Have you ever doubted God? As Christians, we reflexively want to say, “No, of course not.” But if we’re honest, I think all of us would admit there are times where we have questioned God and His character. We see all the horror in the world and wonder if He is truly sovereign. We see the wicked prosper and ask where God’s justice is. We doubt His love in the moments we can’t feel it. Any number of whispered lies suggest He isn’t as good or holy as He claims. While I don’t want to tritely dismiss those doubts, it is true that the Bible has answers to them. We could examine each in detail and find dozens if not hundreds of verses to assure us that God is good, holy, just, loving, and so forth. But today I want to look at one passage—among others—that answers all of those doubts, all of those questions, authoritatively and definitively. I’m not going to post the entire passage here, but I encourage you to pull up Isaiah 53 and read it before reading this post. After doing so, you may want to throw my post in the corner and focus solely on Isaiah 53. I won’t blame you. But if you want a few taters with your meat, then join me in breaking this down just a little bit. In doing so, we’ll see that all our doubts are ultimately answered with two words: the cross.
I’m going to touch briefly on several (of many) different aspects of God’s character revealed at the cross, and I’m going to do so by first assuming the “doubt” and seeing how the cross destroys it. For example, if we question God’s goodness and holiness, we’re left to ask why He chose the cross. If God was not holy and sin was not thus heinous, if “we all, like sheep” have NOT “gone astray,”[i] why demand such costly payment—“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”[ii]? If our sin was deserving of anything less than the ultimate payment, would God have subjected His Son to it? “He was pierced [literally] for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.”[iii] Jesus prayed in the Garden, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”[iv] All things are possible for God, aren’t they? Wouldn’t it be possible then for the Father to find another way? Not if God is just (as we will look at momentarily) and if He is holy and our sin is heinous. Thus the cross, and the Father being willing to sacrifice the Son upon it, shows His goodness and holiness.
When we question if God is sovereign, if He is really in charge, the cross at first seems a stumbling block—as do other horrors God allows. However, Isaiah tells us “we considered [Jesus] punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”[v] He also states “it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” and it is the Lord who “makes his life an offering for sin.”[vi] God didn’t allow Jesus to die—He brought it about! These verses show us how God was in charge, bringing about His purposes. Peter writes about the “precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” He says, “He was chosen before the creation of the world.”[vii] And Jesus stated, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”[viii] The plan formed before creation was brought about not by a Roman governor or an angry mob but by God. He was in control from start to finish. He foretold details of the crucifixion, from none of Jesus’ bones being broken[ix] to the gambling over His clothes[x] to the details of His entombment, “assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his burial.”[xi]
But there’s more. Earlier, I left off in the middle of Isaiah 53:10. Not only did the Father crush the Son, cause Him to suffer, and make His life an offering for sin, but the Father also raised Him: He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong.[xii] As the Psalmist wrote, God did not “let [His] faithful one see decay.”[xiii] The cross shows us God was in charge of most crucial event of all time, let alone our trivial (by comparison) problems. If He can orchestrate the prophecies and events of the cross, and if He can bring about the death of His Son for good, can He not do the same in the wake of a tragic hurricane, a dreaded sickness, or a broken relationship?
We can also doubt God’s justice when we see evil go unpunished, when the wicked thrive. Where is God when Hitler or Stalin murder their millions, when terrorists fly planes into buildings, or a criminal intrudes into our world and escapes punishment? The cross reminds us that God is just, and it does so in a way that should make us gulp. I’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s consider what an unjust God would do. He might let sin slide. Or He might punish some sin but not others. In short, He would be unjust. Similarly, we live in a sinful, fallen world where there isn’t perfect justice, where love and mercy sometimes cancel out justice. For example, if I speak harshly to my wife (purely theoretical here) and then apologize, she is gracious enough to forgive me. Technically, I get off. I do not face justice for sinning against her because she chooses to be merciful instead of strictly just. But God, by His nature, cannot be anything less than strictly just. And thus every wrongdoing, from speaking harshly to mass murder, must have a consequence—there must be payment for sin.
