The Messianic Prophecies of Jesus

Isaiah 53:1-12

Even in the Old Testament you find the Gospel—not according to Matthew, but according to Isaiah, who wrote messianic prophecy 700 years before Jesus came.

The Virgin Birth of Jesus

Isaiah 53:2a

“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.”

Isaiah is talking about Christ stepping out of glory and being born of a virgin. (See also Isaiah 7:14.)

Why Is the Virgin Birth Important?

If Mary and Joseph were Jesus’ parents, Jesus would have only been human.

But Mary was human and Jesus’ Father is Almighty God, so you have the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus became the Son of Man so that we might become children of God.

The Sinless Life of Jesus

Isaiah 53:3

“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” 

God did not come down in robes of light, traveling in a jeweled chariot. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the least of the cities of Judah. He was raised as a carpenter’s son in Nazareth, another obscure village. “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20).

Did Jesus live a sinless life? Yes! He could say to His enemies, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” (John 8:46a). Jesus was not without sorrow, but He was without sin.

The Sacrificial Death of Jesus

Isaiah 53:5-6b

“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed…the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Sin had to be punished, and Jesus Christ would die as our substitute. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When He took on our sins, Jesus knew that God would have to treat Him as He would treat every sinner. Jesus, who had been in the bosom of the Father, would bear the Father’s loathing.

And Jesus took that cup. He cried out from that cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34b) Why? He was taking your place. Sin brings separation from Almighty God.

The Resurrection and Return of Jesus

“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10; emphasis added).

Jesus died, but He is “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4; emphasis added).

“He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11). 

When Jesus sees you and me saved, He will say, “It was worth it all.”

God the Father says, “Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great…because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

The only hope of this world is the Second Coming of Christ—and friends, we are on the winning side.