07 Why God Let His Servant Suffer (Isaiah 52:13-53:6)

Krisan Marotta: I have a friend who's always struggled with knowing that God loves her. She's been a Christian for a long time now. She's been to Bible college. She's one of the best and most insightful evangelists I know. And she teaches frequently on topics related to apologetics. We work together in ministry, we work together in business, and we've studied and taught the Bible together, but for some reason I've never been able to understand. She has struggled with doubts over whether God loves her. About ten years into our friendship, I received an email from her in which she was overjoyed because she finally grasped the idea that God truly loved her. She always knew that God loved her intellectually because she knew he loved everyone, but she could never really believe that God loved her individually because she knew she wasn't a lovable person. So in her typical style she repeated to me the very reasoned and philosophical logical argument that finally convinced her that God loves her individually and personally. Now I'm not going to repeat that argument to you because I doubt if it would help most of you, but it did help her, and I think that's one of the strengths that makes her such an insightful evangelist. She can cut through these smoke screens and see right to the stumbling block that's keeping someone from faith. If you've ever had similar struggles, if you've ever doubted that God loves you personally, I hope and I think this passage will help wipe them away. We're going to be looking at the fourth servant song today, and we're only going to cover the first half today. We'll look at the second half in the next session. So let's just start with a review. Isaiah is writing to Jews from the Northern Kingdom who are already in exile when he's writing, and the Jews in the Southern Kingdom are about to go into exile. But he's writing to them as if the exile has already happened. So he's writing not to his contemporaries, but to a generation that would come after him. And it would be easy for the folks in exile to start despairing and think that either God has abandoned his promises or he isn't able to keep them. This is a theme we've talked about throughout this series. It would be easy to think as the exile were on and on year after year, that God had given up on his promises. Either they were empty promises, or Israel as a nation has finally gone too far such that God is abandoning the promises and they forfeited them, or maybe he's just not able to keep them. Now throughout the book, Isaiah has insisted that the exile is a discipline from God's hand, that they are in exile as a result of their own sinfulness. Yes, the discipline may hurt, but it's not going to destroy them. Rather, it has a purpose to redeem them and to teach them such that they return to God. So in the open to these songs in chapter forty, we saw that there is comfort because your sins have been dealt with, and the grace is more than double your sins. And then in the first song in chapter forty-two, we learn that the servant's task was to bring true justice, not political or geographic justice, but true freedom from a sinful heart, and he succeeds in that task. In the second song in chapter 49, we saw that the servant had confidence that God was faithful to fulfill his promises, even though his physical external circumstances didn't support that. And God said in that psalm he had a bigger plan in mind for the servant, that it was too small a task for him just to regather Israel, he will regather a people from every nation. And we can have the same confidence. We don't know the scope and the extent of God's plan, but we know that he is faithful to his promises. In the third song, in chapter fifty, we saw that the servant trusted that God would get him through the school of suffering, and that he and he alone suffered for obedience, while the rest of us suffer for our disobedience, he alone suffered for being obedient and faithful to God's word, and that God would stand by him and get him through that suffering that he willingly took on for us. Today we're gonna get a detailed look at what that suffering involves and why he willingly went through it. So the song itself starts in fifty-two, verse thirteen, and goes to the end of chapter fifty-three. We're only gonna go through verse six today and we'll look at the rest of it in the next session. This section of Isaiah fifty-two, thirteen to fifty-three, twelve is the most frequently quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament. It's rather remarkable in that Isaiah gives a description. Just as an aside, because the early Christians were so effective in using this text to evangelize the Jews, it was officially removed from all synagogue readings. One Jewish scholar wrote, The reason the prophecy of the suffering servant is not included in the synagogue lectionary, although the passages immediately preceding and following it are found there, is the Christian application of that prophecy to Jesus. Basically, they took it out because it described Jesus too well. The song itself is composed of five sections, and each section has three verses. I'll give you the outline for that, and you can find this in the lecture notes for today's talk, which are at wednesdayintheword.com slash servant songs seven. So the sections are fifty-two, thirteen through fifteen, where God exalts his servant. So God exalts his servant thirteen through fifteen. Then in fifty-three, one through three, Israel rejects the servant. In four through six, the servant suffers our death for us, seven through nine. Israel executes the servant while the servant remains silent, and then in ten through twelve, God rewards the servants and grants him glory. Notice God has the first and last word. God exalts the servant, Israel rejects the servant, and then the sinner piece, the servant, suffers our death. Israel executes the servant, but God rewards him. And we're gonna look at the first three sections today. So let's start with the exaltation of the servant, fifty-two, verses thirteen through fifteen. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Notice the first point that we see here is that the servant will be exalted to the right hand of the Father. The New American Standards has prosper. I think the ESV has act wisely. It can also be translated act successfully. The idea is that it combines wisdom and effectiveness in the sense of knowing exactly what needs to be done. So he will act wisely, he will act successfully, he will prosper because he has the wisdom and the effectiveness of knowing exactly what needs to be done to bring about the right result and then doing it. Greatly exalted occurs very few times in the Old Testament. Four other times it occurs are in Isaiah, and all four of them refer to Yahweh Himself. So it's a high honor to be given to an individual. The servant is greatly exalted as the Lord is exalted, so it's an honor reserved for the Lord Himself and His servant. So right at the beginning we learn that the servant knows what needs to be done to bring about salvation, and he will succeed in doing it. By dying on the cross, he pays the price for our wickedness, he brings about our forgiveness, pays the penalty for our sins, and then brings about our salvation, and as a result, he will be exalted. He will be high, he will be lifted up and greatly exalted, and a lot of scholars like to see that as a parallel, those three attributes as parallel to Jesus' resurrection, that is he'll be high, his ascension, that's the lifted up, and his exaltation greatly exalted. At any rate, it's clear no one else, however great his or her achievements, achieved what the servant did. The servant achieved such heights that he was exalted to the right hand of the Father. But notice this incredible exaltation is followed in the text by the deepest of contrast, this revulsion which causes the suffering. Now in real life, the suffering came first, but in this psalm it comes second. And what he's going to go on to say is just as they were speechless at the horror of his sufferings, so the nations will be speechless in amazement at his exaltation. Fifty two fourteen, just as many were astonished at you, and then my people implied according to the NASB, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So many, I think, refers at least to the nation of Israel, if not to the whole company of all sinful humanity, and it's contrasted with the one, the one servant, the solitary servant. Astonished is this really strong word. It can mean shocked or shattered. It's used of being devastated or being bereaved of a spouse. And then so his appearance was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. I think the idea is not that he suffered more than any other person, although that may be true, because crucifixion was a pretty horrible death to die. But the point in this psalm is that he was so disfigured and so marred by his suffering that they reacted with shock at his appearance. So there was this kind of is he human reaction. They would recoil and step back in horror at the sight, wondering if he was really human because he was his appearance was so marred. Then in verse 15 we have a translation issue. The older NASB translation said, Thus he will startle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. That thus he will startle has been changed in the new NASB to thus he will sprinkle many nations, and I think the ESB has the same, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Well, what's going on there? Where how do we get from startle to sprinkle? Well, the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, a very old Greek translation of the Old Testament, has startled in verse 15, but the Hebrew Masoretic text has sprinkle. Many of the older translations chose startle, and the newer ones, at least as far as I was able to find out, are are moving towards sprinkle. And personally, I don't understand why everyone is switching to the sprinkle meaning. The traditional understanding makes much more sense to me. One scholar explained it this way that and I'm going to quote him, the word in question has two meanings, to sprinkle, and is used of sprinkling blood ceremonially, as in Leviticus and Numbers. It can also mean to spring up or to leap. Here it's in the Hiffel, meaning he shall cause to leap, i.e. in surprise or to startle. So I think the reason most older translators chose startle is because of this just as so formation with verses 14 and 15. You have this statement of just as they were appalled and astonished at his physical appearance, so they will be startled, amazed at his exaltation. If you put sprinkle in there, it doesn't work with the just as so formation. Just as they were appalled, so he will sprinkle doesn't make much sense. So the question is, how can sprinkling be related to their reaction of horror? There's no correlation. But on the other hand, just as many were appalled by the