Isaiah 53:1 – Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Isaiah 53 is about the Lord Christ Jesus, and His great sacrifice toward sinners. He is lifted up and glorified in this chapter, and I would encourage anyone who hasn’t read or studied it to pursue this about our blessed Redeemer.
As a help, Thomas Manton wrote a practical exposition on Isaiah 53, and because of what I believe is the importance of this chapter in the Bible, I recorded his commentary, which you can find here.
The chapter starts out with the above question in the verse, it seems in something of a rhetorical way, that very few do, and Mr. Manton proceeds to discuss the lack of true belief in the world throughout time toward the Lord Christ, especially given the great undeserved treasure, grace and mercy in Him, and that very few actually do believe in Him in a true way.
The commentary I include below, which you can read starting here, is one answer to the following point Mr. Manton wanted to prove:
First, That there may be a glorious report of Jesus Christ, and yet few
believe it. Or—
That Jesus Christ may be clearly represented to a people, and yet but
few won to believe in him.
I submit this below in hopes we will all consider the gravity of the situation for anyone not believing truly in the Lord Jesus, and as a help for us to examine ourselves.
From Mr. Manton:
I come now to prove it in our times, or the time of the first promulgation of the gospel. I might divide my discourse into these two heads: Few believe the report of Christ, and few believe in Christ. I prove the latter.
We all profess ourselves Christians, disciples of Christ, those that have entertained him,—but few do really believe. The lets [things that prevent] and hindrances now are these:—
[l.] Ignorance.
Men hear of Christ, but are not acquainted with him; many come to the ordinances, but only to sit out the hour, not to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is much in a man’s ends [purposes] why he comes to the ordinances: God seldom meets with a man in his word that comes to it with a vain [useless] end; if they do not seek after knowledge they shall not find it.
Many of the reports of Jesus Christ are lost upon an ignorant people; they hear the name, and do not weigh the thing in their thoughts; they look upon him as aliquem magnum—as some great person that the preachers talk of, and go no further. Thousands are damned this way through their ignorance; they do not trouble their thoughts about getting the knowledge of Christ in his word, they come to the church and rest in that.
There must be distinct apprehensions of the report of Christ before faith, not only to hear the sound, but weigh the sense: Rom. 10:14, ‘How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?’ that is, not only the sound of his name, but heard so as to weigh the doctrine that was delivered concerning him.
This affected ignorance is a great hindrance when men do not apply themselves to knowledge; as it is, Prov. 2:2,3, ‘Incline thine ear to wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding: yea, if thou criest for knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding.’ Many incline their ears, but they do not apply their hearts to knowledge, weigh and ponder what they hear; if they attend to it while it is spoken, they do not consider it afterwards in their more serious thoughts, and ponder it in their minds; and therefore no wonder they do not close with Christ: Rom. 3:11, ‘There is none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God.’ That will necessarily follow, if they do not understand Christ, they will not seek after him; a man will not value an unknown good. This is one hindrance, gross and affected ignorance.
[2] An easy slightness; men do not labour after faith.
It is true our diligence alone can never attain it, but yet we should use the means. Men marry to beget children, yet it is impossible they should generate a rational soul without the concourse of God. So we should do those things that are likely, and leave the success to God: we should seek after it.
God will not violently withhold faith from those that are diligent, that are much in meditation, much in earnest supplication, much in observation, much in a continual and holy expectation, when Jesus Christ will be begotten in their souls. God will not fail such a waiting soul Ps. 130:6, ‘My soul waiteth for God more than they that watch for the morning; yea, more than they that watch for the morning.’ Such souls as are thus eager in the pursuit, and earnest in their expectation, that would fain [desire to] have Christ come and appear in their hearts, may well expect God’s blessing.
But there is a great deal of idle and easy lightness in men’s hearts; they complain for want [lack] of faith, yet they will not pray, meditate, hear, read; as if God should infuse it into them in their sleep. It were an easy cut to heaven if God should do all. What need had Christ to tell you, ‘Strait is the way’?
