John MacArthur begins his book The Gospel According to God: Rediscovering the Most Remarkable Chapter in the Old Testament, a treatise on Isaiah 53, like this: The name Isaiah means "The Lord is salvation." It's a fitting name for the prophet because he foretold the gospel message in thorough, vivid, accurate detail. Throughout the New Testament, Isaiah is the most quoted of all the Old Testament prophets. Jesus and the New Testament writers quote him at least 65 times, and he is mentioned by name 22 times in the New Testament. Isaiah's prophecies are rich and riveting, full of imagery and doctrinal themes that constitute the cardinal truths of the Christian gospel: human depravity, divine grace, justification, substitutionary atonement, and more.
Jerome, the fourth-century theologian and historian who translated most of the Bible into Latin, famously said Isaiah should be called an evangelist rather than a prophet because he describes all the mysteries of Christ and the church so clearly that one would think he is composing a history of what has already happened rather than what is to come. But Isaiah wrote 700 years before Christ was born, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, heavily reflecting Isaiah's prophecies, were written 200 years before the Lord birth in Bethlehem. Jesus fulfilled those prophecies, as we will see in this condensation of MacArthur's book chapters.
Isaiah is divided into two sections, basically consisting of more immediate and more long-term prophecies relative to his era. That second major division of Isaiah begins and ends exactly where the New Testament begins and ends: with the voice of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40), which proved to be the ministry of John the Baptist or Baptizer (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, John 1). It concludes with the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65-66), which is also how the New Testament ends (Revelation 21-22). So Isaiah's incredible prophecy accurately anticipates and foreshadows the flow of the New Testament, even though it was written centuries before the birth of the Messiah.
Isaiah's second part includes four prophecies in song form about the Messiah, who is also called the servant of the Lord. The first one is in Isaiah 42:1-9. It reveals he will be chosen by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The servant will bring justice, righteousness, and salvation to the world, delivering blind prisoners from the dungeon of sin.
The second Servant Song is in Isaiah 49:1-13. Here we see the servant's authority over the Gentile nations, whom he commands to listen and give attention to him. He will be a man since God calls him while he is still in his mother's womb. He will bring salvation to both Israel and the other nations of the world, and he will be exalted.
The third song (Isaiah 50:4-11) introduces the servant's suffering, through which he will ultimately be vindicated. The details given about him in this song are more complete and more astonishing than those in the earlier songs, which include being struck and spit upon.
The fourth and final Servant Song is the subject of this book, referred to as Isaiah 53 in shorthand, but it actually spans from Isaiah 52:12—53:12. This passage reveals precise details of the servant's mission that could not have been known to anyone but God. Here it becomes clear that the servant is more than merely someone chosen by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit, learning obedience through humiliation and suffering. He is the Messiah, the one who will bring justice and salvation to the world by first dying as a sacrifice for sin.
His full glory would not be revealed until after he suffered. That fact alone was astonishing, unexpected, and baffling to most Jewish readers. They found it impossible to imagine that the Lord's Anointed One would be a suffering slave before he would appear as the conquering king.
Even more scandalous was the idea that the servant of the Lord would not suffer for any evil he had done, but for the sins of others. He would be a substitute, dying as a surrogate for others who (unlike him) deserved the fate he would suffer. Here is a taste of the prophecy: "They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him ... when his soul makes an offering for guilt" (Isaiah 53:9-10). He bore the guilt of his people: "He was crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). Let's learn more.
The Suffering Servant
Here is the complete passage, formatted to reflect the fact that Isaiah is writing in poetic verse with four distinct sections:
Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
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,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
That brief but pivotal portion of Isaiah describes the ministry, death, resurrection, and coronation of the Messiah, written more than seven centuries before he came. It is the gospel according to God. Of all the Old Testament's messianic prophecies, this one stands out for its sublime richness and unparalleled clarity. In particular, Isaiah paints a precise prophetic portrait of Messiah's sufferings. He also explains in vivid detail the true meaning of Messiah's death as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people.