extent of his suffering, so many will be startled, shocked when they learn that he suffered for them and they see him exalted. So kings will be shocked into silence when they finally understand, and they will be shocked and startled at the exaltation he receives for what he's done. So his unique exaltation will leave them speechless, just as his unique suffering left them horrified. And I think those are the points being made in verses fourteen and fifteen, that just as many were astonished, really speechless, because they were horrified in verse fourteen, in verse fifteen, thus he will startle many nations, leaving them speechless at his exaltation. So you get this complete reversal. So to the astonishment of the nations, the servant will suffer, they will be appalled to the point of speechlessness by his marred appearance. Jesus was flogged, he was beaten, he was crowned with thorns that pierced his skull, he was mocked, he was spat upon, and he was scarcely recognizable as he made his way to the cross. And that was a great stumbling block for Israel. The rabbinic literature is filled with passages saying Jesus couldn't be the long-awaited Messiah because he suffered a fate that set him apart as under the curse of God, and they couldn't believe that the Messiah would suffer like this. But that suffering is reversed. Just as the nations were appalled at the sufferings of the servant, they will be startled and speechless at his exaltation. Kings and nations and faraway places will hear and be speechless. So he didn't look like he was accomplishing anything significant, and yet he's going to amaze the world. And then he's compared to the nation of Israel, just as many were astonished at you, my people, i.e., Israel started out as this tiny, insignificant nation. She didn't look very promising, she didn't have a great army or great natural resources or great wealth or anything that would make it likely that she would become a great nation. So if you just looked at the circumstances, it didn't look like anything great would come of this tiny nation of Israel, but God made her a great nation. Similarly, the servant didn't look like he would be successful or that he would accomplish anything of significance, but he will amaze the nations. For what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard, they will understand. Those who were studying the prophetic promises, who had all the preparation of the sacrificial system and the Old Testament law and prophets, they will reject the Messiah. While those who never heard the promises, who never had the Old Testament, who knew nothing of the sacrifices, and never heard of the law or the prophets, they're going to embrace Jesus as the Messiah when they hear his name. What they had not been told they will see. Then they'll learn the law and the prophets in the background, reversing the order. So the first irony in our text is that nations who never heard of the servant will worship him when they hear his name and see what he has done. Okay, let's move on to the next section, the rejection of the servant. So while those with no previous knowledge of the servant will worship him, it's even more ironic that those to whom the promises were given for the most part reject him. So this is fifty-three verse one. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The answer to who has believed? No one. And our message is a term that's usually used for the word given by a prophet of God. The arm of the Lord is a metaphor for the Lord Himself, usually in all his power. So it's not something or someone separate from the Lord, but the Lord Himself in His power and might. And the presumed answer is no one, no one believed that this man could be the servant, the Messiah, the Lord Himself in His power. No one would believe it without divine revelation. Human observation alone would not lead you to the right conclusion, and then verse two tells us why. For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. So those to whom the prophecies were given will reject the servant because he doesn't meet their qualifications. He didn't look promising in their eyes. He didn't look like the kind of person who would accomplish anything. So he's not part of the establishment. I think that's what the tender shoot means. The tender shoot is the suckling or the sapling, so it's a shoot that grows out from the plant's system. So if you grow vegetables, you're familiar with this. You know, if you grow tomatoes, that these sucker branches appear on the vine and you need to remove them because they won't bear any fruit, they just sap the strength of the plant. Well, that's the idea here. That's the tender shoot. This is that sucker vine. And that's how they regarded Jesus. He he needed to be pruned and gotten rid of. He didn't fit the established lines of Judaism. He didn't embrace any of the right groups like the Pharisees or the Scribes or the Sadducees. He said the kingdom of God was different than all what all these other groups were saying, and he showed he showed no promise. I think that's the idea behind the root out of parched ground. It's a metaphor for a plant that springs up in a dry parched ground and has no promise of success because how can a plant live without water? How can it s it will spring up in this dry parched ground, but there's no hope for it to flourish because there's not enough water? And we see Jesus raised in Egypt and Galilee, he was outside the main center of Jerusalem. His parents were poor, they