RIGHTEOUS SERVANT

Righteousness is an essential and intrinsic attribute of Deity. God, who controls all things, can only act in a manner that befits His character - it must be right. Whatever action He takes in His dealings with men, must be right. Everything recorded in His word must be right; therefore we know that we can depend upon it. As the apostle Paul considers the remarkable dealings of God toward Israel in Romans chapter 9, he asks the rhetorical question, ‘Is there unrighteousness with God’?, v. 14. The very suggestion is foolishness!

From the middle of Isaiah chapter 53 verse 10 to the end of the chapter, we view the Lord Jesus in resurrection. The suffering on account of our transgressions and our iniquities is over. The wounding, the bruising and the stripes fall no more upon Him. A righteous God is satisfied with a work well done. Now, in resurrection glory, because the corn of wheat fell into the ground and died, there will be a harvest. ‘He shall see his seed’. Suffering and death will be His portion no more, ‘he shall prolong his days’, and ‘the pleasure of the Lord’, all God’s purposes for time and eternity, ‘shall prosper’, will be brought to fruition, ‘in his hand’.

Because of Calvary, the foundation is laid for God to move in grace toward man, without any compromise of His righteous character. He can remain just and yet become ‘the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus’, Rom. 3. 26.

From chapter 42, Jehovah has been directing our attention to His Servant, the Lord Jesus. We have seen Him as elect, obedient and wise. Now, once more in acknowledgement of His absolute confidence in the One who ‘took upon him the form of a servant’, Phil. 2. 7, He is proclaimed by Jehovah as ‘my righteous servant’. Justification follows for those who, whether by knowledge of Him, or on account of His own omniscience, know that their iniquities have been borne by Him.

Calvary will always be the supreme evidence of man’s unrighteousness, yet the ‘righteous Servant’, ‘shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied’.