Isaiah 53:10-12  But the Lord was pleased with this humble servant who suffered such pain. Even after giving himself as an offering for sin, he will see his descendants and enjoy a long life. He will succeed in doing what the Lord wanted.  After his suffering he will see the light, and he will be satisfied with what he experienced. The Lord says, “My servant, who always does what is right, will make his people right with me; he will take away their sins. For this reason, I will treat him as one of my great people. I will give him the rewards of one who wins in battle, and he will share them with his powerful ones. I will do this because he gave his life for the people. He was considered a criminal, but the truth is, he carried away the sins of many. Now he will stand before me and speak for those who have sinned.”

As I read this entire chapter this morning, it was like I was listening to Paul or Peter depicting what had happened, but this was Isaiah, a prophet who spoke these things years before Jesus came to earth to be our savior. What a beautiful illustration of prophesy, saying those things that are not yet as though they already are. It really reminds me of how God spoke the worlds into existence, his creation of man and woman, everything throughout the ages has been spoken into existence. Wow. 

“Now he will stand before me and speak for those who have sinned.” Sounds a bit like Paul in Hebrews 7:25, “That is why he is always able to save those who come to God through him. He can do this because he always lives and intercedes for them.” What a powerful lawyer we have; Jesus. He stands up to the prosecutor and says, “No, I paid for that. My blood has covered that sin. You can’t bring that up anymore!” To that the Judge says, “Case dismissed!” All the charges brought against me forever forgiven, forever gone. It’s as if I never sinned, never did wrong, never! How can this be? How can I feel the way I do and still be free of sin? I’ll tell you how; Jesus blood covers it all. My mind will forget when it remembers the power of that blood. 

There is nothing that makes sense to me until it’s received and processed through my spirit. My mind can’t comprehend it, it thinks too small. But my God made a way, a narrow path that I can walk that leads to Him. Romans 10:8-10; What it says is this: “God’s message is near you, on your lips and in your heart”—that is, the message of faith that we preach.  If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.  For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.

That pathway is constructed by the words I speak, ‘on your lips and in your heart’. When I say, “I believe Jesus is Lord, that he gave his life for my sins and that God raised him from the dead”, I will be saved. It’s through my words, my confession. Jesus took this a bit further when he showed how important our words are in Matthew 12:36-37 “You can be sure that on the Judgment Day you will have to give account of every useless word you have ever spoken. Your words will be used to judge you—to declare you either innocent or guilty.” Every useless word? NKJV says idle, which means non productive or non working. Our words were meant to do something. Our problem lies in the fact that we don’t believe our own words. Our words were meant to be a road to God, a road that leads us where Jesus is making intercession for us.

No wonder this is a road rarely traveled. No wonder it’s a narrow path that few find. Everyone goes for the path most traveled, doing what everyone else does. It’s not popular to read the bible anymore, to meditate on Gods Word, to go to church and be different from the world. People want to fit in, not stand out. I may be socially unexpected, visibly different, weird in many ways, but I’m loved by the one that matters. I have peace and joy, I jump and shout when I worship, I’m loud, boisterous, I pray always, may be found ‘talking to myself’, get excited when someone says Jesus cause I think I may have stumbled on another one like me. My favorite thing to do is talk about the Lord, His Word, His great powerful love. Mention His name to me and my eyes might light up, I lean in to listen, to see if you love him too.

Jesus, thank you for always standing up for me. I love you so much. You paid such a price to save me from my sin and I’m so thankful. What can I do for you? How can I repay you for the wonderful things you’ve done? I know, I will simply offer you my life. To be willing to stop what I’m doing long enough to say to others what I know is true; Jesus loves you. Perhaps if they see it in my eyes and feel it in my passion, they’ll believe in you too.