didn't have any prestige or status, his birth was suspect, and then when he begins his public ministry, he eats with tax gatherers and sinners and not the right kinds of people. He gathers a group of disciples who are kind of a ragtag collection of outcasts from various backgrounds, and at his death he has no following, yet he claims to be the Messiah. So from the outside he looked like a plant that springs up with no hope of thriving. He was not part of the establishment, and he didn't look like he had any promise. And then thirdly, he has no outward beauty, no stately form or majesty, as it says. So there's nothing to attract attention, nothing special about him. And this words, the stately form and majesty, are the same words used to describe Rachel in Genesis 29, 17, which is translated she was lovely in form and beautiful. Now the Jews thought that beauty was a symbol of God's blessing, and here Jesus has none. So he doesn't even have the outward physical appearance that would attract people to him and make him think, oh, he could be something. He enters Jerusalem on a donkey, no chariot, no entourage, he's not crowned with gold, he's crowned with thorns. Instead of a scepter, he has a broken reed. Nothing about his appearance speaks of kingship or points to his messiahship. So he was not king as they expected a king to be in either appearance or manner. Matthew thirteen says, this is verse fifty-three, starting in verse fifty-three. When Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there. He came to his hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so they were astonished and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, and Simon and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him, but Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown and in his own household. And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. They look at him and they say, This is just a regular guy. Why why is he acting like this? Where did he get this knowledge? Of course, the implication being, of course, he didn't. He doesn't really know all this stuff. So they reject him, and because he doesn't meet their outward expectations, he doesn't look like a king, he doesn't seem to come from a kingly background, consequently, they di reject and despise him. Look at verse three. He was despise. Despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Now notice despised is the key word here, it's repeated, it's put first and last for emphasis, so his physical appearance, his background led Israel to esteem him of no value. And that word esteemed is an accounting term. It means to reckon up the value or to measure the value. And I think this refers back to an our earlier servant song in Isaiah forty-nine verse seven. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its holy one, to the despised one, to the one abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers. In chapter forty-nine it wasn't clear why the servant was despised or abhorred. Isaiah didn't tell us there, but here in fifty-three he gives us the explanation of why. He didn't look like anything special, he didn't come from anything special, he had the wrong kind of background, he didn't look the way a king should look, therefore he must be worthless. So having thus esteemed him or measured him and finding him lacking, they judged him to be without significance and despised him and held him in contempt. The phrase one from whom men hide their face refers to someone who's suffering from leprosy. You hide your face, they're to be avoided at all costs because they're disfigured, they're contagious, and you just you don't want to look, you don't want to catch anything. That that's the metaphor. It's always puzzled me why the Jews rejected Jesus. Why would God plan it such that the very people who possess the law and the promises would judge the Messiah worthless and reject him? Why after having the law and the prophets for all those years, why didn't they recognize the Messiah when he came? Well, our text doesn't really answer that question, but I suspect at least in part it's because the Jews were too close to see it. You know how family members are often the most critical and the last one to recognize one of their own is worth anything? Oh, that's just our brother, that's just our sister, or that's just, you know, my cousin. They they couldn't do it, they couldn't know anything, couldn't possibly. I think there's something of that going on. And God used that rejection to disperse the gift of grace among all the nations, and having people from all the nations embrace it, then he dispersed the Jews among all those nations so that they could see and understand and know that God has not rejected his people. And of course that part of the symphony is still being played out. Let's go on to the third section where the servant suffers our death, verses four through six. And as we read this section, watch the contrasting pronouns of he and our in this section. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening of our well being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. So notice the contrast our griefs he bore, our sorrows he carried, he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening of our world being fell on him. He suffered in our place by carrying our the penalty for our sins and dying the death we should have died. Verse four Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. So esteemed again is that accounting term. The bore and the took up are the same words that are used to describe the scapegoat which was banished on the day of atonement, and which is of course is a foreshadow of the death that Christ would have to die to atone for our sins. This is Leviticus sixteen verses twenty one and twenty two. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. The imagery in verse six, the causing our iniquities to fall on him is the language that is used to describe the scapegoat. Griefs, infirmities, sorrows, they refer to the consequences of our sin, all the mental and physical anguish that sin leaves behind, the devastation both physically and emotionally that it leaves behind. So sin doesn't just condemn us, it wrecks havoc in our lives here and now. When we sin, we get hurt. When others sin against us, we get hurt, and we experience death in all kinds of forms anger, bitterness, frustration, broken hearts, grudges, hostility, misunderstandings, pain, loneliness, isolation, alienation, depression, larger scale, divorce, war, broken relationships, all that stuff, all those lost opportunities and all that bitterness and anger and tragedy is all the result of the sin in our lives and the sins of others. And Jesus took it all, all of it, and paid the price for all of it. I have a friend whose husband was unfaithful, and when his affair came to light, after much soul searching and prayer, she decided to forgive him and try to make the marriage work. But he couldn't forgive himself. It was almost as if her forgiveness ate away at him, and he wanted to punish himself more and more, and he wanted her to hate him as he was beginning to hate himself. And as all this came to light in counseling, he found that even though he believed the gospel, he never really felt that Jesus' death was enough. Intellectually he knew, but he wasn't convinced that all of his sins, that everything was covered. He felt he had to add to the penalty and try to pay part of the price. And his struggle to accept his wife's forgiveness was a mirror of his struggle to accept the Lord's forgiveness. But the good news is that our forgiveness is complete and total. As we saw in the first week, the grace we're offered is more than double. It's twice over the sins. So the servant died our death, but his death was misunderstood. The nation judged him smitten of God and afflicted. The Jews regarded him as being under a curse, and they had Deuteronomy twenty-one, verses twenty-two and twenty-three as proof. This is Deuteronomy twenty-one and twenty-two. If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, that's crucifixion was considered hanging him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day, for he who is hanged is accursed of God, so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance. See, even while he was hanging on the cross dying, people stood by mocking him and sneering at him, offering him sour wine, taunting him about saving himself, and that was an amazing display of love. I mean to give your life for someone who will not only not understand it, but not appreciate it and even despise it is an amazing act of love. Have you ever had the experience where you spend weeks hunting for the perfect birthday gift for someone and you finally find it and it costs a lot of money, but you buy it anyway because you know this is the perfect gift, and then you give it to your friend, and your friend says, Oh, that's nice, is that all? It's just so crushing because you wanted this gift to be valued and appreciated and understood, and yet in a very, very small way, that is the feeling that Christ must have felt. I mean, f small for us. His was magnified. Here he is offering his very life, and not only do the people he's dying for not appreciate it, they don't understand it, they're mocking him. But the further good news is that our inability to recognize what Christ was doing, to recognize the atonement, did not hinder his its success. Look at fifty-three five. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening of our well being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. So pierced through is a verb that means to be skewered. It's typically used of an action that results in death. Our transgressions are the willful, rebellious sins, the deliberate law breaking. He's taking all of that upon himself, not just the griefs and sorrows we saw in the last verse, but all the transgression, the rebellion, the wrongdoing, the iniquities, has the idea of the bentness or the perversity of human nature, and between all these words they cover everything, both the outward actions and the inward attitudes. Crushed is a word that's used of being trampled to death, and then he has for our well-being or peace, that's the Hebrew word shalom. It carries the idea of the wholeness or completeness, and I think in this context, it's peace with God, it's reconciliation to the God. So we move from being under wrath to under grace, we move from being God's enemies to his children. And this all happens by his wounds. That prepositional phrase there explains the cost of our healing. It was by his wounds, through everything, his scourging that fell upon him was the cost that he paid to heal us. And then we are healed emphasizes this is objective fact. This is not a subjective experience. It doesn't matter whether I feel like I'm healed or not. The reality is his death paid the price for my sins. So we have in this verse our sinful state, the transgressions and the iniquities, our reconciliation to God with the well-being, the shalom, and then our brokenness and the scars which are healed. I mean, that pretty much covers everything. I don't think he left anything out. Jesus was pierced, crushed, and scourged, yet his work was effective, our guilt was heaped upon him, and his life and grace and mercy was heaped upon us. And of course, this language is echoed in the New Testament. John nineteen one, then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him, and then John nineteen thirty-four, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. Let's look at verse six. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. So notice the all of us, all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord caused the iniquity of all of us to fall on him. But this verse begins and ends with the same word, the all. So the need is universal and the sacrifice is sufficient for all of us. We are all guilty, but his death covered all the cost. And notice Jesus did what he did because it was God's plan. The emphasis here is the Lord has cause. We're gonna pick up that theme again in the next sections, but notice he's following the will of the Lord. The Lord caused the iniquity of all of us to fall upon him. Here's the next irony of salvation. Jesus died our death, and though his sacrifice was not appreciated and it was despised, its very rejection ensured that the benefits became available to all of us. And no other gift so perfectly displays the love of God. Now let's think about that for a minute. I'm sure all of you can imagine dying for your children. If your toddler was out playing in the front yard and strayed into the path of an oncoming car, not one of you would hesitate to run out into the street and risk your life to scoop that child up and get them out of harm's way. Even if our chances were a million to one, we would all try it. But what about dying for your enemy? How about dying for one of the terrorists who hijacked the planes on September eleventh? Or, you know, some evil person who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Would you would you want to run out into the street and try to save them from the path of the oncoming car? I mean, we expect parents to make sacrifices for their children. That's part of the parenting instinct, it's part of duty and love and responsibility. But it it takes a lot, it's much more unusual and unexpected to die for someone who is undeserving or just plain obnoxious or downright evil. So now imagine, okay, not only do you manage to die for one of the terrorists or attempt it, but it's not a death by lethal injection, it's a hideous, painful, public, humiliating, slow and lingering death. So that makes it that much worse. And now imagine that person you're dying for, that terrorist that you're dying for, that evil person is standing at your deathbed making fun of you while you do it. Not only do they not understand what you're doing, they hate you for it. And they hate you with a passion that causes them to rejoice in your pain. They torment you and actually seek to increase your pain and suffering while you're dying. What is the greatest display of love? This is the question Paul asks in Romans 5 when he when he picks up this theme. What takes more love? To die for your child or to die for your tormentor who hates you? Obviously, dying for your tormentor takes more love, and that's what Jesus did for us. Paul argues in Romans 5, 1 through 11, that we can be absolutely assured of our salvation because God loves us. If he loved us enough to die for us while we were his enemies, much more certainly now that we're his children, don't you think he loves us enough to get us the rest of the way and fulfill his promises? That's his argument. God already did the hard part. What takes more love to die for your tormentor or to die for your child? God already died for his tormentors on the cross. He sacrificed his beloved son to die for us while we laughed in his face and were his enemy. So he's already done the hard part. If he loved us enough to die for us while we mocked and despised him, now that we're his children, now that we're adopted into his family and forgiven, don't you think he loves us enough to get us the rest of the way, to fulfill his promises and to complete the work of our salvation? How could we doubt him? He's already shown the greatest love he could show us because we are those terrorists. We are the tormentor. We were God's enemies under his wrath. But now, because of the death of Jesus, our status has changed from tormentor to child. We are now adopted into his family. So now we're in the position of a mother saving her toddler from the car because now we have been adopted into his family, and we can be absolutely assured that he will get us the rest of the way, that he will fulfill the ultimate desires of our hearts and grant us the eternal life and the freedom from sin and death that we long for. We have all the evidence we need. But you can help me figure that out. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please tell me your story about hearing from you. You can email me at feedback at wednesdayintheword.com. And also, if you want to there, please subscribe to the podcast. You can find this on Apple Podcast Google Play or however you get your podcast. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coast of Heartfeltmusic.org. I'm Krisan Marotta, and you can hear more or listen to previous episodes on wednesdayintheword.com. Thank you for listening.