He is mighty to save us from our sins and He is also mighty to save us from our enemies. He will tread them down like one treading down grapes in a winepress, as we will see in today's session. In His eternal kingdom there will be no enemies; those of us who have placed our trust in Him will live securely and in peace forever. When Isaiah beholds the Lord with spattered garments, he is reminded of the way the juice from the grapes spatters upward onto a person's garments. "Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress?" (Isaiah 63:2)
The Lord answers: "I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My wrath; their blood spattered My garments, and I stained all My clothing." (Isaiah 63:3) The Lord does the work of vengeance alone, for no one else can righteously judge. No one else has the power, the purity, or the prerogative to judge the enemies of God and of His people. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished redemption on His own and He will accomplish the work of judgment on His own. We find Him doing this in the book of Revelation. When the Apostle John was given the visions in Revelation, he beheld the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of vengeance---Judgment Day, if you will---and he said of Him: "He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood---He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty." (Revelation 19:13-15b)
The blood on Christ's robe is not His blood as it was at His first advent. It is the blood of those who have hated Him and His children. It is the blood of those who have persecuted His children. At His first advent, the blood He wore was His own---the blood of redemption. But those who have rejected the blood of His redemption will have to face Judgment Day on their own, without the Savior to stand up for them and say, "This one's sins have been paid for." They will have to pay for their own sins.
The Lord now speaks the final verses of today's portion of Scripture. "It was for Me the day of vengeance; the year for Me to redeem had come. I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so My own arm achieved salvation for Me, and My own wrath sustained Me. I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground." (Isaiah 63:4-6)
These verses may seem violent and graphic to us, but we must keep in mind that the work the Lord does in the verses above is the work of avenging the wrongs done to those who love Him. If the Lord never judged sins, how could we worship Him? If He did not enforce His laws, how could we trust Him? He will avenge every wrong that has ever been done to anyone who belongs to Him. In Revelation we find Him judging the wicked of all ages; the dead are brought before His judgment seat, as well as those still alive at His coming. Those who belong to Him will enter eternal life in His presence: "The year for Me to redeem had come"---the year for Him to fulfill the blessed promise of eternity with Him. Those who have rejected Him will be sentenced for their deeds.
No one can help the Lord in the day of vengeance, for He alone can perform this task, just as He alone could give His life on the cross for our sins. Just as no one stood up for Him on the day of His earthly death (His supporters fled when He was arrested) and left Him to face His trials, beatings, false accusations, and death alone, so also will He judge and sentence alone. No one else is worthy. He has been rejected by "the nations" (a term used in the Old Testament to signify idolaters) and He has been hated by many and His children have been hated by many. He alone has the mandate to judge His haters. He alone has the mandate to judge those who hate His children. He alone can judge righteously, knowing the whole story about every single deed ever committed, without prejudice, and that honor is His.
That honor is His because, as John envisioned when he saw His robes dipped in blood, He is the "King of kings and Lord of lords." (Revelation 19:16b)
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