Isaiah 63:1, commentary and pictures

The approaching figure in blood-stained clothing is Jesus Christ, God manifest in flesh, the Creator who humbled Himself to servant form and death on the cross and was exalted as Lord, declaring Himself righteous in word and powerful to rescue. The stain marks His solitary suffering as the sinless bearer of guilt, treading the press of divine anger alone in Gethsemane and on Calvary while others slept or rejected Him, giving His whole being and blood to satisfy the law. By that death He broke Satan's hold over the race, opened a living way to God and signed freedom for all who believe, joining His work of rescue to coming reckoning against unrepentant evil. He remains the incarnate only-begotten Son and Lifegiver, given in the Father's love, strong enough to save where all human help is helpless. Therefore the weak, sick, tempted and laboring are to take hold of His strength by surrender, faith and prayer, depend on God alone for power over sin and for force in the message, and carry His crucified and risen grace to the perishing.

Identity and Wording

The coming one from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah is Jesus Christ, glorious in apparel and travelling in the greatness of strength, declaring that He speaks in righteousness and is mighty to save. He comes with splendid, blood-marked garments and great strength, and the stains are explained as the result of treading the winepress alone in anger and fury with none of the people beside Him. His saving work cost Him His whole being in giving Himself, with no one sharing that work, and His own arm brought salvation. His red apparel like one treading in the winefat points to solitary suffering on the cross of Calvary where, clothed in divinity with humanity, the meek holy Sufferer bore individual sins and carried sorrows and purchased the church with His own blood for the ransom of all men.

The question Who is this is answered that He is God manifest in the flesh, the divine Son sharing the Father's nature and authority, the Word made flesh affirming His divine identity and saving authority alongside His incarnation. He is Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Though in the form of God and equal with God, He made Himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant in the likeness and fashion of men, humbled Himself in obedience unto death on the cross, and therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name. So every knee in heaven and earth and under the earth bows at the name of Jesus and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is the Creator and sustainer of all things, and through His blood He brings redemption and forgiveness.

After Christ revealed Himself to Paul in glory too bright to endure and converted him, Paul when challenged by the Pharisees for leaving his brethren to believe in a deceiver answered with this language to testify of Christ. His face was illuminated as if Christ stood before them in majesty in His great majesty of glorious clothing and mighty power, righteous speech and power to save. Isaiah 63 belongs with Isaiah 62-65 as words speaking decisively to God's people and those with responsibilities in the cause and its institutions. They call them to heed God's words and stop complaining and doing evil and turn to Him, so that He may work powerfully to bring conviction and conversion and the Lord will appear to convict and convert souls.

Solitary Suffering for Sin

The dyed red garments like one treading in the winefat mean He has trodden the winepress alone with none of the people with Him, treading them in anger and trampling them in fury so that their blood is sprinkled upon His garments and stains all His raiment. He alone speaks in righteousness and is mighty to save, and He trod the winepress alone with no one sharing that work. His own arm brought salvation at the cost of His whole being, giving Himself.

The image is His suffering as the sin-bearer under the punishment due to sin, though He Himself is sinless. Clothed in divinity with humanity, the meek holy Sufferer bore the people's iniquities, individual sins and sorrows on the cross of Calvary and purchased the church with His own blood for the ransom of all men. Coming forth from Gethsemane calm and serene after being strengthened, He was given power to drink the bitter cup and meet the fury of the satanic host. He carried the load of guilt by Himself while His disciples slept in the hour of His bitterest agony, ready for the sacrifice in a fearful crisis of bearing in sweat and blood an agony that none but God could endure.

By tasting the sufferings of death for every man He fulfilled the demands of the divine law and glorified the Father by drinking the bitter cup. He was sent last of all, after God's messengers who were persecuted and put to death, to the people He came to save. They refused to receive Him, repaid Him evil for good, and condemned Him in Pilate's judgment hall to crucifixion, when His clothing was stained red and He suffered alone with none of the people with Him.

