The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 - Book Review

Book Review: The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 – Encountering the Suffering Servant in Jewish and Christian Theology

Editors – Darrel L. Bock and Mitch Glaser

Kregel Academic and Professional, Grand Rapids, 2012

ISBN #978-0-8254-2593-6

http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2890

Publisher description -  
Description:
The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 presents the redemptive work of the Messiah to the Jewish community, exploring issues of atonement and redemption in light of Isaiah chapter 53. It is clear that Jesus fulfills the specifications of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. This book has many potential uses in its presentation of the gospel for Jewish people. Pastors who study it will find unparalleled help in preparing Bible studies and sermons, so that their listeners will become better equipped to tell Jewish people about Jesus. It will be beneficial as supplemental reading for classes on Isaiah, the Prophets, and Jewish evangelism. And believers will be trained to share Isaiah 53 with Jewish friends and family. Contributors include: • David L. Allen • Richard E. Averbeck • Darrell L. Bock • Michael L. Brown • Robert B. Chisholm Jr. • Craig A. Evans • John S. Feinberg • Mitch Glaser • Walter C. Kaiser Jr. • Donald R. Sunukjian


Bock is a New Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. Glaser is president of the Chosen People Ministries in New York.

I signed up with Kregel for free books to review, because I have found their books to be worthwhile for theology. We are currently using the Kregel edition of Luther’s Galatians Commentary for the adult study class.

The book began with a Jewish rabbi becoming a Christian believer in 1892, after hearing the Gospel in the Lower East Side. He founded a group that became the Chosen People Ministries. Therefore, this work is both academic and evangelistic.

Biblical Basis for Isaiah 53 as Evangelism
Isaiah 53 is so significant to the New Testament that most of the chapter is quoted in various New Testament books. As they say, if Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament were lost, most of it could be recovered from the New Testament sources.

This also illustrates the unified perspective of the Bible, not as a collection of books or verses, but one unified message of truth, the Book of the Holy Spirit, with one divine author and many human sub-authors.

Pope Piux XII expressed it well, comparing the Bible to Christ, having a divine and a human nature and yet without error.

Isaiah 53 – Justification by Faith
In honor of the Reformation we should recognize the departure from Romanism that Luther advanced, advocating justification by faith while rejecting any version of justification by works. This distinction is essential for understanding the Christian faith, noting what divides and what unites various confessions.

Most conservative Protestants understand that the Gospel creates faith. This book illustrates that confidence in describing a recent campaign to spread the Gospel among Jews. The focus was on proclaiming the Gospel with a focus on Isaiah 53 being fulfilled by Jesus the Messiah and Savior.

Although this basic concept has many variations, the unifying truth among conservative Protestants is that faith in Christ means complete forgiveness of all sin, salvation, and eternal life.

In contrast, liberal Protestants emphasize the grace of God by declaring all the sins of the world forgiven and absolved, whether anyone believes or not, preferably not. This exodus from historic Christianity began at Halle University, which was founded to promote Biblical studies yet soon became rationalistic. The mainline denominations of America teach this cryto-Universalism. Since everyone is forgiven and saved in this parody of the Faith, there is no barrier to ecumenism with any religion and no reason for evangelism.

Holy Spirit, Faith, Forgiveness
Abraham is the example of justification by faith (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4; Galatians 3) and Isaiah 53 is the Gospel proclamation (Galatians 3 and Romans 10).

KJV Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

In Greek, report is akoue, so we often translate Romans 10:17 as

KJV Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

That way, the emphasis is on hearing, but Isaiah really means to emphasize this unique report. To paraphrase it and keep both meanings, we should say – “Faith comes by hearing the preached Gospel.”

Isaiah 53 is the opening of the Gospel of the crucified Messiah.

KJV Galatians 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

The Holy Spirit carries out the proclamation of the Gospel, which creates faith and graciously gives that forgiveness promised in the proclamation.

Lacking Trust in the Word
The problem is not that the Word is no longer effective but that people no longer trust the Word to carry out God’s will.

Understanding Isaiah 53 as the key Gospel passage for Jews is the principle reason for this book, which is organized in three parts:

1. Interpretation of Isaiah 53
2. Isaiah 53 in Biblical Theology
3. Isaiah 53 in Practical Theology

“This passage is therefore one of the great pillars of our faith, a multi-faceted diamond that demands we appreciate its true value and worth.” (p. 29)

The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 is so thorough that anyone will find value in it, whether as a beginning in this area or as a minister or professor. The chapters include a large number of references to other worthwhile efforts. I have already promised to loan the book to someone who specializes in this area.

Isaiah 53 is especially for evangelism among Jewish people, but the book is a great resource for any Gospel-based evangelism effort, where the emphasis is upon the Word of God rather than the felt needs of man.

Those who will appreciate this compilation the most are:

• College and seminary students.
• Biblical and evangelism professors.
• Clergy.
• Interested laity.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 - Book Review":

Ichabod -

Isn't this a contrast:

LCMS' CPH produces and advertises the Apocrypha, while Kregel produces the Gospel of Isaiah 53..........

