The Father's Vantage

Throughout the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Christ, you witness many different reactions to the cross. There’s the Roman Centurion’s perspective (Mark 15:39) and also that of the Jewish leaders (Luke 23:35), and also the two thieves crucified next to Christ on the cross (Luke 23:30-32, 39-43). These are very moving and sobering perspectives, but the Gospel doesn’t lie within their perspectives, because their perspectives are limited and fallen. The Gospel doesn’t rest in the opinions of men but in the counsels of Almighty God. To get to the heart of the Gospel, we must humbly examine the Father’s “vantage” pertaining to the cross for God's glory with our limited capabilities.

Why do I use the word “vantage”? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “vantage” is defined as “a position giving a strategic advantage, commanding perspective, or comprehensive view.” Based on God’s attributes and character, this is the most accurate, sound and faithful way of portraying how God views His own Son on the cross. I’ll briefly unpack why “vantage” is the most accurate word to describe God’s point of view of the cross.

The first reason is that He is in heaven, above all things and preeminent over all things. King David says in Psalm 103:19 (LSB) that He “has established His throne in the heavens, And His kingdom rules over all.” The second is, as the cherubim and seraphim cry out in Isaiah 6:3 (LSB), that He is “holy, holy, holy;” there’s no one like Him. In light of these truths about God, what IS the Father’s vantage? Isaiah 53:10-11 gives us a glorious picture of the Father’s vantage.

First, He was pleased to crush His Son by putting Him to grief, and offering Him as a "guilt offering," or a substitutionary sacrifice. Isaiah 53:10 (LSB) says:

“But Yahweh was pleased

To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

If You would place His soul as a guilt offering,

He will see His seed,

He will prolong His days,

And the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand.”

Yahweh, the eternal covenant-keeping God, put His own Son “to grief” as part of crushing Him. Even though He didn’t deserve to die, it was the Father’s will to crush Him because our entire Christian faith is based on Christ being crushed in our place. We must see in this that Christ isn’t a victim; He volunteered to die in our place. What kind of “grief” was Christ voluntarily put towards? Christ condescended from heaven to earth and suffered here on earth in our frame, yet without sin. In His life, He always had the agonies of the cross on His mind. When He woke up, when He went about His ministry, when He accomplished great miracles and proclaimed the Kingdom of God, He foresaw the crown of thorns, the nails, the cross, and above even these things, the wrath of His Father pouring down upon Him. The Father withdrew His love and gracious presence from His own dear Son, a love that both the Father and Son have known and shared for all eternity, as evidenced in Christ crying out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” (Matt. 27:46). Not only did the Father put His own Son to grief, but He also placed “His soul as a guilt offering,” an offering like a lamb led to the slaughter to atone for sin, not opening His mouth against His revilers, but perfectly obeying the Father in it all (cf. Isa. 53:7). Christ gave up SO MUCH in His death on Calvary, more than we can ever experience or comprehend. As the old puritan Thomas Manton once wrote, “We lose drops; he an ocean.”[1]

The result, or fruits, of Christ being crushed are threefold:

(1) “He will see His seed” i.e. Because of Christ, souls are converted and saved, adopted into God’s family, and added to the spiritual house of God. J. Alec Motyer beautifully says, “We strayed as sheep; we return as sons.”[2]

(2) “He will prolong His days,” meaning, Christ will live forever. This was promised by God and prophesied by David when he writes in Ps. 16:10 (LSB): “For You will not forsake my soul to Sheol; You will not give Your Holy One over to see corruption.”

(3) “And the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand,” meaning, Christ is successful in all that He did, according to the Father’s good pleasure.

These are the glorious fruits of our salvation in Christ’s death on the cross, all from the Father being pleased to crush His own Son in our place.

The second aspect of the Father’s vantage is that He is satisfied, the result of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice on Calvary. Isaiah 53:11 says:

“As a result of the anguish of His soul,

He will see it and be satisfied;

By His knowledge the Righteous One,

My Servant, will justify the many,

As He will bear their iniquities.”

This satisfaction has two components, according to Isaiah’s messianic prophecy from several hundred years before Christ. First, the Righteous One “will justify the many”. The Righteous One justifies the many by bearing their iniquities in His sacrificial death, and imputing to “the many” His perfect righteousness, so then when God sees “the many,” He sees the glorious robe of His Son’s righteousness upon them. The second component is this, and it is how the “many” are justified by “the Righteous One:” the Suffering Servant, that being Jesus, “will bear their iniquities.” With this “bearing of iniquities” comes bearing the penalty for iniquities. The Father dealt justly with the Son so that He deals mercifully with us. All of this is “by His knowledge,” a knowledge eternally motivated by love. All that Christ agonized over was in love, love for His Father and His people. Through “His knowledge” He accomplished the plan of justifying sinners by Christ’s death on Calvary. In His death, those who savingly believe in Christ are declared righteous before God (cf. Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:21).

Therefore, because the Father was pleased to crush His Son and is satisfied because of Christ’s death, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1 LSB). I love what Edward J. Young says in his commentary on Isaiah on this aspect of no longer being condemned in Christ. He writes:

“…when the guilt those iniquities involved has been punished, the servant may declare that the many stand in right relationship with God. Their iniquities will no longer be able to rise up and accuse them, for the guilt of those iniquities has been punished. Thus, they are justified. They are declared to be righteous, for they have received the righteousness of the servant and they are received and accepted by God Himself. Of them God says that they no longer have iniquities, but they do have the righteousness of the servant.”[3]

Do you glory in the cross of Christ? Do you cling to Jesus as your only hope and refuge? Cherish what He has accomplished for you in His substitutionary death and in His resurrection. Savor the Father’s vantage. And may this be your confession:

       No condemnation now I dread;

Jesus, and all in Him is mine!

ENDNOTES

[1] Thomas Manton, “A Practical Exposition Upon the Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah” in The Works of Thomas Manton, vol 3 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2020), 403.

[2] J. Alec Motyer, Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary, vol 20 (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1999), 382.

[3] Edward J. Young, Isaiah 40-66, vol. 3 of The Book of Isaiah (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), 358.