On the Road to Jerusalem: No Majesty

“For He grew up before Him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him,
and no beauty that we should desire Him”—Isaiah 53:2.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied that God’s Messiah would have no “form or majesty” that would draw people to Him. He wouldn’t be extremely good looking or physically imposing. No, He would come looking like everyone else—identifying with the ordinary man and woman in order to provide us salvation. Jesus came to us humbly. He didn’t come to us in His true form as He does at the end of time (Revelation 1:3-16; 19:11-16), but simply. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords wasn’t born in a palace to a king and queen, but to a Middle Eastern teenage girl and her betrothed husband in a stable and placed in a manger. As Paul wrote,

“who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”—Philippians 2:6-8.

He lived as an Israelite, was a religious refugee (Matthew 2:13-15), submissive to His parents (Luke 2:51), and could sympathize with our weaknesses, tempted as we are, yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He came to identify with us, to suffer on our behalf, and to provide salvation for us.

Don’t forget that the Son of God became a son of man in order that we might become sons of God. There is so much He has done for us! He came to give His life so that we might have life, and He came to die for our sins that we might be freed from them. He descended from heaven so that we might ascend to heaven. And He died on the cross so that we didn’t have to! May we praise the name of the Lord now and forevermore! Amen.