Many key historical details from the events surrounding the death of Messiah are expressly stated in this passage. For example, Isaiah speaks of the savage brutality of the wounds that were inflicted on him (Isaiah 52:14), his utter silence before his accusers (Isaiah 53:7), his death (Isaiah 53:8-9), the place of his burial (Isaiah 53:9), and the ultimate triumph of his finished work (Isaiah 53:11). The prophet even alludes to his resurrection from the dead: "He shall prolong his days [and] the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand" (Isaiah 53:10).
The passage is also loaded with doctrinal themes: substitutionary sacrifice (Isaiah 53:4-6, 10), the forgiveness of sins through the shedding of Messiah's lifeblood (Isaiah 53:5), the sinlessness of this "despised and rejected" servant who dies for his people (Isaiah 53:9), the sovereign initiative of God in providing atonement for sinners (Isaiah 53:10-11), the justification of many (Isaiah 53:11), and the intercessory work of the one who offers himself as a sacrifice (Isaiah 53:12).
Who Is This Suffering Servant?
Ancient Jewish commentators recognized and acknowledged the messianic significance of Isaiah 53. For those who lived in the Old Testament era, some measure of confusion about how to interpret this passage was understandable. Like most of the prophecies about the coming Messiah, Isaiah 53 was somewhat shrouded in mystery until the fulfillment of the prophecy made its meaning clear. The apostle Peter acknowledges that even the prophets themselves "searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of [Messiah] in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of [Messiah] and the subsequent glories" (1 Peter 1:10-11).
Make no mistake, the Old Testament is full of prophecies about Messiah that point only to Jesus. He is the central theme not only of New Testament preaching, but also of Old Testament prophecy. After Jesus called Philip to follow him, Philip, "found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth" (John 1:45). Indeed, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).
Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" (John 5:39). Later in that discussion the Lord added, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me" (John 5:46). He said to those listening to him give the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17)—a claim he repeated throughout his earthly ministry.
Messiah in the Old Testament
The Old Testament is so full of teaching about Messiah that when Jesus's disciples were confused about his death and unprepared for his resurrection, he rebuked them for their ignorance of the Scriptures. After his resurrection, when he conversed incognito with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he said to them, "'O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25-27). Later that same evening, the Lord told the eleven remaining apostles: "'These are my words that I spoke with you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem'" (Luke 24:44-47).
Scripture does not record the specific content of our Lord's teaching that afternoon on the road to Emmaus, but it would have undoubtedly included both direct, explicit predictions concerning him and many symbols that pictured him. The latter would include Noah's ark, which pictures him as the true ark into which sinners enter and are kept safe through the waters of divine judgment (1 Peter 3:20-21); the ram Abraham offered as a substitute for his son Isaac (Genesis 22:13); the Passover lambs, which pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, the final sacrifice (Exodus 12, Numbers 9:12, John 1:29, 1 Corinthians 5:7); the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16) pictured him as the true bread from heaven (John 6:32-35); the bronze serpent that was lifted up (Numbers 21:4-9) symbolized his crucifixion (John 3:14). The prophet Jonah's emergence alive after three days and nights in the stomach of a large fish was a prophetic picture of Jesus's resurrection from the dead over the course of three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (Matthew 12:39-41).
Among the direct prophecies that describe Jesus are the very first, in Genesis 3:15, where God describes the promised Savior or Messiah as the seed of the woman (Galatians 4:4) who will destroy Satan (1 John 3:8). He is the great prophet of whom Moses wrote (Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Acts 3:22-23). Daniel 7:13-14 describes him as the glorious Son of Man, a title Jesus used of himself more than 80 times in the Gospels. This is the Messiah, who ascended triumphantly to heaven (Acts 1) and will return on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24:30; Mark 14:62; Revelation 1:7). As the Scriptures predicted Messiah would be, Jesus was of the line of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; Galatians 3:16), from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10; Revelation 5:5), and a direct descendant of David (2 Samuel 7:12-15; Matthew 1).
Micah 5:2 foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and Isaiah 7:14 predicted he would be born of a virgin and be called Immanuel, which means God with us. Isaiah 9:6 further describes him as the Son of God, which means Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. Our great passage in Isaiah 53 describes what this exalted Messiah would do.
