He was Cut Off that we might be Joined to the Lord

We’ll go on now to another aspect which I have never taught before. A wonderful thing about this is I’m continually seeing new aspects. If you look down your outline, the exchange is from separation to union.

We’ll start guess where? In Isaiah 53. I told you, you need your marker there! I do too as a matter of fact. My Bible just happens to open at Isaiah 53! This is a description of the process of Jesus’ trial and execution. This is the substance of these three verses, 7, 8 and 9. Verse 8 says:

“He was taken from prison and from judgment [or from arrest and judgment]: and who will declare his generation?”

You see, the greatest tragedy for a male Jew was to die without heirs. And that was part of what Jesus apparently endured.

“For he was cut off from the land of the living: for the transgression of my people he was stricken.”

I want you to focus on that phrase “he was cut off.” But since I commented on the other, let’s look down into verse 10 and you’ll see that Jesus did have a progeny. Verse 10, 11 and 12 describe the results of his suffering.

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when you make his soul an offering for sin [you remember we spoke about the soul of Jesus being made a sin offering?], he shall see his seed [that’s he shall see his descendants], he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

So you and I, what are we? We’re his seed, we’re his offspring. It says:

“He shall see of the travail of his soul [that agonies that he passed through], and he shall be satisfied.”

What satisfies him? You and me. We are the reason he did it all.

But let’s look at that statement “he was cut off from the land of the living.” Separated, put away. I’d like to give you some Old Testament pictures of this that are very vivid. But before I do that I need to explain something to you which isn’t in your outline. It’s possible you might want to note this scripture. Every time I go to an outline I add to it so since I made it, which was a few days ago, I’ve added a little.

I want to explain something extremely important to you about the nature of Old Testament prophecy. There are in the Old Testament many prophecies which we call Messianic. Messianic meaning they reveal the Messiah. They’re found particularly in the writings of David, Isaiah, some of the other prophets and some of the other psalm writers like Haman, Asaph and others.

Now, the strange feature of these prophecies is that the human instrument giving the prophecy, the prophet, speaks in the first person about things that he says happened to him but they never did happen to him. So what is the meaning of that? The answer which we’ll find here in 1 Peter 1:10–11 is it was the Spirit of the Messiah in the prophet revealing beforehand the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that should follow. So though they spoke in the first person, what they said was not true of themselves but it was fulfilled in the experience of Jesus.

You’ll find this in many prophecies. You find it in Job. There are things that happened to Job which are a preview of what happened to Jesus. You’ll find it in Lamentations, you’ll find it in the minor prophets. It’s like, I suppose, scores of little glimpses given in the prophets that are no longer about the prophet but they’re a glimpse of what was to happen when Jesus died on the cross. To give you a scriptural basis for this we’ll look in 1 Peter 1:10–12.

“Of this salvation [that’s the salvation which we have received through Jesus] the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating, when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”

Now, to take a very vivid example in Psalm 22, David said, “they pierced my hands and my feet.” That never happened to David. You can imagine David thinking to himself, “Why did I say that? What did that mean?”

So Peter says the Old Testament prophets were inquiring what was it they were talking about. And his answer is it was revealed to them that it was the Spirit of the Messiah in them speaking about what would be fulfilled in the Messiah which was not fulfilled in their experience. I hope I’ve made that plain to you. It’s so important because there will be many passages in the Old Testament you really won’t be able to understand until you realize this was the Holy Spirit in the person of the Messiah speaking about the suffering and the glory.

Take Psalm 16. Maybe we should turn there just for a moment, there’s a very vivid example. Psalm 16 which is quoted several times in the New Testament. You see, it’s not all Jesus. It starts off with David but it ends up with Jesus. If you can see what I mean, there’s a transition. If you like, look in Psalm 16 beginning in verse 7.

“I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night season. [Now that could be David.] I have sought the Lord always before me, and because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. [That could still be David.] Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope. [Now that’s not true of David. He’s talking about his physical body. He goes on to say:] For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.”

My body will never see corruption. That wasn’t true of David. As the apostles in the New Testament point out, Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “We know about David, he was dead and buried, it wasn’t fulfilled in him.”

And then it says:

“You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand the pleasures for ever more.”

You see, as we look into the experience of David, we see through his experience beyond what he himself experienced into the experience of Jesus. I suppose you could find at least 100 places in the Old Testament where this is true.

Look for a moment, just to confirm this, in Isaiah 50:4–6. Notice it’s all in the first person.

“The Lord has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary: he awakens me morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as the learned. [Now that could be Isaiah.] The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious [I did not resist], nor did I turn away. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard: I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.”

See, that’s Jesus. It’s another of these glimpses. And Peter explains it in 1 Peter 1. It’s important to have the New Testament explanation. Let’s look at it again, 1 Peter 1:10:

“Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ [but it makes much better sense if you say the Spirit of the Messiah, bearing in mind that Christ is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word Messiah.] who was in them was indicating, when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow.”

