NOTES for Isa 63:1-64:12

In the prophetic vision, the Savior appears walking in garments red with blood, but we know that Christ will come not in order to shed the blood of sinners. No, it is His blood that will be shed, and together with the many sins of the human race He will take upon Himself the consequences of countless acts of bloodshed. What, then, does Isaiah’s vision mean?

It seems permissible to suppose that the prophecy warns that the consequences of sins inevitably become deadly for sinners. But on Golgotha the Savior will take upon Himself the blow that justice assigns to them. Christ will remind the people accustomed to calling themselves children of Abraham that the Lord is able to raise up children for Abraham from stones; therefore, while understanding the importance of the historical unfolding of the Truth, let us remember Him who stands above history. But though He stands above human affairs, He does not keep aloof from them. And it is precisely here that the prophet utters words so familiar to us who live in the New Testament era, but not yet often heard in Old Testament times: God is called the true Father; He is not the distant “God of philosophers and scholars.” Therefore genuine humanity is possible only with God and is unattainable by human powers alone.