In my business world we talk about ROI . . . Return On Investment. Kind of an important concept . . . basically it’s a measure of “was it worth it?” What did we get for the amount spent? Did we recoup the cost incurred and then some? Did the investment provide a return? Most projects need to be able to show a reasonable expectation of it creating a value that’s greater than the dough dished out to make it happen. As I spent a few minutes this morning hovering over Isaiah 53, I couldn’t help but consider the tremendous price paid by the Father in giving His Son . . . and the ROI it produced . . .

The end of Isaiah 52 repeats the call found in Isaiah 40, “Behold, My Servant” . . . cast your eye toward . . . fix your focus upon . . . look hard at His face . . . for He will act wisely . . . and He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high (52:13). Isn’t that what you’d expect from God’s holy and righteous Servant . . . one to be gazed upon one who is raised and lifted up, and highly exalted. But look closer, says Isaiah, it’s a face that will amaze many because “His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (52:14). So introduces the cost component . . . the “investment” part . . . check out . . . and marvel . . . at the price paid . . .

Behold God’s Servant, His Elect One in whom His soul delights (42:1) . . . His beautiful Son . . . humbled in order to enter the human experience, growing up as a root out of dry ground (53:2) . . . no form or majesty, no beauty really, that we should desire Him (53:2) . . . in fact, He was despised and rejected by men . . . becoming a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief (52:3) . . . He was oppressed, afflicted, and led as a lamb to the slaughter (53:7) . . . cut off from the land of the living (53:8) . . . He poured out His soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors (53:12). He bore our griefs, He carried our sorrows (53:4) . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities (53:5) . . . the LORD laying on Him the iniquity of us all (53:6). His soul was made an offering for sin (53:10). What a price paid by the high and holy blessed Son of God. What sacrifice from the One who created all things and sustains all things . . . was it worth it?

Yup! . . . or as the NLT puts it, “When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied. And because of His experience, my righteous Servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins.” (Isa. 53:11)

He will be satisfied . . . the suffering worth it . . . the humility having paid off . . . the work finished . . . and the ROI incalculable. The return on investment being the redemption of lost souls . . . the justification of sinners with no hope of self-justification. It lies within a people . . . called to Himself . . . the way opened through His shed blood. The return is this people who are called to be holy, as He is holy . . . who are set apart as priests and kings and ambassadors . . . as servants to God’s Holy Servant . . . as those who through their own free will, because of the knowledge of sin forgiven and because they have been made new from the inside out, desire to die to self and live unto Him. The “investment” pays off in the family formed through those who He now calls His brothers and sisters . . . in the living temple made through the Spirit as a habitation for on earth . . . in the bride betrothed to Himself, one day to appear before Him without spot or blemish. He will look on all this, the result of His suffering, and be satisfied. O’ blessed thought!

You can go on and on taking inventory of the result of the sufferings of God’s blessed Servant . . . but oh, we should never overlook or minimize the price paid . . . and should never hold ourselves in any view that we merited it . . . but humbly bow in worship knowing that God thought we were worth it . . . “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God!” (1John 3:1) Oh, that God would give heaven’s best to redeem a sinner such as I . . . that the Son would willingly take upon Himself the humility, the shame, the suffering, and the wrath of His Father in order to purchase me out of sin’s marketplace and claim me for Himself . . . that the Spirit would take up residence in this fumbling “work in progress” that He might form within me the image of Jesus.

I guess I’m a living ROI . . . for the glory of God . . . to the praise of His Son . . . amen?