Part Two: Christ Subjected To Suffering – Isaiah 53: 4-9 (Part 2)

“How can one read of the torture inflicted upon the ‘holy, harmless, undefiled’ Son of God and Son of Man without being moved?”

Now, Isaiah begins to unfold the death of Christ in all its horror. When surveying the wondrous cross, there are moments we might want to turn our eyes away, but Isaiah demands that we keep focus. That we not only look—but that we also see:

(4) Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. (5) But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. (6) All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. (7) He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. (8) By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? (9) His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

“He bore” carries us forward to 1 Peter 2:24! But notice the key that is here: it is the contrast between “He” and “our.” In vv.4-6, first person plural pronouns are used 10 times! He came to be our Substitute. His suffering was for us. Christ did not come merely to join us as a “fellow sufferer”, He took our guilt and penalty upon Himself and paid it to the full. In v.4, they assumed He was suffering for His own wrongdoing, but they were wrong. His suffering was for our penalty. And what a penalty. Notice v.5:

• Pierced through—for our sin
• Crushed—for our guilt
• Chastening—for our peace
• Scourging—for our restoration

How does it play out?

His punishment purchased our peace.

His wounds secured our restoration.

Notice that Isaiah describes this as transactional. Ironside compared it to a ledger. In the Debit column, working against us, are the results of our willful rebellion—“have gone astray, to his own way.” It pictures our determination to make our own way, and the self-destructive consequences of that choice. On the Credit side, however, is the intervention of God! “The Lord has caused our iniquity to fall on Him.” (v.6) It is not merely the hands of evil men that are in view—it is God Himself who has taken our indebtedness and laid it on Christ! One teacher wrote:

“We who fully deserve the entire penalty and punishment for our sins have been set free, not only by God’s grace, but because God, in grace, poured out His wrath against sin upon His own Son. This gives greater insight into the nature of Christ’s suffering on the cross—the spiritual agony of sinbearing being far greater than the physical torture He endured!”

And, how did the Christ respond? In verse 7, we see that, though “oppressed and afflicted” He made no defense for Himself, but voluntarily took it all! In fact, the form of the verb afflicted implies, “He allowed Himself to be afflicted.” Martin wrote:

Here the Passover finds a tongue. All through the centuries since Moses’ time the Passover lambs had been killed, all pointing to Someone, yet giving only silent, cryptic witness. Now, that Someone is revealed and the sequence is perfectly clear, for it is but a step from Isaiah 53:7 to John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God.”