I am a literalist when it comes to the Scriptures. But every once in a while, I love the way The Message Bible makes you think differently about a passage, as with Isaiah 53:10–11. Here Isaiah says, “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” (MSG). Yeshua (Jesus) will be glad that He went to the cross for us. God did not spare His own Son but gave Him over for us all that He might freely give us all things (Romans 8:32).[1]

Isaiah is referring to the Lamb receiving the reward for His suffering. “Out of that terrible travail of soul,” Yeshua will “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’” (Isaiah 53:11, MSG). These “righteous ones” are the reward of Yeshua’s suffering. They are the fruit of what He did in coming to the earth, suffering, going to the cross, and all that He experienced. He gave Himself for us that sin might be dealt with, that we might be perfected for all time, and He is waiting until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet (Hebrews 10:13–14). What is His enemy? Within me, this enemy includes my continued bondage to sin, my continued sickness on a physical level, and my limitations that fall short of being identical with Christ. We are to break through into the same relationship that Yeshua had with the Father, a place of maturity and sonship. But when I look at what Yeshua did and then look at what I am walking in, I think, “The Father had more in mind that is greater in force, greater in power, and greater in determination than what we are seeing now.”

Yeshua does not want us coming into His presence to constantly be dealing with our problems. He wants us to come into His presence in the intimacy that we are to have with Him in the new covenant as His bride, the wife of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9). He is looking to bring us into a new relationship with Himself. Yeshua is trying to bring us into full maturity and marry us. The Father is absolutely driven to take care of our sin; He predestined us to become conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). He will transform our bodies into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of His power (Philippians 3:10). He has already provided it all.

You are Yeshua’s reward—but not by living in an endless cycle of sin. God has predestined us to become conformed to the image of His Son. At some point Yeshua our Messiah will be exuberant over what He did because of the many sons coming to birth. So we engage with God’s absolute determination that He is going to make us become the reward of Yeshua’s suffering. Those whom He called, He also justified and glorified because Yeshua suffered for it (Romans 8:30). He won it. He completed it, and now He is waiting until it is thoroughly manifested in the lives of His people. God hasten the day!

[1] Unless stated otherwise, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).