Our studies in Isaiah now bring us to Chapter 53, surely the Mt Everest of Old Testament Christology. Isaiah has been comforting the Lord’s remnant people with views of deliverance by the Messiah. Here, the representative nature and saving purpose of Jesus’ death to redeem His people from the captivity of sin is plainly laid out. Our Old Testament brothers and sisters are shown the circumstances of Christ’s passion, the meaning of His suffering and the glory that should follow. These verses might have been written by an eyewitness. A restricted revelation The Lord Jesus told His followers ‘strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it’. Isaiah was aware of this phenomenon. The…

It is very suitable for us to apply this prophecy to gospel times, as Isaiah’s readers surely did. Zion putting on strength may be likened to the worldwide conversion of the Gentiles to salvation. Jerusalem putting on her beautiful garments symbolises the gift of justifying righteousness given to Christ’s Bride. Paul describes believers as those who have ‘put on Christ’. Here, the Old Testament church is called to rise from sleep to ‘put on’ and wear the divine redemption promised by the coming Messiah’s success. Garments washed in blood The beautiful garments of Christ’s church are robes of holiness and truth; washed robes, made white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). They speak of the covering of grace by which God’s elect are…