Reflective Bible Study

As we continue focusing on Jesus’ crucifixion during our year looking at prophecies and connection points between Jesus’ ministry and the Old Testament, we come to a very plain prophecy tucked within a very prophetic chapter – and a chapter we have already briefly looked at in an earlier episode. However, while it would be easy for us to step back to look at this chapter as a whole, doing so would make it too easy to overlook the specific details of one verse that focuses us on Jesus’ crucifixion.

So with that said, let’s read this specific verse, and unpack what we can learn about Jesus’ crucifixion from this prophecy. Our passage is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 53, and we will read from the New American Standard Bible. In verse 12, Isaiah writes about the Messiah, saying:

¹² Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

In this verse that describes the Messiah’s death, tucked within a chapter devoted to the Messiah’s ministry as a whole, we don’t have any ambiguity over whether the Messiah would die. In this verse, the reason that the Messiah would be lifted up, and the reason He would be honored, was because He “poured out Himself to death”. This verse tells us that the Messiah would give all He had for God’s mission all the way to death, and that while He was moving towards this death, He would be carrying the sins of many, and interceding on behalf of those who had broken God’s law.

This verse in Isaiah’s prophecy is an amazing picture of God’s Messiah found within the Old Testament. Moving into Jesus’ ministry, and the time He spent on the cross, Mark’s gospel draws our attention onto Jesus’ life and crucifixion being a fulfillment of a phrase found within Isaiah’s prophecy. In Mark, chapter 15, and starting in verse 22, Mark writes:

²² Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. ²³ They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it. ²⁴ And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take. ²⁵ It was the third hour when they crucified Him. ²⁶ The inscription of the charge against Him read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

²⁷ They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. ²⁸ [And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with transgressors.”] ²⁹ Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, ³⁰ save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. ³² Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him.

Tucked within these verses describing Jesus’ death, Mark draws our attention to the detail that Jesus’ death on a cross, being placed between two robbers, fulfilled this prophecy. Because Jesus was killed with criminals, it could easily be said that Jesus was numbered with transgressors.

In my own mind, as I piece together this event, and some of the details that led up to this moment, one could make the case that Jesus actually did take the place of a law transgressor. During Jesus’ trial before Pilate, several gospels point out how Pilate asks the crowd whether he should set free a rebel known as Barabbas, or whether the crowd wanted Jesus.

While Pilate may have believed before asking this question that the crowd would have picked Jesus, the crowd instead shouted in unison for Barabbas. In an amazing turn of events, while there were always going to be three crosses on Calvary that weekend, if it weren’t for Jesus stepping in to take the place of Barabbas, there would have been three guilty rebel-sinners dying that weekend, and it’s unlikely we would have any knowledge of them. We barely know anything about the two people who Jesus was crucified with, and if it weren’t for Jesus, the memory and knowledge of the lives and deaths of these two men likely wouldn’t have extended beyond the end of the first century.

This means that in a literal way, Jesus stepped into the role of transgressor and was punished with those who broke the law without having done anything wrong. While I have no reason to believe Barabbas lived differently after being freed, in a symbolic and spiritual way, we all have the choice after being freed whether we will continue to do the things that condemn us from the perspective of God’s law, or whether we will turn away from them.

In an interesting framing for salvation, Jesus stepped into Barabbas’ life to take the punishment for his past sins. However, if Barabbas decided to break the law again as significantly as he had done before, doing what he had done to mark him for crucifixion, there would be no guarantee he would escape punishment again. If Barabbas had placed himself in prison with a death-by-crucifixion sentence on his life after being lucky the first time, Jesus wouldn’t be present to save his life a second time.

However, in a spiritual and symbolic frame, this is the reason why Jesus’ death on the cross is so powerful for us. While our frame for salvation does not allow for pardon from our future sins, every moment that our future moves through our present and into our past, we are being given a gift that Jesus can step in to fix. Some people might take this framing of Jesus’ death and use it as an excuse to sin, or as a reason to believe grace is cheap – and on one hand it is.

However, anyone who knowingly moves towards sin after having accepted Jesus’ pardon for their past sins doesn’t just cheapen the grace they once received; they also cheapen the life Jesus gave. By devaluing the gift Jesus offers to sinners by continuing in sin, those who persist in sin actively choose to bring punishment on themselves for their actions, and they forfeit their salvation, similar to what would have happened to Barabbas in our hypothetical scenario involving multiple offences.

While I don’t know or claim to know where the line between legalism and cheap grace is found, or how wide of a path exists between these two extremes, the big thought that is better to focus energy on is this: Jesus’ life, ministry, and mission make Him the best possible person to intercede on our behalf.

