The fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity is this. Judaism is a religion that magnifies human effort and doesn't need a savior. Christianity is a religion that depreciates human effort and desperately needs a savior. That's the difference. Christians need a Savior to save them from their personal transgressions, iniquities, and sins.
You're listening to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. What is mankind's greatest problem? If you ask 10 people that question, you'll likely get 10 different answers. But the Bible leaves no doubt as to what the great problem is: it's man's rebellion against God, its sin, and the divine judgment sin brings.
And one of the clearest descriptions of what Christ did to save us from being judged for our sins. was written seven hundred years before he did it. Today, John MacArthur looks at the problem of man's sin and the price the Lord paid to save us from our sins as John continues his study titled The Gospel According to God.
So if you're able, turn to Isaiah chapter 53 as John begins today's lesson. In the New Testament era, There were millions of slaves. and there was an awful lot of abuse of slaves. The numbers are Sometimes um Astronomical, some say fifteen million slaves, some say sixty million slaves. People would assume people who are socially sensitive that The New Testament probably should have taken on the issue of human trafficking.
Human slavery. But it fascinates me that The Apostle Paul. who writes 13 books of the 27 in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul Never wrote about the social injustices of slavery. What he did do was write a massive treatment.
On how a sinner can be right with God. and escape eternal hell and enter eternal heaven. And it's called the Book of Romans. Isaiah 53 is the Romans of the Old Testament. Romans is the greatest New Testament revelation answering that question.
Everything else in the New Testament also is part of the answer to that question, of course. But Romans pulls it all together and focuses specifically on answering the question. And Isaiah 53 is the greatest Old Testament revelation on the same question. And both Isaiah and Paul, by the way, give the same answer. They both give the same answer.
A sinner Here it is, can be right with God and escape eternal hell and enter eternal heaven because the servant of Jehovah. Became a substitute and suffered the judgment of God in the sinner's place. That's the message of Romans. And that's the message of Isaiah. God spent his wrath towards sinners.
On the servant substitute.
Now, this is the heart of the section from 40 to 66. And I'm going to show you how interesting just this little aspect of it is. There are 27 chapters. Take my word for it. 40 to 66, that's 27 chapters.
They're divided into three sections: nine, nine, and nine, in terms of subject. Terms of subject. The first section ends. With this statement. There is no peace to the wicked.
The second nine ends with this statement. There is no peace to the wicked. The third section ends, chapter 66, verse 24, with a similar. Judgment statement. Each of the three sections ends with a warning.
of judgment on the wicked. But all three sections Promise Salvation. They're very evangelistic. They promise salvation and they end with a warning. If you reject it.
All three feature blessing and peace to the righteous. And no peace. And judgment to the wicked. All three determine. That Righteousness?
And wickedness. is fixed forever. Destiny is Not to be altered. Section one. Talks about salvation from the Babylonian captivity.
Section 2 talks about salvation from sin. And section three, the last nine. Salvation from the cursed earth.
So the first has to do with the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. The middle one, as I said a lot earlier, has to do with the deliverance of sinners from sin. And the third one, the deliverance of the earth from the curse, the glorious coming kingdom of Messiah.
So the middle one is the one we're in. The middle section that we're in Runs from 49 to 57. And this middle one is the issue of forgiveness of sins, and it asks the question. about salvation from sin. Not temporal deliverance from Babylon and not the eschatological kingdom to come in the future, but deliverance from sin.
Now, that poses a very important question. Don't miss this. Why Does God need to save his people? from their sins. This is huge.
This is huge. And this was the issue with the Jews. They were not convinced that they needed. Listen. A Savior.
They thought they just needed a righteous king. They thought that by virtue of their Abrahamic Dissent. By virtue of the covenants and the promises and all of that, that they were in the place of blessing, by virtue of their goodness and their religiosity, by virtue of their. Efforts at religious activities, ceremonies, rituals. The tempts to obey the law of God.
They had earned their favor with God, so they had it by race and they had it by merit.
So this message about A savior to deliver us from our sins so that we escape eternal hell and enter eternal heaven. This is a foreign language to them. Shouldn't have been. Go back to the first chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah is trying to communicate the message to them.
