Devotions: A Sacrifice of Love

As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:11 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The servant here is Jesus, He is the servant of God the Father. Even though He is equal with God, He willingly serves and obeys the Father. What He sees through His anguish is His life as Shepherd of His sheep, who know His voice and follow Him. He loves His sheep so much that He lays down His life to save them. The “knowledge” which justifies the many is, again, His sacrifice to save us from our sin. Because of the sin of Adam, we are all born spiritually dead, enslaved to sin and separated from God. And because we begin sinful, nothing we could do would ever justify us. Our best efforts would still be worthless. So Jesus came to earth, born as a baby, lived as a man, and died and was raised, in order to pay the penalty for our sin. If we were on trial before God, we would be condemned because of our sin, but then Jesus would step in and show the scars on His hands and feet as proof that He had already paid the penalty or sentence we deserved. Because of this we (as believers) would then be declared justified and righteous before God, because of Jesus’ blood covering us. He suffered the anguish of punishment we deserved. He bore the penalty we owed. He loved us so much that He willingly went through that, for us. That is what Christmas is about; the greatest love we could ever know, greater than we could ever fathom. God sent His love as a sacrifice for us. Remember that as you celebrate Christmas, let it remind you of the immense love God has for you!