Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Tag: Isaiah 53
By His Knowledge

By His Knowledge

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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 

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 

John 10:14-15 

By His knowledge, Christ, God’s Righteous Servant, justifies many. What is this knowledge? Christ indicates that it exists in two ways. In the second portion of our text, taken from John’s Gospel, Christ says, ‘I  know my sheep.’ Thus, because Christ knows His sheep, the first portion of our text makes sense in saying, ‘By His knowledge shall Christ justify many.’ He knows them and justifies them. The other aspect is also true in the light of the verses from John, where Christ says, ‘and am known of mine.’ He elaborates on the spiritual work of conversion later in the chapter when He says, ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.’ Christ speaks to His sheep through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit effectually calls them to Christ. Thus, they come to know Him. By faith, they receive the justification that He has accomplished for them. Christ knows His people first and they come to know Him in time. This is eternal life. As Christ remarked in His High Priestly Prayer, ‘and this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.’ Christ knows His people, has borne their iniquities, justifies them, and brings them to know Him in due course of time. ‘By His knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many for He shall bear their iniquities.’ 

O, Great Shepherd of the sheep, 
we rejoice that You know us. 
We praise You that in due course of time, 
by your Spirit, You bring us to know you.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Accounted For Righteousness

Accounted For Righteousness

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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 

And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. 

Genesis 15:6 

Justification by faith is an ancient concept. We find it included in the life of Abraham, the ‘father of the Faithful.’ The portion of our text from Genesis is from the account of Abraham’s life. It is a clear statement of justification by faith. Paul dedicated the fourth chapter of Romans to this point. Having quoted Genesis 15:6 earlier in the passage, he concludes, ‘but to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.’ He goes on to include David in the discussion as one who understood imputed righteousness when he adds, ‘just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.’ The Old Testament saints understood justification. Isaiah understood it well enough to be able to articulate it clearly in the 53rd chapter of his prophecy. Because his passage is full of Christ, we come quickly to understand and appreciate that the work of Christ is the foundation of our justification.  Apart from the Person and work of Christ we cannot be just with God. Hence, His statement, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ Thus, it is of paramount importance that we ‘cease not teach and preach Jesus Christ.’  

Our Glorious Living Christ, 
we rejoice that it is Your work that justifies us. 
We praise You that we stand before the Throne of God 
robed in Your righteousness. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Peace With God

Peace With God

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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 

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…. 

Romans 5:1 

One of the most important results of justification is that we have peace with God. We did not have peace with God originally. Romans 5:10 says, ‘we were enemies.’ If we were enemies of God, then we did not have peace with God. What has made the difference? Christ has made it by the sacrifice of Himself. ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.’ Our peace with God is the direct result of the work of Christ. In Ephesians, Paul writes, ‘But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.’ It is difficult to overstate the value of this transformation. No one who remains as the enemy of God can ultimately succeed. No one who has peace with God can ultimately fail.  This foundational aspect of our relationship with God rests upon the fact of justification which rests upon the work of Christ. Years before the actual event, Isaiah prophesied that Christ would justify many by bearing their iniquities. All Isaiah prophesied came to pass. We are the blessed recipients of Christ’s work. As we continue to follow Him, we never want to lose sight of how we got here. We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. We did not extend the olive branch. Salvation is of the Lord.  

Our Good and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that we have peace with You. 
We praise You that our peace  
rests upon the person and work of Christ. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Justified From All Things

Justified From All Things

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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  

And by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. 

Acts 13:39 

Law-keeping is labor-intensive. Paul grew up in the law-keeping tradition.  He describes himself as, ‘circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrews of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church ; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.’  Paul worked hard at law-keeping and in his early life was the bitter opponent of Christ, Christians, and free grace. His Damascus Road experience brought him face to face with Christ. That changed his view of Christ, of himself and of free grace. Once he faced the truth about himself, he began to proclaim the truth of Christ, and of free grace. Thus, he began to articulate justification by faith. Our text lies in the body of Paul’s first recorded message on his first missionary journey. He preaches Christ and justification by faith. The truth of justification by faith is intensely Christocentric. It brings us to Christ and keeps us there. It was his discovery of justification by faith that brought Martin Luther out of his own brand of law-keeping. The more he understood justification, the bolder he became. The law is the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. The law never justifies. Therefore, if we preach Christ, we must arrive at the truth of justification and continue to proclaim it. 

Our Great God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that Christ is our righteousness. 
We praise You that through Him 
You have extended justifying grace. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Intercession

Intercession

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Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, 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 

Christ is our High Priest. The work of the High Priest is to intercede on behalf of the people. All the other high priests of the ancient order in Israel went in to the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the covenant was, to intercede for the people on the Day of Atonement. On that day he took a bowl of sacrificial blood to perform his intercession. Christ has made a greater and more permanent intercession. Hebrews speaks of this at length. The summary of Christ’s work is ‘For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.’ This shows us how Christ has interceded for breakers of the law of God. He is the perfect High Priest offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice, ‘the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.’ Thus, He makes intercession for the transgressors. This is why we do not continue with priests and sacrifices. Christ has interceded once for all. He has, by His sacrifice, put away sin. Therefore, we look to Christ for everything. We preach Christ and Him crucified as the answer to our own sin problems and to the sin problems of everyone else. There is no other answer. Christ has done the work. He has succeeded in all He has attempted. Christ is the answer.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You are our Great High Priest. 
We praise You that Your sacrifice is once for all. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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