Isaiah 63:5, commentary and pictures

The verse looks back to the crisis after Adam's transgression, when the human race was ruined and cut off from God and from intercourse with Him without hope, and Satan wanted humanity left in the same hopeless rebellion as the fallen angels. The rescue it promises was for fallen humanity alone, for Christ left the rebellious angels to perish in their rebellion because with all the light and glory they had known in heaven, including Satan who had stood next in honor to Christ, their guilt was unpardonable and there was no hope for their redemption. When man fell there was no eye to pity and no arm to save, and Christ, the mighty holy One, looked for help in the work of salvation and found none to help or uphold Him from among the people. God's own eye pitied and His own arm wrought salvation, and that arm is Jesus given as man's substitute and surety, the One that is mighty upon whom help was laid to save people from going down into the pit because a ransom is found, so that Satan shall not have the apostate race.

Made responsible for the race, Jesus had their sins imputed to Him, assumed all their debts, and pledged to atone for their transgression. Seeing that no arm but His own could save fallen man, Christ determined with His own arm to bring salvation by stretching forth His hand to rescue perishing man, taking human nature weakened by sin and joining it with divinity to meet temptation, condemn sin in the flesh, meet the law's demands, and bear the punishment belonging to humanity. He trod the winepress alone in solitary sacrifice, bearing individual sins and sorrows and an agony none but God could endure, ready to give Himself, and purchasing all people and His church with His own precious blood on the cross of Calvary. His solitary suffering reveals the high value God places upon men made in His image, and no other power can deliver humanity from sin.

His fury upholding Him is His righteous strength mighty to save, and His strength and righteous judgment sustained Him as He redeemed people from sin, bringing both the day of vengeance in His heart against sin and the year of His redeemed, when mercy and truth meet together and righteousness and peace kiss each other. That same arm strong to save will also be strong to smite and destroy the enemies of God's kingdom, and in the judgment Christ will reveal each person's motives and deeds, including every hidden action. Through Christ's power and grace people may be delivered from transgression and the law's curse, obey God, and develop characters like Christ's, for God forms in believers a character like His own by imputing Christ's righteous character and gathers those who believe through faith under His banner and sheltering care as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings.

When a person feels there is no human arm to save, God's own arm brings salvation and His love is made apparent as the heart softened under the movings of the Holy Spirit lets Jesus come in as He knocks for entrance, calling for unashamed appreciation, rejoicing in heart, and constant gratitude, so that in the full joy of that love the one saved presents Jesus to others while the Holy Spirit works through him to bless perplexed, trembling, bewildered souls. When there is no human arm to save and no human eye to pity, the Lord stretches out His own hand to save those who keep at their work and trust in Jesus, for He knows all about closed ways, debts that cannot be canceled, and means taken away that would allow blessing others, and because He is a God of justice He opens up a way that men will not be able to close, saving them even though they did not ask for it. Isaiah 63, including this verse, is a decisive message to people with responsibility in God's work and to the congregation of Israel, calling them to heed the Lord's reproofs, stop complaining and doing evil, repent, receive the light given to them, and be converted, and when they do the Lord will manifest His power in convincing and converting souls.