Chapter 1 verse Alas, sinful nation. People weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, just like your parents.
Sons who act corruptly, they have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they've turned away from Him. Where will you be stricken again as you continue in your rebellion? Then, this, the whole head is sick. And the whole heart is faint or weak like Jeremiah 17, the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. From the sole of the foot to the head, there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts, raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged nor softened with oil.
Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your fields, strangers are devouring them in your presence. He talks about desolation. Hear the word of the Lord, verse 10, you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me, your phony religion? Says the Lord, I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.
I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. All your religion is hypocritical and useless. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to me, new moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies, which, by the way, God ordained.
I cannot endure iniquity in the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals, your appointed feasts. They become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them.
So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil.
Learn to do good. Seek justice. Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow.
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like Well They needed salvation. They desperately needed salvation and redemption.
So when you come to the servant Songs Of Isaiah chapter 42, the promise is that he's going to bring salvation. Chapter 42 is, I wish I could read it all to you, but thus says the Lord God, verse 5: Who created the heavens and stretched them out, spread out the earth and its offspring, gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I've called you in righteousness. I'll hold you by the hand.
I'll watch over you. I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations. He's talking to the servant. He's talking to the Messiah. I'm going to make you the covenant to the people.
I'm going to make you the light to the nations. I'm going to have you open blind eyes, bring prisoners out of the dungeon. Sing to the Lord verse 10 a new song. Sing his praise from the end Of the earth. O Lord.
is going to bring Salvation to his people Chapter 43. Verse 1, Thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, don't fear, for I've redeemed you. I've called you by my name. You're mine. When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you, and through the rivers, they'll not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you'll not be scorched. The flame won't burn you. I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel. What's the next line? You are what?
Your Savior. I'm your Saviour. I'm your Savior. Verse 11: I, even I, the Lord, and there is no Savior besides me. It is I who have declared and saved Thus says the Lord, verse 14, your Redeemer.
The Holy One Of Israel. I'm going to be your Savior. I'm going to be your Redeemer. And that's why the section begins comfort. In chapter 40, comfort.
Comfort. My people, speak kindly to Jerusalem. Call out to her. Her warfare has ended. Her iniquity has been removed.
She's already received double from the hand of the Lord for all of her evil. Salvation is coming. Did they need salvation? Yes. The diagnosis that's given in chapter 1 is reiterated in brief in chapter 6 when Isaiah has a vision of God and he says, I'm a man with unclean lips and I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips.
Isaiah understood the need for salvation, the need for cleansing.
So, the centerpiece section of these three nines, the first has to do with salvation from Babylon, the last eschatological kingdom salvation, the middle one, salvation from sin for the people of God, Jew and Gentile. And it's going to come through the servant who will be the Savior sent from God.
So The middle section, listen, chapter forty-nine to fifty-seven. The middle chapters are 52. Then 53 And the middle verse Of 53 Is verse 5. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
The chastening for our well-being fell on him, and by his scourging we are healed. Middle section, middle chapters, middle of the chapter, middle verse. Everything just focuses down. On the substitutionary piercing. of the servant of Jehovah For us.
By what means will God save his people? By what means will he forgive their sins? By the substitutionary, vicarious death of his servant, his slave, the Messiah, the righteous king. And that one will fulfill This prophecy That this text, dear friends, points to the Lord Jesus Christ is so clear as to be unmistakable.
Now let me give you a little history. Ancient Jews interpreted this prophecy as messianic originally, okay? In all the ancient Jewish literature, this chapter 53, this whole area, whole section, midsection of the final 27, it was all messianic, all of it was messianic, though they were not clear on how the Messiah would suffer. When they came to chapter 53, they wrote this. The rabbis wrote this, that he will be compassionate.
that he will sympathetically feel our pain, and that's as far as they would go. They understood that he would be a sympathetic Messiah, that he would be a righteous king, put another way, who felt so sorry that such a noble people had suffered so greatly that he felt their pain. They saw no messianic substitutionary death, in spite of the fact that every day of their history, animals were dying, portraying substitutionary death. All they saw in their writing was sympathy. The idea of Messiah himself dying?