The Prophet's Point of View
Isaiah was given a prophetic glimpse of Christ's cross with more profound insight into the reason for Christ's death than any other mere mortal before the event actually took place. He is describing the sacrifice of the suffering servant from a vantage point that looks back from a time still in the future even now. He is seeing the cross from a prophetic perspective near the end of human history. He is prophesying the collective response of the Jewish people when they finally see, understand, and believe that the one they rejected is truly the Messiah. That explains why all the verbs in chapter 53 from verse 1 through the first part of verse 10 are in the past tense. Isaiah verbalizes the profound regret that will smite the hearts and consciences of those who finally recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Isaiah 53 is therefore a plaintive song, a lament. Yet this minor-key hymn constitutes the greatest, most triumphant confession of faith that will ever be made in human history.
If we take the entire 15-verse pericope, Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12, verse 5 is literally the central verse of the whole passage: "He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." The doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement is the crux of the core verse. It is the heart and focal point of everything the book of Isaiah has to say about the forgiveness of sin. That is fitting because there is no more vital gospel truth. "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22). Therefore, every promise of forgiveness and deliverance God has ever made depends on a full and efficacious atonement. That is why the cross of Jesus Christ is well described as the focal point of human history.
Astonishing!
God Himself is the speaker in the first stanza of our passage:
Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand
As always, suffering precedes glory. The order may seem to be reversed in those three verses, but notice how the prophecy about his exaltation is stated in the future tense. The verse about his suffering is in the past tense. Remember that Isaiah is looking backward from a prophetic viewpoint near the end of world history. So the prophet was seeing Christ's suffering as a past event, with his exaltation in glory still awaiting an imminent future.
"Behold" is meant to grab our attention to something important, in this case God's servant. When Scripture employs that word to speak of someone who serves God, it is with lofty, not demeaning, connotation. Servant is used to describe such luminaries as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Isaiah, and the prophets in general. The servant Isaiah describes here will act wisely. The Hebrew word speaks of prudent action that gains prosperous results. Moreover, this servant's wisdom is deeply self denying, for it means accepting ends determined by God and willingly shouldering a burden of untold suffering to make them possible.
Praise for the servant in verse 13 is stated in three parts. Because he "shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up [words used to describe God in Isaiah 6:1 and 57:15], and shall be exalted." Those phrases are not redundant; rather, they are escalating statements, going from high to higher to highest. The ascending degrees parallel Christ's resurrection (high), his ascension (higher), and (culminating in the highest possible honor) his return, when "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).
One clear fact that must not escape our notice is that Christ's sufferings were planned, purposeful, and successful. Critics sometimes try to portray Jesus as a failure, viewing him as a promising but disappointing figure whose crucifixion made him a martyr instead of a messiah. To the contrary, he succeeded in being the Savior of the world through his atoning death and resurrection.
Notice this small sampling of how Jesus warned his disciples throughout the latter half of his ministry: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised" (Luke 9:21-22). "Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men" (Luke 9:43-44). The Son of Man must first "suffer many things and be rejected by this generation" (Luke 17:24-25).
Despite the many clear predictions that he would die, those closest to Jesus were caught off guard—astonished and confused—when he was finally crucified. Indeed, the crucifixion of Jesus is still an utterly staggering event that should be shocking to anyone who ponders it carefully. We stand amazed at how cruelly Christ was treated. We rightly tremble when we read the many statements Christ made during his lifetime about his impending death, realizing he fully knew what lay ahead. The fact that these things were foretold in such careful detail does not mitigate the wonder of the cross; it magnifies it.
The Servant's Astonishing Humiliation
It is utterly astonishing that the faithful servant of the Lord, the promised deliverer of Israel, would be put on display in a horrifying, humiliating fashion. That is the very word Isaiah uses: "Many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond the children of mankind" (Isaiah 52:14).
That verse is an abrupt and startling interruption set between two verses that describe the servant's honor, influence, and exaltation. It is written in a way that purposely magnifies the reader's astonishment. The sudden shift in topics—from exaltation to humiliation with no warning or transition whatsoever—illustrates the reason "many were astonished."