Psalm 16 contains both.

“To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which are now being reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit from heaven.”

They came to understand that their revelation was not for them but for the future heirs of salvation. See how privileged we are? We are the people for whom those revelations were given through the Old Testament prophets. We are the only people who can fully enter into those revelations.

Now, having said that I want to give you what I believe are some pictures of what is meant when it says “he was cut off from the land of the living.” I want to be very fair to you, I’m going to give you my personal belief. Not everybody would agree with me. As my friend Bob Mumford says, “How can I help it if I’m right!” I always quote Bob Mumford for that statement, it makes me sound humble!

Turn to Lamentations 3:54. Now you’ve discovered where to find Lamentations, haven’t you? It’s just after Jeremiah. It’s a very simple statement, it says:

“The waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.”

Now that could apply to whom? We don’t know. There’s no reason to believe it applies to Jeremiah. But now you turn to one of the great Messianic psalms which is Psalm 69 and all Bible interpreters, I think, see this as a Messianic prophecy. Psalm 69:2:

“I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I have come into deep waters where the floods overflow me.”

And if you want to see that this is a Messianic psalm, look on to verse 21 which says:

“They gave me gall for my food; and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

Now this is a psalm of David. That never happened to David. This is one of those glimpses through the experience of David of what was to happen. But I believe the second verse describes what the soul of Jesus passed through when he was cut off, rejected by God, enduring the wrath of God. Why was the wrath of God upon him? Because of our sin. He endured God’s attitude toward sin.

Let’s look quickly because time is running out, in Psalm 88 which is one of the most amazing psalms in the whole book of Psalms. In fact, it is the gloomiest of all the psalms. There’s not one single ray of light anywhere in the darkness. Psalm 88, we’ll just read a part of it, but I want you to think about Jesus cut off as you read these words. Verse 3:

“For my soul is full of trouble, my life draws near to the grave. I am counted with those who go down to the pit. I’m like a man who has no strength, adrift [or cast loose] among the dead. Like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more and who are cut off from your hand. [Now listen to this.] You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness [in the depths. That could not have been true of the psalmist.] Your wrath lies heavy upon me and you have afflicted me with all your ways.”

Now I leave it to you, but to me that gives just a glimpse of what the soul of Jesus endured through the rejection of God.

“You have put away my acquaintances far from me; you have made me an abomination to them.”

That was true because the one who was hung on a cross became a curse. Now, the following verses ask six questions which are not answered in the psalm. If you look in verse 10:

“Will you work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise you? Shall your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Shall your wonders be known in the dark and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [that’s the land of the grave]?”

Six questions. The psalmist didn’t know the answer. What answer would we give? I tell you what answer I would give, I would answer yes to every one of those questions—through the death of Jesus. He did work wonders for the dead. The dead will arise and praise him. God’s faithfulness was declared in the grave. All the Old Testament saints who were down in Sheol found the Messiah declaring to them “It’s time to move, I’ve paid the price. You don’t have to stay here any longer.” That’s an aspect of doctrine we can’t go into. Shall your wonders be known in the dark? The answer is yes. And your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness.

And then we come to the end of that psalm—I just trust that the Holy Spirit will somehow give you a little glimpse of what Jesus endured. And we’re not talking about suffering in time, we’re talking about something in the realm beyond this life. Verse 16:

“Thy fierce wrath has gone over me, your terrors have cut me off. They came around me all day long like water, they engulfed me together. Loved one and friend you have put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness.”

I think the NIV says for that last sentence, “darkness is my closest friend.” Isn’t that right? That’s a picture of Jesus cut off.

Now, we must go very quickly because time has almost run out. 1 Corinthians 6, the opposite side, verses 16–17. You have to read them together, otherwise you don’t get the point. Paul is teaching against fornication—what is now made respectable by calling it premarital sex. But the Bible still calls it fornication.

“Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For the two, says he, shall become one flesh.”

Now that’s speaking obviously about the sexual union of two bodies. But the next verse says:

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.”

You must take it in the context. Paul is saying there is an immoral kind of relationship between two bodies in which they’re joined together in fornication. But, he said, there is another relationship between the believer and the Lord in which he, the believer, is joined to the Lord and becomes one spirit with the Lord. That’s the fruit of Jesus being cut off. “He was cut off that we might be joined to the Lord.” Maybe we have time to say that. Let’s do it. “He was cut off that we might be joined to the Lord. He was cut off that we might be joined to the Lord.” Now you know what we are going to do this time? “He was cut off that I might be joined to the Lord.” That’s the spiritual union between the Lord and the believer. But it’s possible only on the basis of the fact that Jesus was cut off. We’ll close for this time there. God helping us we’ll continue. We’ve got one more aspect of the exchange that’s listed. We’ll continue with that in our next session.