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org

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Disrespect for the Word = Disrespect for Pastors. SPs and DPs Communicate Their Disrespect to Lay Apostates

I remember when Pastor X thought Gurgle was the candidate to save WELS from itself. Yes, that brave warrior would halt the elimination of Northwestern College (RIP).

Gurgle reversed himself as soon as he was elected SP. After wasting the Milcraft estate as DP, he wasted the Schwan gifts as SP. Now he is working with Kudu Don Patterson, one of the stealth leaders of Church and Change. Yes, he closed NWC as soon as he could arrange a crooked vote.

Mark Schroeder and Jon Buchholz were going to rescue WELS from itself, too. They have supported and funded such Church and Changers as Tim Glende, Jeff Gunn, and Rick Johnson. Not only that, WELS has an insert bragging about such funding.

The process of supporting incompetent, wasteful apostates while undercutting faithful pastors is all the rage these days. ELCA, Missouri, WELS, and the ELS all work the same way.

If a faithful pastor teaches something that annoys a congregational liberal, such as being pro-life or daring to mention closed communion, the liberal layman phones the CP or DP and starts making trouble. There are a zillion ways to undercut a pastor.

If an apostate pastor wants to start a rock-band playing Pentecostal ditties, the CP or DP or mission board will defend that minister to the death. Maybe not that far, but that is the impression they give. They have a thousand excuses for apostate pastors just as they have a thousand tricks to get rid of a pastor.

The clergy deserve blame for this, but so do the laity. Where the Word of God is loved, the person who brings it is also loved.

Where the Word of God is despised, the person who tries to teach it is also despised, with all of his faults--real or imagined--picked apart daily. Synods know how to hate a person out of their little group. One layman wondered where his regular mailing for the district evangelism committee was. The DP said, "Oh, you resigned from that committee." If the layman objects loudly, he is a malcontent.

The Word of God conveys Christ, and He said, "Those who receive you, receive Me. Those who reject you, do not reject you, but the One who sent you." [New International Jackson Paraphrase]

Luther pointed out that people who despise the Word will pick apart the pastor or members of his family. That may be the reason why the pastoral epistles emphasize faithfulness rather than popularity. To remain a believer in the midst of apostasy is good.

Many clergy serve their careers first. They achieve those temporary honors and benefits that the flesh desires. If their children are atheists, that is not simply hidden from the donors. No, anyone who dares to mention the fact is a terrible sinner.

The clergy-belly servers often find themselves betrayed by their Father Below. Just when they think they have gotten away with it all, they do one more thing to come crashing down. Many finish their lives bemoaning their errors - but are too lost to find their way back. Pope Pius XII ended his life in despair, realizing he had betrayed Christ by becoming bed-partners with the Communists.

Paul Tillich, the pantheist theologian, who was as promiscuous as a Church Growth evangelist, was terrified of death. He was on the cover of Time magazine. Match that, humble parish pastors laboring in Wachooka Flats or Steam Corners.

When Tillich died, he was one more heap of flesh. Now he is largely forgotten.

There are many faithful pastors who preach their own sermons, teach their own classes, and visit their own members and prospects. The honest ones bear the cross. They sow the seed of the Word carelessly. If they have a faithful family of believers under their leaky parsonage roofs, that is quite an accomplishment by itself. After all, two people have multiplied the Gospel reach through the Word and Sacrament. Who can measure where that will lead in the future? And any minister who teaches the Word and administers the Sacraments will have results, which belong to God alone to judge.

The vast majority of synodicats are businessmen, incompetent businessmen at that. They are as innocent as serpents and as wise as doves. Their philosophy is exactly the opposite of a faithful pastor. They are the cross to bear in these last days of an insane old world.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Disrespect for the Word = Disrespect for Pastors. ...":

Thanks for this post Pastor Jackson. The world was recently treated to a spectacle that they do not deserve: they witnessed a church defending Christ’s doctrine and in true Christian unity defend their faithful pastor and leave the (W)ELS which is waging war against Christ in these last days.

I was reading the Christian Book of Concord while contemplating responding to Pastor Jack Cascione’s attack against the Triune God on LutherQuest. Throughout is Scriptures clear teaching of the Gospel of Christ which is perverted by the false teachers of UOJ. Here is one:

1] In the Twelfth Article they approve of the first part, in which we set forth that such as have fallen after baptism may obtain remission of sins at whatever time, and as often as they are converted. They condemn the second part, in which we say that the parts of repentance are contrition and faith [a penitent, contrite heart, and faith, namely, that I receive the forgiveness of sins through Christ]. [Hear, now, what it is that the adversaries deny.] They [without shame] deny that faith is the second part 2] of repentance. What are we to do here, O Charles, thou most invincible Emperor? The very voice of the Gospel is this, that by faith we obtain the remission of sins. [This word is not our word, but the voice and word of Jesus Christ, our Savior.] This voice of the Gospel these writers of the Confutation condemn. We, therefore, can in no way assent to the Confutation. We cannot condemn the voice of the Gospel, so salutary and abounding in consolation. What else is the denial that by faith we obtain remission of sins than to treat the blood and death of Christ with scorn?
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_10_repentance.php

Webber and his catechumen, Jon Buchholz,
quot half this paragraph, not the whole paragraph.