Sermon 28

Isaiah 53:8 — Verse 8. 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.

We need not tell you of whom the Prophet is speaking here, every verse and every word almost do make it manifest that he speaks of Christ the Saviour, and indeed it can be applied to none other; it's the same verse, Acts 8:34, from which Philip proceeds to preach Christ to the Eunuch: The Prophet has been largely holding forth Christ's sufferings in the former verse, and we conceive he takes a turn to speak of Christ's exaltation and outgate from these sufferings; it's true (as if he had said) He was brought to prison and judgment, He was indeed straitened, and pinched, and laid very low, but prison and judgment did not keep him; He was taken, or as the word is, He was lifted up, from both; And for as despicable as he was in man's eyes, yet he was not so in himself, for who shall declare his generation? There is a wonderfulness in him who suffered, that cannot be reached, but must be left with admiration; And a wonderful glory to which he was after his humiliation exalted; and there is a reason of this given for preventing of offence; if any should say, how then could he suffer and be brought so low in suffering, if he was so glorious a person? He answers, it is true that he was cut off out of the land of the living, but for no offence in himself, but for the transgression of God's elect was he stricken, or as the word is, The stroke was upon him; Indeed this (as we conceive) is given as a reason of his exaltation. Because in the lowest steps of his humiliation he condescended to fulfill his engagement to the Father, in satisfying justice for the sins of the elect, according to that of John 10:17, 'Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again'; Because according to his engagement he suffered for the sins of his elect people, therefore he could not but have a comfortable and glorious outgate.

There are these three things in the words: 1. Somewhat asserted concerning Christ Jesus, He was taken from prison and from judgment. 2. Something hinted at which cannot be expressed, Who shall declare his generation? 3. There is a reason given in reference to both, For he was cut off, etc., which we shall expound when we come to it.

For the first, He was taken from prison and from judgment; We conceive these words look both to his humiliation and to his outgate from it, the one being clearly supposed, that he was in prison or straits, and brought to judgment, and the other being expressed, that he was brought from prison and from judgment: 1. Prison here may be taken generally for any strait pinch or pressure that one may be brought to, which we conceive both the words and the Prophet's scope will clear; Christ never having been properly in prison, at least for any considerable time, but straitened and pinched; And he was taken from that, being in his humiliation, and in his sufferings in the room of the elect pursued by the law and justice of God. 2. Judgment is taken passively for judgment passed on him, and it looks not only to the procedure of Pilate, of the Chief Priest, and of the Scribes and Pharisees, but to a judicial process which the justice of God led against him, in which respect he answered (as the words after will clear) for the sins of God's people. 3. The word, He was [reconstructed: taken], sometimes signifies to deliver, as a captive is delivered when he is taken from him that took him captive, as it is, Isaiah 49:24, 'Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?' To which the Lord here answers, It, or he shall be taken.

So then, the scope and meaning of the words is, that the Prophet subjoins a narration of Christ's exaltation upon the back of his humiliation, as it is usual in the Scripture to put these together, and in this order, as namely, Philippians 2:8-9, 'He [reconstructed: humbled] himself, and became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross; Therefore God has highly exalted him, and given him a name, etc.' He was exceedingly straitened and pinched for the elect's sins, but death had no dominion over him, he had a glorious outgate; He was taken out and set free from the prison or straits wherein he was held, And from these judgments that passed upon him. The reason of the exposition is drawn from the plain meaning of the words, which must run thus, He was taken from judgment, the very same which is in the following expression, He was cut off out of the land of the living, that being the ordinary signification of the preposition from, the meaning must be this, that he was taken out of the condition wherein he was; It agrees also best with the scope of the very next words, Who shall declare his generation? Wherein he proposes an admirable aggravation of this delivery.

