Isaiah 63:3, commentary and pictures

Christ comes from judgment in glorious strength, mighty to save, with clothing reddened as if dipped in a wine vat because it is stained with blood. Treading alone means no person stood with Him, helped Him, or shared His task in the time of vengeance when His redeemed are gathered. Alone does not mean cut off from heaven, for He and the Father are one and heaven watched with longing sympathy, yet neither people nor angels could bear what He bore. What He bore by Himself was the guilt of every person, the demands of the law, the bitter cup, and death itself, through solitary purity in life, solitary victory over Satan in the wilderness, solitary agony in Gethsemane while His disciples slept, and solitary torture on the cross outside the camp with His disciples fled. By His own arm He brought salvation, paying the ransom with His blood, destroying the power of death, opening hope and mercy to the whole world, and as lone executor He will also tread His enemies in anger.

Speaker and Imagery

The speaker is Christ coming from Edom and from Bozrah, glorious in apparel and traveling in the greatness of strength, declaring that He speaks in righteousness and is mighty to save. He is clothed with humanity yet equal with God, with the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Him. He alone could make that declaration, because He alone trod the winepress with none of the people with Him.

His red apparel is that of one treading in the winefat or winevat, with dyed garments from Bozrah made red from the winepress. The redness is blood sprinkled upon the garments, staining all the raiment and marking the bloodshed as He treads His enemies in anger and tramples them in fury. His stained garments therefore picture both the winepress work and the judgment executed in it.

Of the people there was none with Him means that no one from among the people stood beside Him, accompanied Him, or shared His work. No people accompany Him as He carries out the work by Himself and bears the punishment alone. His own arm brought salvation when the disciples failed to watch, pray, sympathize, and support Him.

This belongs to the prophecy of the day of vengeance in His heart and the coming and gathering of the redeemed, the year and time when His redeemed are come. His solitary suffering thus joins judgment and deliverance, since there was none to help and none to uphold.

Meaning of Alone

To tread the winepress alone means to bear by Himself what no human being could ever bear, carrying the load of guilt for every person, meeting the demands of the divine law, drinking the bitter cup, glorifying the Father, and tasting the sufferings of death for every man. He met the unabated fury of the hellish host alone, yet He was sustained by the assurance of the Father's love and by the promise of souls saved, of Satan's utter discomfiture, and of the kingdom given to the saints of the Most High. Alone means without human help, sympathy, or support, with no one of the people standing beside Him, for His disciples were absent, slept, and gave no comfort to their fainting Master whose brow was marred more than the sons of men, with none to lift His fainting head, place a hand beneath it, bathe His brow, or comfort His dying agony on the cold ground. This aloneness was from people, not from heaven, for He and the Father are one, God was with Him, and God suffered with His Son in giving Him up to reproach, agony, and death, which is proof of the Father's boundless love that man cannot comprehend.

All heaven watched with sympathy and painful interest, and angels beheld His agony in silent grief and longed to comfort and help Him. They could not take away or relieve a sorrow over sin they had never felt or borne, for such sorrow and agony over the sins of a ruined world was beyond their power to ease, and they were astonished to see their beloved Master lying in dying agony under that weight. God's plan required that no one assist Him until after He had chosen to accept the suffering required to save humanity at any cost to Himself, so an angel came only after the victory was decided, to minister strength, lift His head, point toward heaven, assure Him of victory over Satan that would make millions victors in His glorious kingdom, leaving heavenly peace resting upon His blood-stained face. At the cross also the Father and the holy angels were beside Him, yet heaven was silent and the Father separated His beams of light, love, and glory from His beloved Son and hid His presence in miraculous thick darkness. He did not reveal His glory, which would have destroyed every human beholder, so Christ received no comfort in that dreadful hour, showing how offensive sin is in His sight.

Though the iniquities of humanity were laid upon Him as the sin-burdened Surety, though He was treated as sin and suffered as a transgressor under God's hatred of sin, He remained personally pure and spotless. Therefore He is able to be both Sin-bearer and Sin-pardoner, bearing the punishment for sin alone with no one from among the people beside Him. No angel in heaven is able to bear the sins of one soul, and no human being can bear the guilt of even his own sin, much less the sins of fellow men. If the sins of others were laid upon a person his life would be crushed out, so God has made no person a sin-bearer and has not placed the sins of the people upon any person.

Where He Trod Alone

Through childhood, youth, and manhood He walked alone in purity and faithfulness, with none truly with Him, alone carrying the awful weight of responsibility for the salvation of men. He knew that all would be lost unless there was a decided change in the principles and purposes of the human race, a burden that rested on His soul in a way none could appreciate. He refused the walls of separation built up between Jews and other nations and mingled with all classes of people, which angered His own brethren. Filled with intense purpose He carried out the design of His life to be Himself the light of men, a lamp in the world and the Light of the world.

In the wilderness He stood alone in conflict with Satan through the three great temptations, with no human being to sympathize with, support, or help Him. Emaciated by the long fast, He was tried on the point of appetite to break Satan's power upon man and bring divine strength and divine power to place man on vantage ground and hold Satan under control. Fainting on the field of battle and apparently dying, He was watched not only by Satan and his host but by worlds not fallen. As the second Adam He overcame where Adam failed, left Satan a conquered foe, redeemed Adam's failure and did the will of the Father, opening the way for Adam's descendants to overcome through His merits and through the crucified and risen Saviour. Angels afterward came to minister to Him, and God gives angels to help today just as then. His solitary victory on man's account makes it possible for man to conquer appetite and every unholy passion on his own account and in his own behalf.

In Gethsemane He faced the final crisis and agony that none but God could bear, and His own arm brought salvation as He was ready to make the sacrifice alone. His disciples slept and failed to watch, pray, and sympathize, leaving Him without human help, comfort, or support to save guilty man from perishing under God's displeasure. Falling dying to the cold ground He had partly risen from, with brow marred more than the sons of men, He had none to tenderly place hands beneath His fainting head or bathe His brow. There He decided to drink the cup of humiliation and agony and accept the baptism of blood at any cost to Himself, reaching to the very depths of misery to rescue man from sin and give everlasting life to perishing millions, to save the one lost sheep, the one fallen world. He was sustained by assurance of the Father's love and the promise of souls saved, Satan's utter discomfiture, and the kingdom given to the saints of the Most High, while meeting alone the unabated fury of the hellish host and legions of Satanic forces enclosing Him with His nature weighed down by shuddering dread. His aloneness was from people, not from heaven, for God suffered with His Son and angels beheld His agony in silent grief, yet heaven was silent and the Father separated His beams of light, love, and glory from His beloved Son, showing how offensive sin is in His sight. A mighty angel came to lift His head, point toward heaven, and assure Him of victory over Satan that would make millions victors in His glorious kingdom, and heavenly peace rested upon His blood-stained face as He came forth calm and serene with garments red as one who treads the winepress.

After God sent messengers who were persecuted and put to death, He last sent His only begotten Son made flesh dwelling among men full of grace and truth. The people He came to save refused to receive Him, rewarded Him evil for good, forsook Him, and left Him alone to trial, rejection, and condemnation to crucifixion in Pilate's judgment hall. Even the most promising disciples left Him in the hour of His greatest trial and heaviest temptation, leaving Him to endure by Himself surrounded by an atmosphere of apostasy, with hostility, mockery, taunting, and blasphemy on every side. The winepress pictures His isolation amid the apostasy of those who opposed God and His law.

At Calvary when nailed to the cross He endured torture and most acute agony entirely alone, with none of the people with Him, His disciples having fled the dreadful scene. With pale and serene face covered with great drops of sweat and death-dew, He had no pitying hand to wipe His face, no word of sympathy and unchanging fidelity to sustain His human heart, making no resistance and bearing the suffering without murmur or complaint while soldiers did their fearful work. Even in that solitude He turned His mind from His own suffering to pity His ignorant and guilty persecutors and pray for their forgiveness instead of calling down curses or vengeance upon them. On the cross He suffered and died outside the boundaries of the holy place, outside the camp where felons and murderers were executed, bearing the curse of the law as curse for sinners. From Gethsemane to Calvary He stood as substitute and surety for man with the sins of the whole world upon Him and the wrath of God against sin upon Him. Though one with the Father, He trembled with the mysterious cup in His hand on which hung the destiny of a lost world, prayed three times for it to pass, then consented to drink it to do His Father's will, refusing legions of angels at His side and enduring the satanic horrors of darkness by Himself to gain the victory.

Salvation and Judgment

He carried out the work by Himself, with no one from among the people beside Him, and by His own arm He brought salvation, bearing alone the punishment due to humanity for sin and giving Himself wholly, paying the price for souls. When He was nailed to the cross He through death destroyed him that had the power of death, paying in His own body the penalty of transgression on which Satan's power over the race is founded. By that death He became possessor of the keys of hell and of death, so that Satan could no longer reign without a rival, and He signed the emancipation papers of the race with His blood. That victory opened the way for hope and mercy and for the message to be carried to the ends of the earth, and for the Gentiles and the nations to come to the light.

His blood upon His garments is the ransom price by which He bore individual sins and carried sorrows alone on the cross of Calvary, clothed with humanity yet equal with God, and by which He purchased all men and purchased His church with His own blood. At Calvary He trod the winepress of God's wrath for sinful people, bearing alone the punishment sin deserved so that mercy, hope, and God's favor could reach humanity. Without His suffering, justice would have cut men off forever from temporal and spiritual blessings in this life and the next, separating them from God, closing the door to all earthly joy and shutting out the brightness of heaven.

His lonely suffering on the cross bore the penalty for sin that should have rested on the sinner, outside the boundaries of the holy place, outside the camp where felons and murderers were executed, bearing the curse of the law as curse for sinners. That suffering redeemed sinners from the curse, and He gave His life not only for the Jewish nation but for the whole world. He died for sinners and then rose and ascended to heaven to be their Advocate, earning by that suffering the right to serve before the Father. Those bought by Him are no longer slaves of Satan but children and servants of God, wholly His in all they have and do and say.

As mighty Savior and lone executor of divine judgment He treads His enemies and the wicked in anger and tramples them in fury, with none of the people accompanying or sharing His work, and their blood is sprinkled upon His garments and stains all His raiment. This belongs to the day of vengeance in His heart and the time when the redeemed are come and gathered. His lone victory proves the powers of hell are overcome, the veil is rent, and a new and living way is opened. Even in solitary suffering, with no pitying hand, word of sympathy, or unchanging fidelity to sustain His human heart, He turned from His own pain to pity His ignorant and guilty persecutors and pray for their forgiveness. That prayer reached every sinner who would live until the end of time, while terrible but just retribution awaited those persecutors unless they repented.

Call to Believe and Serve

The chapters that contain this verse speak decisively to leaders, to those serving in institutions, and to God's people as a whole, calling them to study and heed what is written there. They demand reformation, the abandoning of complaint and evil works, and repentance and conversion. When those calls are accepted, the Lord's power follows in the conviction and conversion of souls.

Because He accomplished the work of redemption entirely by Himself and paid the price for souls, those He bought are no longer slaves of Satan but children and servants of God, wholly His in all they have and do and say. He died for sinners and then rose and ascended to heaven to be their Advocate, and His solitary carrying of that load makes it their privilege to act a part in His work and mission. They are to yoke up with Him, bear their end of the yoke, take His yoke and lift His burden, and carry on earth the very work He carried on. In doing so cramped lives are made broad and efficient as laborers together with God, rather than shunning their work.

His alone treading broke the power of Satan upon man through solitary suffering in the long wilderness fast on the point of appetite, where He was emaciated by hunger and fought to bring divine strength and divine power to man. He did this on man's account to place man on vantage ground and hold Satan under control, making it possible for man to conquer appetite and every unholy passion on his own account and in his own behalf. The verse therefore calls the one who drinks beer, wine, or stronger drink with despisers of God to stop, put off his own righteousness, put on the robes of Christ's righteousness, and be like Jesus.

Jesus alone bears the sins of the world, carrying them in His own body on the tree, and God has not made any other person a sin-bearer nor placed the sins of the people upon them. No angel in heaven can bear the sins of one soul, and no human being can bear the guilt of even his own sin, much less the sins of fellow men, for such a load would crush out life. Therefore no one should imagine responsibility for carrying others' sins, or take up their faults and errors and talk of them as a galling yoke Christ never asked to be borne.

His lone victory proves the powers of hell are overcome, the veil is rent and a new and living way is opened, the day of vengeance is in His heart and the year of His redeemed is come. So heathen darkness and midnight superstition must disappear before the Sun of Righteousness. Christ with His grace, goodness, and mercy must now be taught and preached to all who know Him not, for even a nation not called by His name may now reach forth to God, take hold of His strength, and make peace with Him.