What Is Isaiah 53

servant in Isaiah 53. God’s promise of many children of Zion is fulfilled through the vicarious suffering of the servant to whom the offspring was given. Paul seems to acknowledge the larger theological context of Isaiah 49-54 and applies its theological pattern to his argument with Judaizers. The nuance of Paul’s argument is not the competition of the number of children between the two women but; rather, the birth origin of the two different children: from the present Jerusalem (Hagar, Ishmael, the son of slavery, Sinai) and from the heavenly Jerusalem (Sarah, Isaac, the son of freedom, Zion). Paul identifies Christian believers with the children of Zion (the heavenly Jerusalem) who are justified and redeemed by Christ, who offered up his life in substitutionary death for us (cf. Gal 3:13, 14).117 “They (Christian believers) are the seed of Abraham because of Christ, who is the true Seed by virtue of the fact that He fulfilled the
116D. Guthrie, Galatians (London: Nelson, 1969), 133; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 222. …show more content…
For Paul the suffering servant is none other than Jesus Christ, who ultimately fulfills the promise of restoration of Zion with many children. Thus, Paul’s quotation shows intertextuality between the two Testaments with its typological connection. Cf. William R. Farmer, “Reflection on Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins,” in Jesus and the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins (ed. William H. Bellinger, Jr. and William R. Farmer; Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1998), 260-80; C. H. Cosgrove, “The Law Has Given Sarah No Children,” NovT 29 (1987):