Not possible. Unacceptable. That's why Jesus went to the Old Testament to speak of his necessary suffering. And the apostles even preached that. They had no Interest in that, and listen, here's the point: this is very important.
They had no need of a savior. They had no need of a sacrifice for sin. Nobody in a work system needs a savior. They needed a sympathizer. They welcomed a sympathizer.
They wanted a king who was sympathetic to their plight and thus would come out of sympathy and compassion and give them what they actually deserved. That was the view of ancient Judaism. That was the view of New Testament Judaism. That was the view of post-New Testament Judaism. That is the view of modern Judaism.
Judaism would never define itself in the terms of Isaiah 1, sick from head to toe. They don't need a Savior. You see, if you don't understand the doctrine of depravity, And you don't understand that you are unable to save yourself by anything you do. then you don't need a Savior to save you. You achieve salvation.
And any system that has any achievement. that saves Has no place for a vicarious substitutionary atonement. After the Lord Jesus came, And the church was born. The church clearly interpreted Isaiah 53. All the New Testament writers, as I said, did.
The church began to preach. to the Jews that Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. They didn't want to hear that.
So they persecuted the church.
So they killed the Christians. As you know, And even to this day, Judaism as an institution sees Something completely different. He sees, this is the common interpretation, Israel there. This is suffering Israel. Israel is the suffering servant.
Who has suffered and suffered and suffered and will one day enter into glory. The glory of Israel is coming. But right now, they're going through Suffering. Unfair. Maybe unjust.
This is a flattering Jewish view of Isaiah 53. That they, as a noble people, are Our suffering Unjustly going through agonies. But someday they will emerge. Into the glory. promised to them and they will become the supreme nation and bless the whole world.
They will earn their glory by their religion. By their Self-righteousness and listen by their suffering. But Jesus isn't in Isaiah 53.
Well That's why Isaiah 53 has been called the guilty conscience of the rabbis. Because you can't put Israel in here. Israel was not a humble, is not a humble sufferer. Israel is not a voluntary. Sufferer.
Israel is not A righteous, sinless people suffering. Unjustly, in one sense, and yet vicariously for anyone else. There is no way in the world to make Israel the The object of Isaiah 53. This has to be Jesus. But at this point, I just want to mark out for you something that will be helpful.
Israel then Israel at the time of Jesus And Israel now has no need for a substitutionary sacrifice. They have no need for a vicarious. Savior. They have no need for a mediator to die for them. All they need is a sympathizing king.
They just want a ruler. They just need a king. No need for a Savior to bear their sins. No need for a Savior to take the wrath of God for them. They just need a King to rescue them from all the suffering and all the injustice and all the pain and give them the exaltation that they're entitled to by virtue of.
They're Abrahamic descent. Davidic promise And their own Goodness.
So whenever you talk to a Jew The question to ask Them. Here's um Do you need a Saviour? Do you need a Saviour? Christianity offers you a Savior. Do you need a substitute to die in your place?
Do you need someone to bear the wrath of God against your sin? That's the question. And that goes back to the question of all questions. How can a sinner be right with God so as to escape eternal hell and enter eternal heaven? And the only answer is if that sinner has had his sins completely paid for.
And the only one who could do that is the chosen, vicariously substituted sacrifice. Jesus Christ himself. The fundamental, and it is a critical thing, the fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity is this. Judaism is a religion that magnifies human effort and doesn't need a Savior. Christianity is a religion that depreciates human effort and desperately needs a Savior.
That's the difference. Jews don't need a substitute to bear the penalty for their sins. God will accept them based on Abraham and based on their goodness. and their privileges and their promises. That's the difference.
Don't for a minute think That there's not a massive gulf fixed between those two. Jews don't need a savior to save them from their sins personally. They just need a deliverer to rescue them from their enemies and their difficulties. Christians need a Savior to save them from their personal transgressions, iniquities, and sins. So, the question to ask any Jew is: Do you personally need a Savior to take your place and die under the judgment of God for your sins?
Do you need a Savior? That's the question. And that is the moral problem of all human existence. My servant, verse 11 of 53. My servant.
will justify the many. He'll make them right with God. How? He will bear what? their iniquities.
In the atonement, the servant of Jehovah justifies Many. He's promised in the Old Testament. to come from uh the nation of Israel descend from Abraham. To come Down through the family of David. The Old Testament says he'll be born in Bethlehem.
Isaiah said he'd be born of a virgin. But it's not until he arrives that we know who he is. They couldn't know who he is. But when he arrived, we know who he is. Because at his baptism from heaven, the voice of the Father, this is my Beloved son, in whom I Um Well pleased.
What was God saying there? He was echoing Isaiah 42.1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold. My chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.
That's what happened at the baptism. The spirit descended like a dove. The sufficient servant, by the very testimony of God and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, is none other than Jesus. He is the Lamb of God. who takes away the sin of the world.
This is Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's lesson today is from his series called The Gospel According to God.
Well, friend, if you are familiar with our ministry, you might hear the title of this series, The Gospel According to God, and recognize that it is similar to titles of some of John's best known teaching and writing. In fact, you may be wondering, why another series about the Gospel? And why apply the word gospel to Isaiah 53, a text written centuries before the birth of Christ? Here is how John answered those questions.
Well, yeah, I wrote a book on the gospel according to Christ, the gospel according to Jesus. the gospel according to the apostles, the gospel according to Paul, and now the gospel according to God, And the point is that it's the same gospel. The gospel that Jesus proclaimed, that the apostles proclaimed, that Paul proclaimed, and that God proclaimed in Isaiah 53 is the same gospel. And why would it be important to draw that out of Isaiah 53? Because that's the Old Testament, and it makes the point that the gospel of the New Testament is the same gospel as the Old Testament.
I think it's critical to go to the Old Testament before Jesus, before the apostles, and before Paul, and hear from God the same gospel that unfolds in the New Testament. In fact, I've read all of your books from the gospel according to Jesus till now, the gospel according to God. And it's interesting to me that this book, which comes from the Old Testament, that passage, Isaiah 53, is the one out of all the stuff you've covered that gives, I think, the clearest, most succinct rationale or explanation of the atonement. Why the atonement? Yeah, if we think about the atonement, most Christians would understand immediately if you said he was wounded.
For our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace. Has fallen on him, and by his stripes we are healed, and all we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Somebody might be thinking that that's got to be in the New Testament. Is that the Apostle Paul who said that? Because that explains the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus. That explains the doctrine of our sins being imputed to him on the cross in detail. In fact, that is the most familiar language to explain the substitutionary atoning death of Christ.
The most familiar language that Christians use. comes from Isaiah 53.
So it might be a surprise to some people when they hear me say that's from the Old Testament because it so distinctly defines the atonement that Christ did on the cross.
So Isaiah 53 gives us this lasting language which we're all always using to describe events that happened in the New Testament. That's right, friend. And to help you really take hold of the riches of Isaiah 53, an amazing portion of fulfilled prophecy that can strengthen your trust in the Bible, I encourage you to get a copy of John's book called The Gospel According to God. It looks at what Jesus accomplished on the cross, his atoning work for sinners like you and me. As John says, Isaiah 53 is really the first gospel.
It's a record of Christ's saving work. Written some 700 years before Christ even came to earth. To order this compelling book, The Gospel According to God, contact us today. You can call during normal business hours, that's weekdays from 7.30 to 4 o'clock Pacific time. and our number is eight hundred fifty five GRACE.
or you can visit our website anytime gty.org. The Gospel According to God is available for $13.50 and shipping is free. Again, to place your order, call 80055 GRACE or go to gty.org. And if you were encouraged by the lesson you heard today, or if one of our resources has helped you prepare for teaching at your church or your small group, or if someone you or someone you know has come to Christ through these broadcasts, We would love to hear your story. Email your letter to letters at gty.org.
Again, that's letters. at gty.org, that's our email address. Or you can drop a note in the mail to GraceToYou. Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. And thanks for mentioning the call letters of this radio station.
That is more important than you may realize. And now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Join us tomorrow when John MacArthur continues his series on the gospel according to God. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time.
On Grace to You.
