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| A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver |
Christ’s sacrifice would not leave Him without a reward. God would not allow His Holy One to suffer death and a curse without rewarding Him appropriately. “Therefore” says the Father, “will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:12). Christ would be given an inheritance of people that would serve Him. They would be a spiritual seed born of the Spirit; they would be more numerous than the sand on the seashore; and they would be willing.
Adam’s Generation. The seed that would serve Jesus would not be Adam’s seed. The descendants of Adam proved to be deplorable, particularly during the days of Noah. “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). Their waywardness was not owing to the absence of law but to the nature of that generation. For even when men were given a holy, good and just law, they remained “a very froward generation, children in whom there is no faith” (Deut 32:20). Adam’s seed did not and will not serve the Lord. Surely the generation that “shall serve Him” shall be one that does not trace its genealogy back to Adam.
Contrary to Adam’s generation, Christ’s generation steadfastly walks in all the statutes of the Lord, having been given a new heart and a new Spirit (Ezek 36:26-27). Though they still reside in a vile body inherited from that first Adam, the Second Adam enables them to buffet that body and make it their slave. They are no longer dominated by its baseless lusts. What they have inherited from Jesus enables them to overcome what they inherited from Adam.
Not Fleshly but Spiritual. Though Christ was “cut off out of the land of the living” around the age of 33 and had no physical generation or seed to speak of (Isa 53:8), Isaiah declared that as a result of being made an offering for sin, Jesus would “see His seed” (Isa 53:10). This “Spiritual seed” are disciples who are becoming like their Master. They are those who have been born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:12). These are men who have been “born again” and “born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:3,6). They were born in Zion and God Himself establishes them (Ps 87:5). They were born of incorruptible seed (1 Pet 1:23), even the word of God. They dwell in heavenly places.
Numerous. “Look now toward heaven,” God told Abraham, “and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and He said unto him, so shall thy seed be” (Gen 15:5). In fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, God has blessed all the families of the earth in Christ. The seed that serves Christ is so numerous that they are accounted to Him for a generation. In accordance with His eternal purpose God gave Jesus not only to raise up only the tribes of Jacob, but also as a light to the Gentiles, that He would be God’s salvation “unto the end of the earth” (Isa 49:6). God was not intending to save only a few when He sent Jesus. He had determined that His Servant would justify “many.” In Christ, the house of the Lord is greatly enlarged (Isa 54:2).
A Willing Generation. Christ’s seed shall be a generation that willingly serves the Lord. “This is the generation of them that seek Him” (Ps 24:6) laying aside all encumbrances and distractions. These are a people who are willing in the day of His power (Ps 110:3); willing and glad to suffer for His name’s sake. Willing even to die in the body that they might serve the Lord (2 Cor 5:8). They are a spiritual seed; a numerous seed; and a willing seed which serves the Lord and they are accounted to Him for a generation.
