By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many

Isa 53:11 NKJV  "He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities."

Isaiah chapter fifty-three is a passage that clearly states the gospel mission of Jesus earthly sojourn. In fact, it is probably one of the most concise explanations of the gospel found in the entire bible either New Testament or Old Testament. Isaiah prophesied that it would be Jesus' knowledge that would justify many. What on earth does this mean you ask?

What knowledge? It was the knowledge that he had by faith. He had perfect faith in the Father. He knew for certain that he heard from the Father, that he was the Son of the Father, and that he was only doing that which he heard from the father. Look at this passage: Joh 8:28-30 NRSV  "So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.  (29)  And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him."  (30)  As he was saying these things, many believed in him". You may be asking how does this show perfect faith? I'm glad you asked that question. You can get a clue from Hebrews 11:6. It states that without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God and Jesus says, I always do those things that please Him, therefore we can conclude that it is Jesus' faith that is pleasing.

So then, Jesus had knowledge by faith that God was His Father. He also knew that God was love/agape and loved humanity. Likewise, Jesus knew that he was eternal and that death need not concern him. He knew that if he was willing to die that God the Father would raise him from the dead. The key element in all of this is his faith. While the first Adam failed the faith test and brought about death, the Last Adam overcame death by his faith in the Father. That was the knowledge that he used to justify many. His knowledge allowed him to be willing to die and Paul explains it this way: Rom 4:25 NRSV  "who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification."

It should be apparent that the knowledge that justified humanity was acquired by revelation from the Spirit and believed and accepted by faith. That is why Paul speaks of "the obedience of faith." in Rom 1:5 NRSV  "through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name," My wife is a prophetess and one day the Lord spoke to her and said that faith IS obedience. That is interesting because it merely confirms what the scripture says and the scripture confirms the prophetic word. In the third and fourth chapters of his letter, the writer of Hebrews equates obedience and faith and sin and unbelief.