But the beauty of the cross is that God, in addition to being 100% just, is also 100% merciful. Note the following phrases in Isaiah 53: “our pain,” “our suffering,” “our transgressions,” “our iniquities,” “punishment that brought us peace,” “we are healed,” “we all . . . have gone astray,” “each of us has turned to our own way,” “the iniquity of us all,” “the transgression of my people,” “justify many,” “their iniquities,” “the sin of many,” and “intercession for transgressors.” Catch a theme? God’s total justice alone would make each of us a smoking hole in the ground. God’s total mercy alone would allow each of us into heaven, depravity and all. But God’s total justice and total mercy together meet up at the cross, where justice is meted out but it is meted out not on the guilty party (you and me) but on Jesus, even though “he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”[xiv] Is God just? The nail and spear holes in Jesus’ body assure us He is. But the fact that they are in Jesus’ body and not ours assure us of God’s mercy as well.
As I write this, it seems an absurd concept, but we often doubt—at least subconsciously—if God loves us. Of course He loves us in theory because He “so loved the world”[xv] and because “God is love.”[xvi] But sometimes He seems distant, even disinterested. Does God love us on a real, personal level, with an unending, unconditional love? The answer is found throughout Scripture and especially in Isaiah 53. Jesus was “despised and rejected by mankind.”[xvii] He “took up our pain and bore our suffering.”[xviii] He was pierced and crushed. Isaiah wrote, “by his wounds we are healed.”[xix] Talk about an understatement. Jesus was beaten. He was flayed alive. He had thorns jammed into His skull. He was then crucified, murdered in the most agonizing fashion possible. And that was just the physical suffering. He also bore the wrath of God and endured being forsaken by His Father. That is the definition of hell. Jesus went through hell so you and I don’t have to. Jesus said that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”[xx] Then He demonstrated that love. If He loved us enough to do that, does He not also love us deeply and personally?
It is only human to have doubts, even about God. But as Isaiah 53 (et al.) reveals to us, the cross is the ultimate assurance of God’s goodness, sovereignty, justice, and love, and that it is why it is also our greatest assurance in all of life’s troubles and storms.
[i] Isaiah 53:6
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Isaiah 53:5, emphasis added
[iv] Matthew 26:39
[v] Isaiah 53:4
[vi] Isaiah 53:10
[vii] I Peter 1:19-20
[viii] John 10:18
[ix] See Psalm 34:20
[x] See Psalm 22:18
[xi] Isaiah 53:9
[xii] Isaiah 53:10-12
[xiii] Psalm 16:10
[xiv] Isaiah 53:9
[xv] John 3:16
[xvi] I John 4:8
[xvii] Isaiah 53:3
[xviii] Isaiah 53:4
[xix] Isaiah 53:5
[xx] John 15:13
I’m going to touch briefly on several (of many) different aspects of God’s character revealed at the cross, and I’m going to do so by first assuming the “doubt” and seeing how the cross destroys it. For example, if we question God’s goodness and holiness, we’re left to ask why He chose the cross. If God was not holy and sin was not thus heinous, if “we all, like sheep” have NOT “gone astray,”[i] why demand such costly payment—“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”[ii]? If our sin was deserving of anything less than the ultimate payment, would God have subjected His Son to it? “He was pierced [literally] for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.”[iii] Jesus prayed in the Garden, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”[iv] All things are possible for God, aren’t they? Wouldn’t it be possible then for the Father to find another way? Not if God is just (as we will look at momentarily) and if He is holy and our sin is heinous. Thus the cross, and the Father being willing to sacrifice the Son upon it, shows His goodness and holiness.
When we question if God is sovereign, if He is really in charge, the cross at first seems a stumbling block—as do other horrors God allows. However, Isaiah tells us “we considered [Jesus] punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”[v] He also states “it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” and it is the Lord who “makes his life an offering for sin.”[vi] God didn’t allow Jesus to die—He brought it about! These verses show us how God was in charge, bringing about His purposes. Peter writes about the “precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” He says, “He was chosen before the creation of the world.”[vii] And Jesus stated, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”[viii] The plan formed before creation was brought about not by a Roman governor or an angry mob but by God. He was in control from start to finish. He foretold details of the crucifixion, from none of Jesus’ bones being broken[ix] to the gambling over His clothes[x] to the details of His entombment, “assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his burial.”[xi]
But there’s more. Earlier, I left off in the middle of Isaiah 53:10. Not only did the Father crush the Son, cause Him to suffer, and make His life an offering for sin, but the Father also raised Him: He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong.[xii] As the Psalmist wrote, God did not “let [His] faithful one see decay.”[xiii] The cross shows us God was in charge of most crucial event of all time, let alone our trivial (by comparison) problems. If He can orchestrate the prophecies and events of the cross, and if He can bring about the death of His Son for good, can He not do the same in the wake of a tragic hurricane, a dreaded sickness, or a broken relationship?