The second thing has a connection with the former, and therefore take a word or two for clearing of it; what to understand by Generation here, is somewhat difficult to determine, the word in the Original having several meanings, yet generally it looks to one of two, as it is applied to Christ. 1. Either to the time past, and so it is used by many to express and hold forth Christ's Godhead, and so the meaning is, though he was brought very low, yet he was and is the eternal Son of God. Or 2. (as commonly it is taken) it looks to the time to come, and so the meaning is, who shall declare his duration or continuance? Generation is often taken thus in Scripture for the continuance of an age, and of one age following another successively, as Joshua 22 — this altar shall be a witness to the generations to come. So then, the meaning is, he was once low, but God exalted him, and brought him through, and who shall declare this duration or continuance of his exaltation? As it is (Philippians 2:8-9), he humbled himself, etc. — therefore God highly exalted him; as his humiliation was low, so his exaltation was ineffable, it cannot be declared nor adequately conceived, the continuance of it being for ever. There is no inconsistency between these two expositions; his duration or continuance after his suffering necessarily presupposing his Godhead, brought in here partly to show the wonderfulness of his suffering, it being God that suffered, for the man that suffered was God; partly to show Christ's glory, who notwithstanding of his suffering was brought through and gloriously exalted. And these reasons make it evident. 1. Whatever these words, who shall declare his age or generation, do signify, certainly it is something that can be spoken of no other, but of Christ, and that agrees to him so as it agrees to no other; now if we look simply to the eternity of his duration or continuance, that agrees to all the elect, and will agree to all men at the resurrection; therefore the Prophet must look here to his continuance and duration as he is God. 2. Because, who shall declare his generation? is brought in here, to show the ineffableness of it, and so to make his sufferings the more wonderful — it was he who suffered, whose continuance cannot be declared. 3. It is such a continuance as is brought in to show a reason why death could not have dominion over him, nor keep him, according to that, (Romans 1:4) — he was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. And the reason subjoined to this will somewhat clear it, for he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken; thereby suggesting, that because of the great work which he had to do, there behooved to be some singularness in the person that had the work in hand, who notwithstanding of the greatness and difficultness of it, came through, and was hereby exalted. However it be, the Prophet's scope being to set out Christ's humiliation and exaltation, his humiliation before, and his exaltation after, which is, as we said, ordinary in Scripture; we conceive the meaning we have given is safe, and agreeable to the Prophet's scope.

We may observe three things from the first part of the words. 1. That our Lord Jesus Christ in his performing the work of redemption was exceedingly straitened or pinched, or held in, as the word is elsewhere rendered, bound up and hemmed in as men are who are in prison; and by these straitnings we mean not only such as he was brought into by, and before men, (whereof we spoke before;) but especially these that were more inward; and these being among the last steps of his humiliation, more immediately preceding his exaltation, and spoken of as most wonderful, we conceive they look to these pressures that were upon his spirit. And we shall instance several places of Scripture that serve to hold them out. The first is that of (John 12:27-28) — now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; here our blessed Lord is troubled in spirit, and so pinched and hedged in as in a prison, that he is holily nonplussed what to say. The second Scripture is (Matthew 26:38) — my soul is exceeding sorrowful even to death, which is like the expressions used by the Apostle (2 Corinthians 11:8) — we were pressed above measure, above strength, in so much as we despaired of life, and we had the sentence of death in ourselves; there was no way out obvious to human sense and understanding; so is it here; wherein we are not only to consider his soul vexation, but that his soul vexation was very great, extremely pinching, vexing, and in a manner imprisoning to him. The third Scripture is (Luke 22:44) — he being in an agony prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground; there was such a striving, wrestling and conflicting, not with man without him, but with inward pressures on his spirit, that he is like one in a Barrace, or Cockpit, or engaged in a duel with a mighty combatant, sore put to it, very far beyond anything that we can conceive of; so that he sweated great drops of blood, and says, Father if you are willing remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done; it is in Matthew, if it be possible, and thereafter if it be not possible; which says, there was no winning out of the grips of the law and justice till they were fully satisfied. And these dreadful words uttered by him on the Cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? hold out that from the sinless human nature of Christ, the comfortable and joyful influence of the Godhead for a time was in a great measure suspended, (though the sustaining power thereof was exercised mightily on him) so that he looks on himself some way as forsaken and left in the hand of the curse.

