Christ as Covenant: "I am the Resurrection and the Life"

Edward J. Young, in his commentary on Isaiah, says of Isaiah 42:6: "The language is striking, for the servant is actually identified as a covenant. A covenant, however, in this instance is not a pact or agreement between two equal parties. From the parallel word light (i.e. salvation), we learn that it is actually a divine bestowal of grace. God sovereignly dispenses to man His blessings of salvation, and it is this sovereign dispensation that is called a covenant.

"That the servant is identified with the covenant of course in­volves the idea of his being the one through whom the covenant is mediated, but the expression implies more. In form it is similar to our Lord’s, “I am the resurrection and the life,” or the phrase in 49:6, “to be my salvation.” (Other examples of this idiomatic usage are Ps. 45:7; 109:4; 120:7; 119:172, and possibly Num. 12:6) To say that the servant is a covenant is to say that all the blessings of the covenant are embodied in, have their root and origin in, and are dispensed by him. At the same time he is himself at the center of all these blessings, and to receive them is to receive him, for without him there can be no blessings. Such language could not apply to Israel, but only to One who may truly be designated a covenant. There is thus gradation in the description of the servant. Moses was a mediator of the covenant, but the servant is the covenant. In New Testament terms, this means that they to whom God sovereignly bestows the grace of salvation receive the Servant Himself.

"Parallel to the expression covenant of the people is the phrase light of the Gentiles. Not merely does the servant bring light or lead into light, but he is himself the light. Light is a figurative designation of salvation (49:6). The Gentiles are as yet in darkness, i.e. the bondage that sin places upon men, and from this darkness there is no deliverance until the Light of the world shines upon them.

"Verse (seven) sets forth the purpose of the servant’s appearance upon earth and indicates how the covenant will be adminis­tered. The reference is not to the return from exile, but to the salvation of Jews and Gentiles, who so desperately were in need of the covenant and of the light. Here is prophesied the shining of the Light of the world upon those who walked in darkness. Here is seen the administration of the covenant of grace to those who lie in bondage. This deliverance is set forth in figurative terms.

"'To open the eyes of the blind’ — The reference is not to those who are physically blind, nor even to the spiritually blind, but to the condition of blindness that is the result of sin. All sinners are blind in that they cannot see reality as it is. What they need is an opening of the eyes. Christ also spoke of Himself as the Light of the world, i.e. the bringer of light to those who are blind.
"In the light of Paul’s usage of this passage in Acts 26:17, 18 it would seem that the reference is universal and not to be restricted to either the Jews or the Gentiles. Christ is the Light of the world…

“…(In verse 8), the phrase that is my name means simply that God’s Name is Yahweh. The certainty, expressed in verse 7, that the servant will not leave God’s people in darkness, lies in the fact that God’s Name is LORD. This does not mean that the Name of God is simply the vocable Yahweh, but rather that what is expressed by the word Yahweh is God’s Name…There is obvious reflection upon the revela­tion of the name at Sinai. Until the time of the exodus God was known to His people as El Shaddai. At the time of the exodus, however, He gave to them a further revelation of His nature, which found expression in the word Yahweh. From a reading of Exodus 3 we learn that this word has to do with the eternity or aseity of God, and that it reveals this eternal God as the One who sovereignly chooses His people and performs for them an act of redemption. This covenant name is Yahweh, who has chosen the servant. Therefore, because God is the eternal One who has en­tered into covenant with His people (which in verse 6 has been personified in The Servant; crb), the truth stands unchange­able that the servant in whom the Lord delights will come to bring salvation to this people and to deliver them from their bondage. Inasmuch as the Name of the Lord is Yahweh, He will not give His glory to another. The reference here is to His essential glory, which He possesses in and of Himself. Were God to give His glory to another, He would be denying Himself, negating His own nature. – Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, pp. 120-123