Victory Redemption and Judgment

He comes in glory and in greatness of strength after overcoming the powers of hell, glorious in apparel, speaking in righteousness and mighty to save, and His victory over Satan through His death opens the way for people everywhere to receive hope and mercy. Nailed to the cross and made the Sin-bearer, He paid in His own body the penalty of transgression on which Satan's power over the human race was founded. Through death He destroyed him that had the power of death and became possessor of the keys of hell and of death, so that Satan could no longer reign without a rival and be reverenced as a god.

By this victory the veil is rent from top to bottom and a new and living way is opened, so that all may reach forth to God, take hold of His strength, and make peace with Him. His blood signed the emancipation papers of the race and opened the way for the message of hope and mercy to be carried to the ends of the earth. The heathen are no longer to be wrapped in midnight superstition and darkness, but the gloom disappears before the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the gospel of His grace and goodness and mercy must now be taught and preached to all who have not believed and heard.

For the day of vengeance is in His heart and the year of His redeemed is come, announcing that the year of redemption has come. This links His saving work with judgment and vengeance against evil, for His red apparel is from treading the winepress alone. The same Saviour who delivers sinners from the penalty of the broken law is strong to carry out justice and to execute wrath and judgment on those who remain unrepentant and reject God's mercy. He who is mighty to save is also mighty to destroy in carrying out the last great work, and Calvary shows both the cost of salvation and the seriousness of rejecting it.

His power to rescue comes through the sacrifice of redemption. His glory and hidden power are located in His pierced side, from which flowed the blood that reconciled humanity to God. The marks of His humiliation on His head and side and hands and feet remain as His highest honor. Through eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will display His praise and declare His power, standing as the eternal reminder of sin and of the means of reconciliation.

Divine Human Saviour

He is God's only begotten Son, the Word made flesh full of grace and truth, glorious in apparel and great in strength, speaking in righteousness and mighty to save. He announced His own purpose to become incarnate and visit the world, manifesting God in the flesh and sharing the Father's divine nature and authority. In becoming human He took humanity's nature upon Himself and yet remained without sin, a divine Saviour with power to save humanity.

As Saviour and Lifegiver, mighty and having salvation, He came to earth to reveal the principles of the kingdom of heaven. That mighty power to save was openly demonstrated at the grave of Lazarus, yet in their pride the Jews rejected Him.

He is the One strong enough to rescue sinners, upon whom God laid the help of the world and help for every person. In great love and compassion toward sinners God did not withhold His only Son but gave Him up freely for their rescue.

Trust and Proclamation Today

He is mighty to save where human help is helpless, hearing even the feeblest prayer and pitying the weakness of every soul. He loves the afflicted one, waits to be gracious, and longs to help. Opened to by opening the door, He comes in as the Sun of Righteousness, bringing rejoicing in His love, praise to His holy name, reception of the Holy Spirit, preparation to be a blessing to others, and good courage.

He is the refuge and helper to turn to in danger, affliction, and sickness rather than relying on people who are weak. His strength is the sure support of the humble self-abased person who depends on Him for strength and courage. Helpless souls can cast themselves on Him in faith while seeking to know Him personally. When sickness leaves a person weak and seemingly marked for death, He can be asked to spare life for family and for the church, and trusted alone with confidence that such trust will not be in vain.

As the great Physician He is mighty to save to the uttermost, hearing earnest prayers for suffering humanity. He is present with skill to stay the hand of the destroyer and relieve physical suffering just as surely through a sanitarium as when on earth in human form. At the Battle Creek Sanitarium angels worked with human beings to save life, and at the time of the fire God gave skill and understanding to get the sick out of the reach of the quickly spreading flames.

He works with human efforts to overcome, giving power to overcome on every point and victory over sin even to a helpless soul hanging upon Jesus with eyes fixed upon Him, even a poor drunkard. Help for every person has been laid upon Him as Jesus Christ the sinner's Saviour. Those who lay hold of the help provided in Him are elevated and ennobled, rise in His strength, and are victorious in His name instead of degrading themselves by indulgence of perverted appetite.

His saving strength is the power joined to human weakness when people surrender themselves to God, enabling them to overcome. As the sinner's hope He is a sin-pardoning Saviour with unlimited power to forgive. He is to be lifted up before fallen humanity with the cross standing prominent in the heart of the broken law, and by preaching Him as crucified and risen new power and efficiency is given to the message of truth.

God has an arm mighty to save from errors and wrongs increased for years that cannot be put away in human strength. By living faith a person must lay hold on that power to set the heart in order, battle strong internal foes, and gain earnest victories. This means dying to self, humbling the proud self-righteous heart low and broken before God, and letting Christ live within as a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Using the precious hours of probation to redeem the time, a right character can be formed even in advanced age, until it can truly be said My Redeemer lives and because He lives I shall live also.

Because every person must render an account to God for all deeds done in the body down to smallest acts, words, thoughts, unconscious influence and neglected duties, and because life is a sacred trust fraught with eternal interests and not mere play, everyone greatly needs Christ and depends on Him. Thanks is due to God for providing this powerful Saviour on whom help has been laid for rescue. The one so helped is to strive lawfully, do the will of Jesus, grow into His image, lean more heavily on Christ after temporary failure, and press on despite discouragement.

Power to reach hearts and give force to the message belongs to God alone as the strong Arm mighty to save. Those who labor must therefore depend on Him in trust and faith rather than on strength of argument or knowledge of the truth. They are to work earnestly as Jesus worked, praying in faith for God to impress hearts, with the spirit of intercession instead of sleepy indifference, because God alone gives the increase. His saving power is to be made known as truth is earnestly presented.

His strength is to be taken hold of by those who work together with Him for the lost and perishing. Taking hold enables self-denying labor that puts self out of sight, bears inconvenience without seeking reward in this life, walks in His footsteps of reproach, poverty, shame and agony, and carries peace, consolation, hope, pardon and eternal life to the troubled, tempted, desponding and hardened in sin. It keeps the heart pure and preserves childlike simplicity so worldly conflicts scarcely ruffle the spirit, and staying connected with God exerts an influence that brings many souls to Jesus for time and eternity. He is the source of help for those seeking to save the perishing while facing the power of darkness, and He will not leave or forsake them. Human hope for souls ready to perish is in Him alone, made apparent only by entire dependence upon Him, seeking Him for wisdom and relying on Him as the only sufficiency, as seen in Australia where whatever advanced truth was through His efficiency and much more might have been done had human agents cooperated more fully.

Those given to do His will must cling to His powerful arm to rescue, lean wholly on Jesus, look alone to Him, and come near every morning. He takes care of them and blesses them and hides them as in the secret of His pavilion. He sees every threatening peril and every hard duty, gentles trial to weakness, and will not leave them. He pleads for them in heaven's courts as Advocate, calling them by name, and He is near so that believing faith will see God's salvation.

In perplexity and sorrow He must be kept in sight as the Prince of Peace whose banner followers unfurl, and trusted for victory as surely as He died on Calvary. Living faith lays hold on Him like the diseased woman touching His garment, bringing joy unspeakable and full of glory and the light of life instead of darkness. When Satan thrusts temptations into the mind He is the One to look to beyond them, who says I know thy works, with every effort to bless others recognized in heaven.

For one sinking under reproach and undeserved criticism, He is an Arm mighty to save to cling more closely to. Clinging means holding fast to God without letting go even when ministers and people take an unjust course. It means remaining true to known truth and serving with singleness of heart irrespective of censure, envy and false accusations, riveted to the Eternal Rock, firm to principle and carrying out faith and truth at all hazards. Those who believe in Jesus as personal Saviour, given up freely in great love and compassion by a God who did not withhold His only Son but laid help upon One strong enough to rescue sinners, are expected to show the same tenderness, sympathy, compassion and love toward others that God has shown toward them.