And faith is called a work, not in regard of the toil of it, but in regard of our diligence and intention of spirit. ‘This is the work of God, that ye should believe in him whom he hath sent.’
It is a sign people do not prize a thing when they do not labour after it. If men thought Christ worthy of respect, they would not sit still, but take pains in the seeking of him. The idle and evil servant are joined together: Mat. 25:26, ‘Thou wicked and slothful servant!’ The wicked will be slothful; and as idleness and sin are joined together, so idleness and destruction Prov. 1:32, ‘Ease slayeth the fool,’ so it is in the margin, or, ‘The turning away of the simple shall slay them.’
Men perish by resting in their slight wishes; they would have Christ, but they would not take the pains to get him. Certainly a man values the report of Christ at a low rate when he does not think it worthy of a few thoughts, and a little time to consider it. You know what Christ saith, Mat. 11:12, ‘From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.’ They close with the gospel, which is called the kingdom of God there, that pursue it with a great deal of earnestness and fervour of spirit. This is the next hindrance, an easy slightness.
[3] A careless security.
They are not won to believe in Christ, because they think themselves well enough without him. Most cannot endure to look beyond their present condition. A false heart is so far from knowing the worst of its own condition, that it will not so much as suppose a time will come in which it maybe miserable.
Oh! think upon changes; rouse up your souls with the sense of your danger! If you lull your souls asleep, you may awake in flames; even the gospel is peremptory in this kind: Mark 16:16, ‘He that believeth not shall be damned.’ It will not be always with you as now.
Oh I cry out, then, Do I believe? If men would not put away all thoughts of their eternal condition, they would see a greater need of Christ than now they do. What a strange thing is it to keep the thoughts of that from our heart, which we cannot possibly deliver our souls from hereafter, to wit, endless eternity!—to be witty to deceive our own souls, to invent shifts that we may put far away the evil day!
A man does not care for things till he wants [lacks] them, no, not for the best things, the comforts of Christ, the joys of the Spirit. While we have outward comforts we care not for inward, because we have a false conceit that our comforts will still continue with us: Luke 12:19, ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’ He would not so much as suppose they might be taken from him that night. A man’s peace may be tried by this. Secure hearts cannot endure to think of danger.
Though believers think of danger, yet they think more of Christ. They consider their misery, and so are directed to a remedy against it. Others, though they cannot put away the evil day, they put it out of their thoughts, and labour to make the most of the world they can.
Briefly, that security is a hindrance is plain, because the number of believers is increased by those that have least to trust to in the world, and so are necessarily engaged to a consideration of their misery, and a want [lack] of something that may stand them in stead at the end of their days: James 2:5, ‘Hath God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith?’ And yet the poor may be secure’; they have their pleasures and vain thoughts to make them forget their sorrows.
[4] A light esteem of Christ.
As we do not see our own needs, so not his worth. As the heart is, so it judges. A carnal heart values all things by outward pomp and splendour. Such objects take as are most excellent in the eyes of the world: Ps. 144:15, ‘Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is the people whose God is the Lord.’
A man’s temper may be discerned by his valuation of things; carnal hearts cannot prize spiritual mercies. We prize those things that are most suitable to our desires: 1 Peter 2:7, ‘To them that believe Christ is precious.’ He is an honour to them; they look upon him as a most attractive object, and therefore their hearts move after this loadstone [magnetic ore used to make a needle to be able to point north/south].
Everything is loved according to the suitableness and proportion it bears to our desires. Therefore see how Christ is spoken of by the faithful: Cant. 5:10, ‘As the chiefest among ten thousand;’ ‘He beareth the banner from ten thousand,’ as Ainsworth renders it. And in the 16th verse, ‘He is altogether lovely.’
But see what the world judges of him: Isa. 52:14, ‘His visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.’
Look then to the value you have for a thing, for from thence will arise your endeavours after it. They that will be rich are drowned and sunk in the cares of this world, they are all for moiling and business. They that love pleasures, their thoughts and the strength and vigour of their souls will run that way. So for honourable preferment, they that seek after it will spend all their thoughts about it. What a man values, it will be his work to gain.
