Isaiah’s Gospel

~ The Good News of the Messiah in the Scriptures ~

Isaiah wrote about 700 years before the coming of Messiah. Yet Isaiah provides a Gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ as do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read Isaiah’s Gospel below from The Message.

“So Isaiah told him, ‘Then listen to this, government of David! It's bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you're making God tired. So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a Son and name Him Immanuel (God-With-Us). By the time the child is twelve years old, He will be able to make moral decisions’” (Isaiah 7:13-15).

“For a child has been born—for us! The gift of a Son—for us! He’ll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness He brings. He’ll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. He’ll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going with fair dealing and right living,

beginning now and lasting always” (Isaiah 9:6-7). 

“‘Just watch my servant blossom! Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd! But He didn’t begin that way. At first everyone was appalled. He didn’t even look human—a ruined face, disfigured past recognition. Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback, kings shocked into silence when they see Him. For what was unheard of they’ll see with their own eyes, what was unthinkable they’ll have right before them.’

“Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

“The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about Him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a Man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at Him and people turned away. We looked down on Him, thought He was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains He carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought He brought it on Himself, that God was punishing Him for His own failures. But it was our sins that did that to Him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through His bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on Him, on Him. He was beaten, He was tortured, but He didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, He took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and He was led off—and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for His own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried Him with the wicked, threw Him in a grave with a rich man, even though He’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.

“Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush Him with pain. The plan was that He give Himself as an offering for sin so that He’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through Him.

“Out of that terrible travail of soul, He’ll see that it's worth it and be glad He did it. Through what He experienced, My righteous one, My servant, will make many ‘righteous ones,’ as He Himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I’ll reward Him extravagantly—the best of everything, the highest honors—because He looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because He embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, He took up the cause of all the black sheep” (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). 

Do you know the shepherd as your personal Savior, Counselor, and Friend?

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW