{"id":6313,"date":"2015-04-03T21:02:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6313"},"modified":"2015-04-03T21:02:51","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:02:51","slug":"his-portion-easter-series-part-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6313","title":{"rendered":"His portion\u2014Easter Series Part 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.<\/em> Isaiah 53:12<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout history, great victory on the battlefield was rewarded by plundering the spoil of the defeated. The battlefield for Christ extended from His arrest until He breathed His last; the height of His warfare\u00a0occurred\u00a0upon the cross. When He uttered the words, \u201cIt is finished<\/em>,\u201d His accusers and detractors twitched with delight thinking they had silenced forever the One who was\u00a0believed by many to be the Messiah. It is finished, indeed<\/em>, they must have smiled to themselves. Now this Upstart has gotten His just desserts.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In an unseen realm, a far more sinister party likewise twitched with delight. He is dead!<\/em> they must have raved. We did it! We killed the Son of God!<\/em> What idiots those religious uppity-ups are! They played right into our hands, and now\u00a0humanity is ours forever!<\/em> And so the partying continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Living God was just getting started. True, His only Son had died mere moments ago, but what He planned to do next\u2014fixed in divine order from the beginning of the world\u2014would rock the kingdoms of men and of darkness for the remainder of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Five\u2026four\u2026three\u2026two\u2026one\u2026<\/em>roll away the stone\u2026RESURRECTION!<\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture says Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities of darkness and made a public display of them, having triumphed over them (see Colossians 2:15). Bible teachers differ as to whether the actual disarming and display occurred when the Lord was on the cross, while His body was in the grave, or as He rose from the dead. However, I am certain of one thing: neither men nor the hosts of darkness saw it coming. \u201c\u2026for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory<\/em>\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:8b).<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong\u2026<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew Henry said of this verse, \u201c\u2026a great general, when he has driven the enemy out of the field, takes the plunder of it for himself and his army, which is both an unquestionable evidence of the victory and a recompense for all the toils and perils of the battle\u201d (see http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/Comm\/mhc\/Isa\/Isa_053.cfm<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the portion and plunder Jesus received, Mr. Henry wrote, \u201cMuch of the glory with which Christ is recompensed, and the spoil which he has divided, consists in the vast multitudes of willing, faithful, loyal subjects, that shall be brought in to him\u201d (ibid.) Along this line of thought, Holman Christian Standard Bible translates this part of verse 12: \u201cTherefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil<\/em>.\u201d In other words, the souls of men, women, and children redeemed by\u00a0His\u00a0blood are Jesus’ portion and prize. You<\/em> are Jesus’ portion. You<\/em> are Jesus’ prize.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Isaiah ended the prophecy about the Suffering Servant by outlining four key components of His agonizing passion for mankind. This is what qualified Him to be given the many as a portion, <\/em>and to receive the mighty as spoil<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. He poured out Himself to death. <\/em>Jesus did not merely die.\u00a0The very essence of who He was\u2014His righteousness, His purity, His kindness, His wisdom, His power, His love\u2014poured\u00a0out through His blood upon the ground as a\u00a0perfect\u00a0offering for sin, covering the entire human race\u2014whosoever would receive and believe in Him.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. He was numbered with the transgressors. <\/em>Throughout His ministry, His detractors constantly sought to\u00a0sully\u00a0His reputation by accusing Him of sin and carnality. (“He’s a lawbreaker.”<\/em> “He’s a drunkard and a glutton.”<\/em> “He’s clueless about\u00a0the type of woman\u00a0who is washing His feet<\/em>.”) Then they nailed Him high on the cross between two thieves as if to say, “He’s riff-raff. He’s bad news.”<\/em> Those passing by, along with the chief priests and scribes,\u00a0taunted Him, telling Him to\u00a0take Himself off of the cross. \u201cHe saved others” they sneered; “He can’t save Himself” (see Mark 15:29-31). This was an important aspect of His enemies’ strategy\u2014to paint Him as just another transgressor,\u00a0every bit\u00a0as sinful as anyone else.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. He Himself bore the sin of many. <\/em>Yes, He\u00a0certainly was<\/em> crucified\u00a0between two transgressors on Calvary, but as He hung there for all to see, He took on the iniquity and the chastisement\u00a0for every<\/em> transgressor who ever lived.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. He interceded for the transgressors. <\/em>As\u00a0the Lord hung high up on the cross, He interceded for all of us. He not only prayed<\/em> on behalf of sinners; He actually took<\/em> our place and died<\/em> in our stead, the highest form of intercession possible\u2014utter identification with the objects of intercession.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong <\/em>(Isaiah 53:12a). In short, here’s a summary of both His anguish and<\/em> His portion and plunder:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • He poured Himself out to death, once for all, never to die again.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • He was numbered with the transgressors, and now transgressors\u2014who receive Him as Lord and are cleansed by\u00a0His\u00a0blood\u2014are numbered with Him<\/em>.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • He bore the sin of many, and because of that, now many have\u00a0been made righteous.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • He interceded for the transgressors, and now He ever lives to make intercession for all of us.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Today, the resurrected Son of God is alive and well. He is the head of His body, the Church, and He sits at the right hand of\u00a0the Father,\u00a0far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named\u2014not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He is coming again to sum up everything in Him (Ephesians 1:10).<\/span><\/p>\n

      And all of it is made possible because He was willing to pour Himself out unto death and bear the sins of many.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Dorothy<\/span><\/p>\n

      Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.<\/em> Luke\u00a024:5b-6a<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 Throughout history, great victory on the battlefield was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-suffering-servant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6313"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6316,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions\/6316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}