Therefore this high esteem of Christ takes off men from these things, Acts 18:15, 16. He that thought the promulgation of the gospel to be but a strife about words and names, ‘cared for none of these things.’ This is the next hindrance; men that profess themselves Christians, make the getting of Christ the least of their care.
[5.] A presumptuous conceit [consideration] that we have entertained Christ already.
Many think every slight wish, every trivial hope, will serve the turn. Many would be scholars, if they did not think themselves so too soon.
I would not weaken any man’s confidence; I know it is our office to establish it: ‘The fruit of our lips is peace,’ Isa. 57:19. But there are those to whom our God will not speak peace. ‘No peace, saith my God, to the wicked.’ Many wicked persons think it enough to be named Christians. It is an advantage, I confess, to be born a Christian, but to rest in it makes it the greatest judgment that can be. People will reason thus, Do not all believe in Christ? Oh, no. You may profess Christ, and yet not believe in him. Many depend upon this that they are Christians, as the Jews did that they were the seed of Abraham. I shall touch upon this afterwards.
[6.] Hardness of heart.
The mind will not stoop to Christ till it be tamed. John Baptist, that was to prepare the way for Christ, was to bring the mountains and hills low, Luke 3:5. The heart must not only be serious, but humbled, if it would entertain this doctrine. A man must see his error before he will be willing to be governed by Christ, and guided into a better way: Acts 2:37, ‘They were pricked at their hearts’ before the apostle bid them ‘repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.’
The heart never yields till it bleeds with the sense of sin. We have been wrong, oh, what course shall we take? There must be a conviction of sin before that of righteousness.
It is happy when both go together, John 16:9; so Acts 16:30, 31. First, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ Then comes, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.’ A man hath no reason to begin a new way till he is convinced of the vanity of the old one. There must be at least so much of humiliation as to make a man anxious and solicitous about a better course.
Well, then, here is another hindrance: a proud and unmortified spirit, a hard heart; a man must get humbled, That you may do so, examine your state by the law, and aggravate it by love. There is some apprehension of love, some general consideration that precedes faith. You have done all this, and you have done it against a merciful God, and indeed that is a keen argument to wound the spirit: Joel 2:14, ‘Rend your hearts, for God is merciful.’ See your sins, and aggravate them with unkindness. There is something in nature to make us relent, when we have done wrong to a kind person, that, for aught [anything] we know, meant better to us. But of this more by and by.
[7.] Self-confidence.
When men’s consciences are troubled, they would fain [desire to] get them eased. Those that are so greedy after quiet and peace, rather than holiness and grace, usually ease themselves in a wrong way; they fly to a few outward duties, or to some slight resolutions for God, and there rest. It is better to keep the conscience raw a while than to skin it over too soon; that will make the wound fester and rankle.
Most desire ease too soon, they consult and contrive suddenly how they may ease themselves of that pain and horror that is upon them, and so vainly rest in the way of their own thoughts.
A man should not look to be eased of grief till he find himself fitted for holiness, that he may not be engaged to the like grief again; otherwise we shall but stop the grief rather than cure it. We must be directed to a better course, and that must be only by Jesus Christ.
It is a sign we are guilty of this self-confidence when we resolve upon a better life, and do not think how unable we are for it. Great resolutions are always vain [useless], unless joined with the consideration of our own weakness.
The people of God have promised much, but always it is with the concurrence of Christ. The apostle saith, Phil. 4:12, ‘I can,’ or will ‘do all things,’ but it is ‘through Christ.’ David promiseth, Ps. 119:32, ‘I will run the ways of thy commandments;’ but he addeth, ‘when thou shalt enlarge my heart.’ There are divers such places in scripture. We walk in the strength of our resolutions when we do not see a need that Christ should help us, that we may not walk in the same ways of error and maze of misery again.
[8] Carnal fears.
These hinder the soul from closing with that mercy that is reported to be in Christ. They are of divers sorts.