We can also doubt God’s justice when we see evil go unpunished, when the wicked thrive. Where is God when Hitler or Stalin murder their millions, when terrorists fly planes into buildings, or a criminal intrudes into our world and escapes punishment? The cross reminds us that God is just, and it does so in a way that should make us gulp. I’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s consider what an unjust God would do. He might let sin slide. Or He might punish some sin but not others. In short, He would be unjust. Similarly, we live in a sinful, fallen world where there isn’t perfect justice, where love and mercy sometimes cancel out justice. For example, if I speak harshly to my wife (purely theoretical here) and then apologize, she is gracious enough to forgive me. Technically, I get off. I do not face justice for sinning against her because she chooses to be merciful instead of strictly just. But God, by His nature, cannot be anything less than strictly just. And thus every wrongdoing, from speaking harshly to mass murder, must have a consequence—there must be payment for sin.
But the beauty of the cross is that God, in addition to being 100% just, is also 100% merciful. Note the following phrases in Isaiah 53: “our pain,” “our suffering,” “our transgressions,” “our iniquities,” “punishment that brought us peace,” “we are healed,” “we all . . . have gone astray,” “each of us has turned to our own way,” “the iniquity of us all,” “the transgression of my people,” “justify many,” “their iniquities,” “the sin of many,” and “intercession for transgressors.” Catch a theme? God’s total justice alone would make each of us a smoking hole in the ground. God’s total mercy alone would allow each of us into heaven, depravity and all. But God’s total justice and total mercy together meet up at the cross, where justice is meted out but it is meted out not on the guilty party (you and me) but on Jesus, even though “he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”[xiv] Is God just? The nail and spear holes in Jesus’ body assure us He is. But the fact that they are in Jesus’ body and not ours assure us of God’s mercy as well.
As I write this, it seems an absurd concept, but we often doubt—at least subconsciously—if God loves us. Of course He loves us in theory because He “so loved the world”[xv] and because “God is love.”[xvi] But sometimes He seems distant, even disinterested. Does God love us on a real, personal level, with an unending, unconditional love? The answer is found throughout Scripture and especially in Isaiah 53. Jesus was “despised and rejected by mankind.”[xvii] He “took up our pain and bore our suffering.”[xviii] He was pierced and crushed. Isaiah wrote, “by his wounds we are healed.”[xix] Talk about an understatement. Jesus was beaten. He was flayed alive. He had thorns jammed into His skull. He was then crucified, murdered in the most agonizing fashion possible. And that was just the physical suffering. He also bore the wrath of God and endured being forsaken by His Father. That is the definition of hell. Jesus went through hell so you and I don’t have to. Jesus said that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”[xx] Then He demonstrated that love. If He loved us enough to do that, does He not also love us deeply and personally?
It is only human to have doubts, even about God. But as Isaiah 53 (et al.) reveals to us, the cross is the ultimate assurance of God’s goodness, sovereignty, justice, and love, and that it is why it is also our greatest assurance in all of life’s troubles and storms.
[i] Isaiah 53:6
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Isaiah 53:5, emphasis added
[iv] Matthew 26:39
[v] Isaiah 53:4
[vi] Isaiah 53:10
[vii] I Peter 1:19-20
[viii] John 10:18
[ix] See Psalm 34:20
[x] See Psalm 22:18
[xi] Isaiah 53:9
[xii] Isaiah 53:10-12
[xiii] Psalm 16:10
[xiv] Isaiah 53:9
[xv] John 3:16
[xvi] I John 4:8
[xvii] Isaiah 53:3
[xviii] Isaiah 53:4
[xix] Isaiah 53:5
[xx] John 15:13
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