To clear this a little, we would consider these pressures that were on our Lord's Spirit. 1. In respect of their cause. 2. In respect of their effects.

1. In respect of their cause; there is upon the one side his undertaking for the elect as their surety, and God's justice pursuing and holding him in on the other side, so that he cannot decline being summoned at the bar of justice, because as it is verse 6, the sins of all the elect met upon him; and he having as it is verse 7, the bitter cup in his hand which by his engagement he was obliged to drink, he stands there by the decree of God and by the covenant of redemption tying him to satisfy; and being pursued by wrath and justice, the words come out, Father, if it be possible, let this cup depart from me, yet not my will but your will be done; his engagement hemming him in, and wrath pursuing him, he stands between these two as a prisoner; and upon these two the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, and he was exacted upon and answered for them; follows well the third, that he was put in prison; for in these verses, the steps of our Lord's humiliation are followed out in a legal way as before the bar of God's tribunal.

Second, this being our Lord's posture, we shall consider the effects of this pressure of spirit, which we may draw to these four heads. 1. He was under the sense of great soul-pain, sorrow and trouble; for the cup of the wrath of God being bitter which he was to drink, it could not but deeply sting his holy human nature, which was the procuring cause of his agony, and that which made his soul sorrowful and brought out the bloody sweat. 2. Beside his grief and dolor, there was a holy horror; and considering the party that he had to do with, it was impossible it could be otherwise, impossible for a finite though a sinless creature, to look on an angry God, and on wrath poured forth into the cup which it must needs drink, and not to have a horror at it; it were not becoming the sinless human nature of our blessed Lord not to be affected with a holy and sinless horror at that most bitter cup, which brought out that sad cry, Father, let this cup depart from me; which did not proceed from any dislike he had to fulfil his engagement, or from any ruing or unsuitable resentment that he had so engaged himself, but from an apprehended sinless disproportionableness (to speak so) in his finite sinless human nature, to encounter with the wrath of his Father; to which, though he most willingly yielded, yet in itself it was dreadful. 3. There was a pinching and straitening of holy fear, as if there had been in him a sinless dispute or debate, what will become of this? Can a man win through this? (though he was God as well as man) how will this be gotten borne? This looks as if death would get the victory; thus it's said Hebrews 5:7, In the days of his flesh he offered up strong cries and supplications with tears, and was heard in that which he feared, he put up strong cries to be delivered, not from dying, but from the power of death, and was heard in that which he feared, to show a holy care to prevent death, could that have been, and a sinless fear of it lest it should swallow him up. 4. There was a pinching and straitening from love to the Father and to the doing of his will; and from love to the elect and to their salvation, which pushed him forward to perform and fulfil his engagement; accordingly (Luke 12:41) he says, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished, and hence it was that these words were uttered by him, Father, not my will but yours be done; and therefore though he had power to command twelve legions of angels for his relief, yet, to speak so, love binds his hands that he will not use his power for his own liberation. But to guard this doctrine from mistakes, take a fourfold advertisement concerning this inward soul-pinching, which will help to clear somewhat of his soul-suffering that follows. And 1. Think not that there was any sinful or unsuitable confusion or perturbation of mind in our Lord, such as used to be in us, there being no dreg of corruption in his mind to jumble or discompose his holy human nature. 2. Beware of thinking that there was any fretting or anxiety in him, or any discontentedness with the bargain, his expressions show forth the contrary, for (says he) I could command twelve legions of angels, yet he would not do it. 3. Think not that there was any jealousy in him of the Father's love, though there was a suspension of the comfortable and joyful sense of it, yet there was not the least loosening of the faith of it, as is clear by his doubling of these words, My God, my God, when in his saddest pinch he cried out as [reconstructed: being] forsaken. 4. You would not look on this as holding out any distrust as to the event. I have (says he) power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again; and I will rise again the third day; he knew that the covenant of redemption between the Father and him stood firm and sure: but it's the consideration of God's now coming as his party to exact the elect's debt of him, and his standing at the bar to answer for it, which puts him in this agony; and though considering Christ as man personally united to the Godhead (whereby he was kept from sinking,) he had no distrust to be carried through; yet considering him as man suffering, and that (to speak so with reverence in such a divine subject) there was an eclipse of that sensible joy that proceeded from the two natures together, it's not possible to conceive of Christ in this posture, but wrath and anger was bound to be some way dreadful or terrible to him.

The uses are, 1. To evidence the truth of what our Lord suffered, and how severely he was pinched and straitened; it was not the Scribes and Pharisees pursuing him, nor the soldiers buffeting and mocking of him, and carrying him to the high priest's hall, and from Pilate to Herod and back again, that so much troubled him; but there was a higher [reconstructed: Hand] that he had to look to, and a judge and court to which he was now answering, that was very far above theirs.

And therefore, as a second use of the doctrine, think it not such a light thing (as many do) to satisfy justice, or to give God a ransom for souls; you see how it pinched the Cautioner, and put him as in a prison. Unspeakably deceived are they who think that two or three formal words will make their peace with God, and that they will slip into heaven so. Be not carried away with this delusion, but consider seriously what will become of you if you be put to answer for your own debt, when he handled the Cautioner his own Son so roughly. You that will sleep on, and scorn to let any word pick at you or prick you, the justice of God shall prick you and put you to straits, out of which you will not be able to extricate yourselves. And he shall appear like everlasting burning when the great day of his wrath comes, and when it shall be said by you, who can stand before it, or abide it? It were good that you who are most atheistical, and who with a sort of triumph and gallantry will needs destroy yourselves, would lay this to heart, and remember that the day comes when you will be brought to this bar. And gravely consider what a hell that will be, to have the desperateness of the outgate sealed up in your consciences, and these evidences of God's hatred, and these aggravations that our Lord's holy nature could not admit of, in your bosom. When wrath meets with corruption, and corruption with wrath, and when these mingle, how dreadful will your case be?

Third, let believers see here what you are obliged to Christ. Consider what he has paid, and what the satisfaction of justice for you cost him. Folks are ready to think that it was an easy thing to satisfy justice, and to drink of the brook by the way. But if sinners were sensible of challenges for sin, and if they had the arrows of the Almighty drinking up their spirits, they would think otherwise of Christ's drinking out the cup of wrath for them, not leaving so much as one drop of it. It's but the shorings or threatenings with some drops of it that any of you meet with in your sharpest soul exercises. O, believing sinners, are you not then eternally obliged to Christ who drunk out this wrathful cup for you?

Fourth, there is notable consolation here to poor souls that would fain make use of Christ. First, that Christ has stepped through this deep ford, or rather sea, before them; and if the cup come in their hand, it's empty. Freedom from the wrath of God is a great consolation, and yet it's the consolation of all them that are fled to him for refuge. Second, it's comfortable to them in their comparatively petty straits and difficulties when they know not what to do, when the law seizes and justice pursues, and when the conscience challenges; to consider that Christ was a prisoner before them, though he had no challenge for his own debt, yet he was challenged for ours, that he might be a compassionate high priest, being made like us, but without sin. Justice pursued him, the law arrested him, wrath seized on him; so that when we are set upon by these he will be tender of us, for he knows our frame and that we cannot bear much. And therefore on this ground a believing sinner may go with boldness to the throne of grace, because Christ the Cautioner who has paid his debt is there. It's a shame for believing sinners to walk so heartlessly, even under these things that are terrible, as if Christ had not gone through them before them and for them. Third, there is consolation here when they are under any pinching cross and difficulty, as there is also ground for patient and pleasant bearing of it, because it was another sort of prison that Christ was put in for them. You may, I grant, lament over the long want of sensible presence, it being kindly to the believer to miss it, and to long for it; but you should not be heartless under the want of it, nor complain as the Lord's people do lament, is there any sorrow like to my sorrow? But submissively and contentedly bear it without fretting, seeing our Lord bore so much for you.

