Isaiah 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 11 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.12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
In this passage the word “grace” is not mentioned, but the words “Gospel” and “Jesus” are also not mentioned. Nevertheless, we have a clear declaration of certain aspects of justification by grace alone. We see that sinners are saved from their sins because of the acts of another. Sinners are saved not because they deserve this, but because they don’t deserve it. The text is speaking of a Servant, and that great Servant is Christ. This Servant came to save sinners for the glory of the name of God and not because anyone deserved anything but wrath. This Servant came to serve and not to be served, which clearly shows that this is a Gospel of grace alone.
Why did Christ bear the griefs and carry the sorrows of others? In the eyes of the world He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God, which in one sense He was. But all of those things were happening to Him because the wrath of God was poured out upon Him as He stood in the place of sinners. Why would God treat this Servant (His Beloved Son and the Son of God) in such a way? Was it because sinners deserved this or because God deserved for His glory to be manifested at the cross of Christ and the salvation of sinners? It was because of what God deserved. Christ suffered the wrath of the Father as He took the sins of sinners upon Himself and so the glory of the grace of God, the justice of God, the holiness of God, and the love of God shone forth.
This Servant was pierced for the transgressions of others and crushed for their iniquities, and in His scourging sinners were healed. As we behold (in our understanding) the glory of a crucified Savior on the cross, it was indeed a bloody and a gory situation. It was there we can see that the Father will not hold back His perfect wrath even when the One on whom the guilt has been placed is His perfect Son. In the crushing of the perfect Lamb of God we see the grace of God shining so brightly and so beautifully. This was all to the praise of the glory of His grace. This is another way of saying that sinners must see that the Gospel is a Gospel of grace alone. There is nothing they are or can do that would deserve or merit in the slightest the Son of God coming in human form and taking their sins upon Himself to suffer and die for them.
The kindest and most loving (God-) man that ever lived was taken by hateful and scornful hands and nailed to a cross of cursedness and wrath. He who was infinite in power in His Divine nature was seemingly in the hands of mortal man to nail to the cross, but instead it was His great love for the Father that held Him to the cross. It was His love for the Father and His glory that moved Him to suffer the wrath of the Father and save sinners to the glory of the Father. He who was perfectly holy took the horror and stain of the sins of many and suffered for them there so that the holiness and glory of grace would shine forth. He who was perfect love and lived in perfect love within the Trinity from all eternity past because cursed and the wrath of the Father that He had lived in perfect love with was poured out upon Him. Who in their right mind can say that this was anything but sheer and glorious grace! Who can behold the glory of a risen Savior and think that the whole event was anything but this perfect love and grace? The Son of God took human flesh to Himself in order that He could suffer for those who deserved the wrath themselves. That is nothing but sheer grace.
The Gospel of a crucified Savior knows nothing of men deserving or meriting anything but the wrath of God, but God out of His love for Himself (as triune) and His own glory sent the Son of God to die on that cursed cross in the place of sinners. How can anyone be anything but amazed at this display of Divine glory in grace? How can anyone attempt to diminish the glory of the cross by saying or thinking that s/he merited some good from God?
God Loves... Himself 
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