“He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall My Righteous Servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).

Travail: (Def): (Heb): Amal: To toil, To work severely with irksomeness; Sorrow, Pain

There is a deep satisfaction when justice is served, and the punishment fits the crime. In the economy of God, the only propitiation for sin, the only sacrifice or offering for sin that satisfied justice was death.

Propitiation: (Def) (Gr): Hilasterion from Hilaskomai: To conciliate, i.e. To Atone for sin; An expiatory place or thing, such as a Mercyseat

The only satisfactory offering or sacrifice for the sin of Adam was the righteous blood of the perfect Man to make atonement and reconciliation with God. As the Apostle John sets forth in his Epistle:

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

The travail of the Son: His sorrow, His pain, His toil, His irksome work, His passion, His suffering is the bearing upon Himself the iniquity of the whole world. This bearing upon Himself of iniquity was not a bearing from sin, as though He had to bear His own sin; rather, His bearing upon Himself of iniquity was a bearing for sin, as an offering up of His own sinless life for the whole of mankind. It is as the Prophet, John the Baptist declared:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

This is the travail of the Son. The intense and weighty burden, this burden of sin which weighed upon Man from the beginning with Adam’s rebellion. This weighty burden was a millstone that dragged man down to the depth of depravity, into the darkness of the deep, into solitary separation from God and the Light. This, this was taken away; but not just thrown away but borne in the Body of Christ upon the Tree, the Cross of Calvary.

There is an intensity in travail. The Apostle expressed this in his Epistle to the Galatians:

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).

The Apostle was in anguish and pain in intercession for the saints in Galatia because of his deep desire that the very life of Christ: His nature, His Spirit, His Being would be formed in them, so they could truly be the Body of Christ, not in title, but in reality.

This is the desire of the whole of Creation also as Paul wrote to the Romans:

“For the earnest expectation of the Creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. . .for we know that the whole Creation groans and travails in pain together until now” (Romans 8:19,22).

The travail of the Son permeates the whole of creation in bearing the burden of sin:

“For the Creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope because the Creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21).

This is what pleases the Father. This is what satisfies His heart. The travail of the Son is pleasing to the Father because in it there is the birthing process of bringing forth a New Creation. The former creation was ruined, but the travail of the Son will make all things new, as the Prophet said:

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief and has made His soul an offering for sin. He shall see His Seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10).

Beloved, this is where we are now, as the Apostle has written:

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a New Creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).

The Travail of the Son has brought forth a New Creation of the Re-born. His Seed is in them, and they have become the manifestations of the Sons of God.

“Therefore, will I divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the spoil with the strong because He has poured out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

Praise God for the Travail of the Son for in it is our salvation, our new life, our eternal redemption, and ultimate victory. Glory to the Lamb!

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