Fifth, there is here a notable encouragement to believe, and a notable ground for the believer to expect freedom from sin and from the pinching straits that it deserves, because Christ paid dear for it. Therefore was all this pinching but to pay believers' debt? But when we come to speak of his outgate, it will clear this more.

2. While it's said, that he was brought from judgment, which supposes and implies, that he was once at, or under judgment, even the judgment of God, who is his great party all along; He laid on him the iniquity of us all; and verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him; He was the Creditor that caused take and arrest him; Observe, that in all the soul-vexation, in all the pinching pressure of spirit that our Lord sustained, he was standing judicially before the bar of God, and was judicially proceeded against as the Elect's Cautioner and Surety; there was no access to bring Christ to judgment had he not engaged to be Surety, and had not God laid on him our iniquities, for it was for no debt that he was owing himself, but for what by his engagement as the Elect's Surety he came under and was made liable to. That which I mean by his being brought to judgment, is not only that he suffered and was occasionally condemned by a court of men, or by a human judiciary, which was rather like a tumultuous meeting, or a company of men in an uproar, than indeed a court; but whatever was before men, there was a legal and judicial procedure before God. For clarifying this, you would consider, 1. The account on which he suffered and was brought before God's court of judgment, to speak so; It was not for anything that the Scribes or Pharisees, or Pilate had to lay to his charge; it was envy in them, the former at least, that stirred them in what they did; but the next words tell us what it was, for the transgression of my people was he stricken; The Priests and People had no mind of this, but this was indeed the ground of his judicial challenge and arraignment before God; the Elect were in their sins, and he by the Covenant of Redemption stood liable for their debt, because in it he had undertaken for them as their Cautioner and Surety. 2. Consider who was his great party in his sufferings; it was not Pilate and the Jews, he cared not so much for them, but it is God, and therefore he cries, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? and therefore he makes his address to God, Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me; he cared not for answering them, but looks to a higher hand, and upon himself as standing before another tribunal; therefore it's said verse 10. yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he looked not to Pilate but to the Lord pursuing him. 3. Consider our Lord's submission to his being brought to judgment, not only nor chiefly before men, but before God, therefore says he (John 12:48), Father save me from this hour, but for this cause came I to this hour; come then Father and let us reckon; he looks not only to the present dispensation, but also to the ground from where it came, and to the end that God had in it; for this cause came I to this hour, even to have my soul troubled, and to be put to answer for the debt of my elect people according to my engagement; Lo, I come (says he, in that often cited Psalm 40) in the volume of your book, it is written of me, I delight to do your will. Consider 4. The effects of his bringing to judgment; A sentence passes (1 Timothy 3:16). Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, not before Pilate, but in God's court, having satisfied for the Elect's debt according to his undertaking, he gets an acquittal, which reaches not only to himself but to all them whose persons he sustained, as is clear (2 Corinthians 5:21). He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; and the Elect's obtaining eternal redemption and absolution by his death, with the accruing of his satisfaction to their justification, clears that he stood there judicially at the bar of God in their name to answer for them. And there are three steps of this his judicial answering, 1. He gets the indictment of the Elect's debt put in his hand; though there was no guile in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he laid on him the iniquity of us all, and for the iniquity of my people was he stricken; these are the persons that he undertook for, and for their debt he answers; the verity of the fact is clear, for they are under guilt; the law's claim is clear, for it's broken, and upon this the indictment is put in his hand; hence it's said, He died for us, He was made sin for us, and he died for our sins. 2. As the indictment is put in his hand, so a sentence passes accordingly, he is found liable to the Elect's debt and must answer for it, as the former word is, it was exacted on him, and (2 Corinthians 5:21) He was made sin for us, and (Galatians 3:13) He was made a curse for us, that is, by the sentence of justice he is decreed to bear the curse. 3. The sentence is executed as it was passed, the cup is put in his hand, and not only is he decreed and doomed to the curse, but actually he is made a curse, and all this as judicially sustaining the persons of the Elect, and as their Cautioner and Surety.

Here we have some sweet and profitable uses, 1. See here and take up the way of redemption contrived, so as it runs on mercy and justice, mercy to the Elect, and justice to the Cautioner, their debt being fully exacted of him.

2. It teaches us how to establish our faith, and also gives us a ground of believing; To make it distinct; Justice had to be satisfied, without which no mercy could be shown to the sinner; and God has laid down the way by the Cautioner's interposing; even as it is among men, the Cautioner being imprisoned and satisfying, is the debtor's liberation; and as God has condescended to deal with us by way of covenant, so he condescended in the Covenant of Redemption to proceed legally and judicially with Christ, that we might have the clearer way to make application of it.

3. Are there any here that look for redemption through Christ, and hope that their sins were in the libel given to him? O! how warming would this be to your hearts? And how should it make them to melt in love and godly sorrow, to behold Christ standing at the justice bar, and that for you? O! what an aspect would his sufferings have on us if we were clear about our interest in him, and could hear him in our name, saying, Father here am I, if you take me let these go; your will be done, for this cause came I here to answer for my people's debt, to take with the challenges given in against them, and to undergo your sentence for them; then says Justice, you must pay their debt, Content says he, Here am I; and so he gives his back to the smiter, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and hid not his face from shame and spitting. If we were clear that our share was there, and that our iniquities came in among the rest to make up the libel, and if we could aright discern him so [reconstructed: pinched] and straitened in satisfying for us, would we not think ourselves eternally obliged to him, to hate sin, and to glorify him in our bodies and spirits which are his? As it is 1 Corinthians 6, last verse. If indeed you be Christ's (as you are all ready to profess yourselves to be) he pays dear for you, and if so, will not this lie upon you as a just debt to him, to glorify him in your bodies and in your spirits? For both in body and spirit he paid for you.

4. It's a notable ground of consolation to believers against despondency and fear to appear before the throne of God, because our Lord Jesus Christ has been before us and in our name, and has answered for us to the full, and has satisfied all that Justice could crave of us. What wakens terror at death, and makes the thoughts of Christ's appearing to be dreadful, but our looking on our appearing at the bar of God? But it is a comfort against it, that Christ as our guarantor was brought to prison and to judgment, and was also brought from both. Indeed, which is more, and without which the consolation is but halved, he was brought to both for us, and he was also brought from both as our Surety, as Surety for all them that betake themselves by faith to him. He was carried to prison and to judgment as guarantor for the elect, and he was pursued as their guarantor, and therefore his payment of the debt as guarantor must be accepted in name of them for whom he paid the debt. Our Lord Jesus not only died and was laid in the grave, but he went further in (to speak so,) he was even at the bar of Justice, libelled, exacted upon and sentenced, and the sentence executed upon him, else, woe had been to us. On this ground is that triumph, Romans 8: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies; who shall condemn? It's Christ that died, or rather, who is risen again, etc. And it's said in Romans 7, that we are delivered from the law being dead to that wherein we were held; the law had us in prison, and a lock on the door, and had us under irons, but our Lord came, and (as Samson did in another case) carried the gates and bars to the hilltop. He spoiled principalities and powers, and triumphed openly over them on the cross, so that now the prince of this world is judged. These are the true and faithful sayings of God. We have through Christ access, and may with boldness come to the throne of grace, having him as high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all things tempted like as we are. He knew not only what it was to be hungry and thirsty and weary, to be pained, and to die; but what it was to come before the terrible tribunal of God, and to be libelled for sin though not for his own sin, and what it was to be sentenced and to meet with wrath; which gives to sinners a safe and refreshing shelter under him, as under the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. This is the great design of the Gospel, to make proffer of the benefit of these sufferings to you, and to pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. Now God himself persuade you to it.