Jesus robbed Satan of his claim on all sinful humanity, and when we realize our need for someone to come to our defense regarding the sin in our past, Jesus is the only place where a true solution can be found. When we come to Jesus for a solution, the way we best value His gift, and the best way we can say thank you to Him for the gift He offers to us is by turning away from the sin in our lives. When we turn away from sin with God’s help, Heaven celebrates, and we move one step closer to eternity!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, continue to seek God first in your life and choose to turn away from sin after accepting Jesus’ gift of salvation. Value the price Jesus paid for redemption by actively moving away from sin and into a closer, stronger relationship with God.

Also, while you do this, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn more about who Jesus is, what He is like, and how we can best model His love in the world we live in. While our world today looks significantly different from the first century, when we lean on God and His Holy Spirit for help modeling His love, we will discover that we can love others like Jesus loves, and we can be representatives for Jesus in our world today.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we come to even more challenging teaching that Jesus shares. While the topics of our last few episodes have been challenging, Jesus shifts His focus in this passage and turns His attention onto warning His disciples about things they should be aware of.

This means that as followers and disciples of Jesus living today, we should intuitively pay attention to what Jesus wants His people to know.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1:

¹ Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. ² It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³ So watch yourselves.

“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. ⁴ Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

Let’s pause reading here briefly, because Jesus has just shared some powerful ideas. So far in our passage, Jesus has warned the disciples about things coming that will cause people to stumble, and Jesus specifically warns that those people who bring stumbling blocks into our paths would be better off having never been born.

Jesus is not advocating the death penalty for anyone who disagrees with Him. Instead, Jesus is emphasizing how God values and desires for His people to protect those who are new to the faith. Just like it is child abuse if a parent were to throw their toddler into the deep end of a pool to teach them how to swim, it is spiritual abuse to take a new believer and toss them into the deep end of spiritual debates and issues.

However, forgiveness should be one of the key identifying attributes of God’s people. If other people sin against us, we are allowed to rebuke them, which basically means to tell them that what they did was wrong. If they accept our rebuke and apologize, we are told to forgive them. We are told to forgive others even if they repeatedly sin against us and continue coming back.

This is a huge challenge for us. What Jesus describes sounds impossible. However, what Jesus describes is exactly what God is like – and Jesus is describing exactly what we would want God to be like as well. When we sin against God and then turn away from our sin, we would want God to be ready and willing to forgive us. Even if we are horrible at obeying God and staying out of trouble, we would want God to always be willing to accept us back when we earnestly come back to Him.

God desires for His people to reflect His character, and in verse 5, sensing how big of a challenge this is, we read that:

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶ He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷ “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸ Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰ So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

In this passage, and specifically in Jesus’ reply to the disciples asking Jesus to increase their faith, Jesus shares the powerful idea that faith isn’t as big of a deal as we might think it is. The disciples want Jesus to increase their faith, and Jesus replies that the tiniest amount of faith is needed for extraordinary miracles.

Instead of faith being the big piece of His response, Jesus instead emphasizes a different character attribute, which is obedience. Jesus illustrates the attitude that disciples and followers of Jesus should have. We should model the attitude of mature servants.

The attitude we have towards God says a lot about our character. If our attitude towards God says that God owes us something, or that we deserve to get repaid for what we have done for Him, then we are acting immature.

There are people outside of the church who think that the only reason people choose to follow Jesus is because of the rewards God offers. There are those who think that Christianity is a scam where the rewards we are promised are only given after our lives end, specifically after there is no turning back.

However, this is an immature way of viewing life – especially our spiritual life.

The first realization we all must have on the path from immaturity to maturity is that the world does not revolve around us. An immature person acts as though everything in life centers around them, while a mature person understands that life is a bigger picture and that the world revolves around things much bigger than a single person.

With this in mind, we see Jesus’ challenge for His followers. While an immature disciple might demand or expect a reward for every little thing they do for God, a mature disciple understands that a life of service in all that is asked of us leads to its own reward.

In the big picture of a spiritually mature mind, we have already been given way more than we could ever repay, and because of this, our response to God should always be one of humble gratitude. Verse 10 summarizes this by saying, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

At the very least, God has given us breath and we cannot repay this gift. At the very greatest, God gave us Jesus who in turn offers us His life in exchange for ours. Jesus’ life is eternal life, and Jesus offers His life to us in exchange for our sinful lives that deserve death. Jesus takes our sin-filled lives and He nails them to the cross, while we get to experience the life Jesus deserved.

Nothing we can ever do, say, or give can repay God for everything He has already blessed us with. Instead of living an immature spiritual life looking for immediate blessings and rewards for every act of obedience, determine today to live a spiritually mature life that sees our lives of service as the best way to show gratitude and thanks to a God who has already given us everything!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to live a life of obedience as your way of saying thank you to God for everything He has already blessed you with. If you have been living a spiritually immature life, determine today to change your focus and to understand that life is bigger than our perspective at any given moment. Choose to see yourself in the huge picture of eternity and as a tiny person in the grand story of Jesus called “HisStory”.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each day. Through prayer and study, discover who God is and what He is like. Discover how our relationship with God today can extend into eternity when we place our hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus and what He did for us on the cross!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!