(1.) Fear of God’s anger, as if he were so displeased with us that certainly he did not intend Christ for us. Why, consider, the more angry God is, the more need there is to fly to his mercy. His mercy is as infinite as his wrath, nay, I may say more infinite: Ps. 138:2, ‘Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name;’ that is, God’s promise in Christ is greater than all other things by which he has made himself known. Christ was an instance of infinite wrath and infinite mercy at the same time, but rather of infinite mercy. Nay; to clear all, God expressly says, ‘Anger is not in me.’
(2.) Fear of being too bold with the promises. Take heed of mere formality with God. A man cannot be too bold where he is so freely invited: Mat. 11:28, ‘Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.’ You are unworthy to believe, but God is worthy to be obeyed. And ‘this is his commandment,’ 1 John 3:3, ‘That we should believe in the name of Jesus Christ.’
(3.) Fear of the sin of presumption. Oh! they shall presume too much. A man does not presume if he knows his own danger; if he be lost to himself and his own apprehension, it is pity he should be lost to God too. Presumers are seldom troubled about their estate; it is enough to disturb a false peace so much as to suspect it. There can be no presumption where there are no slight thoughts of sin and mercy. The mind cannot presume when it is serious.
[9.] Carnal reasonings from our sins.
They are arguments of confidence, but not of dejection: Ps. 25:11, ‘Pardon my sin, for it is great.’ If so, it is the better for God to pardon. Sins should not hinder a man from duty. It is your duty to believe. The sense of sickness will cause us to make use of the physician. You cannot see anything in sin, but you may see more in Christ. Not greatness: Ps. 57:10, ‘Thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds; Not number: Rom. 5:16, ‘The free gift is of many offences ‘unto justification.’
[10.] And lastly, carnal apprehensions of Christ.
We will believe no more to be in God than we find in ourselves: 1 Sam. 24:19, ‘Who findeth his enemy, and slayeth him not? will he let him go well away?’ The soul in all her conclusions is only directed by premises experimental and of sensible apprehension. We think God is but as man; we are used to the dispositions of men, and therefore cannot believe there is anything more in God: Ps. 1. 22, ‘Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself.’
But remember, ‘God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent,’ Num. 23:19; and Hosea 11:9, ‘I will spare Ephraim, for I am God, and not man;’ so Isa. 54:8-10, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts:’ Jer. 3:1, ‘If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return to her again? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return unto me again, saith the Lord.’
Use 1. Is by way of information. It informs us of divers truths; as—
1. That the paucity [smallness in quantity] or fewness of followers is no disgrace to a thing or doctrine. The world follows the multitude, as if the way to religion were like that to a town, where there is the greatest track, Luke 12:32, ‘Fear not, little flock,’ mikron poimnion. Christ’s flock is a little flock. The world usually casts that prejudice. There may be but one Micaiah against four hundred false prophets.
2. It informs us that the number of believers is not as large as the number of professors [of religion]: 2 Thes. 3:2, ‘All men have not faith.’
3. That it is a very difficult thing to believe, and therefore so few attain it.
Use 2. Is by way of examination. If but few are won to believe this report, examine yourselves—Are you of the number? Are you of the number of those that are won by the preaching of the word to believe in Christ? I will name a few effects:—
1. If so, you will find this persuasion melting you: Zech. 12:10, ‘I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication: and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.’ God and the soul come together just as Saul and David: 1 Sam. 24:16, ‘Saul lifted up his voice and wept; Is this thy voice, my son David?’ Thus the soul, Oh! didst thou love me so, O Lord my God?
2. You will find it teaching you a way to resist sin. You could not tell how to prevail against it before, now you have a cutting argument against it: Titus 2:11, 12, ‘The grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men; teaching us, that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.’ Now you are taught to gainsay sin.
3. You will find it quickening you to good: 2 Cor. 5:14, ‘The love of Christ constraineth us.’ ‘Such melting commands and commanding entreaties have a powerful influence to that effect: ‘I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’
May God grant us to believe not only the report but truly to believe in Christ, to desire Him, to strive for Him above all things, to hate sin and resist it, and to come to Him in meekness and humility to truly cause our hearts to believe in Him!
— David
