord could rebuke His disciples on
the road to Emmaus for failing to believe the gospel already written:
“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken: 26 Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself” (Lk 24:25-27)
The disciples, like the Jews refused to believe the report of the
gospel. But how should we respond to it?
… to be continued, next issue
—JJ Lim