Astonished in English can have a positive meaning, but the Hebrew term (shamem) used here is never used to describe a positive reaction. It speaks of being totally devastated. The marring and disfigurement in view here are a description of what took place immediately prior to our Lord's crucifixion. Jesus's disfigurement actually began in Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal and arrest. Scripture describes the deep, inward anguish and utter physical exhaustion he experienced as the sinless Son of God contemplated sin bearing and separation from his Father. He was literally sweating blood at the thought of what he would suffer on behalf of sinners. So he would have been weak and haggard-looking even before he was dragged away and put on trial.
But what left him "so marred, beyond human semblance" were the many tortures inflicted on him by those who put him to death. We know from the Gospel accounts that Jesus was struck on the head, spat upon, mocked, and scourged with a deadly Roman flagellum. He was beaten and abused by the chief priests, the temple guard, and finally the Romans. Crucifixion was the most brutal form of public execution ever devised. The New Testament, however, doesn't attempt to describe in detail the severity of Jesus's wounds. Anyone within the realm of Roman influence would already be familiar with the awful damage done to a person's body by crucifixion. Therefore, the Old Testament prophecies about Christ's death tell us more about the humiliating injuries he suffered than the New Testament does.
Isaiah 52:14 above is the Bible's most graphic one-verse description of our Lord's extreme disfigurement: his face so marred than he no longer appeared to be human. Psalm 22 provides even more insight into what Jesus endured on the cross. It begins with the most striking words he uttered there: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It also quotes the words of those who mocked the Savior as he hung there: "He trusts in the Lord; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, for He delights in Him!" (Psalm 22:8; Matthew 27:42). Listen to what Jesus says about himself in Psalm 22: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me" (Psalm 22:14-17). That describes the crucifixion of Christ with uncanny accuracy, even though it was written centuries before anyone though of executing criminals that way.
The Servant's Astonishing Exaltation
The shocking past-tense of the Savior marred in verse 14 changes in verse 15 to the future tense: "So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand." That looks ahead to Christ's triumphant return. Kings—those who think they always have the right to speak—will be left speechless. When that day comes, all the nations of the world will see it: "All the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30).
This event was prophesied long ago by King David in Psalm 2: "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 'Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.' He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 'As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.'"
The final phrase in Isaiah 52:15 states an important principle with far-reaching implications now. The prophet is declaring that people worldwide who have never heard the Word of God and have no earthly reason to grasp the truth about Israel's Messiah will suddenly see and understand who he is. The apostle Paul cited that text to explain why he was so committed to preaching the gospel to the Gentiles: "Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand" (Romans 15:21).
What If Some Did Not Believe?
Isaiah 53 opens with two questions. The New American Standard Bible offers the most literal translation of verse 1: "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" The sense of the question is, "Who among us has believed the message we heard?" Bear in mind that this passage represents the collective confession Israel will make on that day yet future when the nation finally turns to Christ. The words, of course, would also be a suitable expression of repentance for anyone who has known about Christ but spurned him for some time before embracing him as Lord and Savior.
The Power of God for Salvation to Everyone Who Believes
The second question Isaiah 53:1 asks is, "To who has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" The arm of the Lord throughout the Bible is a symbol of divine power. Here it refers to God's power demonstrated in the miracles of Jesus and ultimately revealed in His sacrificial death and resurrection. Isaiah's message is firmly fixed on the gospel message, which is described as "the power of God [the arm of the Lord] for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).
John's Gospel gives us a clear snapshot of what the people who actually heard Jesus teach and saw his miracles were thinking. The Lord said to them, "When I am lifted up from the earth, [I] will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32-34). He was referring to his crucifixion. Incredulous, "the crowd answered him, 'We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?" A dying Messiah was incomprehensible to them because they saw no need for his death to atone for their sins.
Jesus went on to warn them about the dire consequences of such persistent unbelief: "The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may becomes sons of light" (John 12:35-36). The apostle John then explained the significance of Jesus's warning and punctuated it with a quotation from Isaiah 53: "Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 'Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 'He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.' Isaiah said these things because he saw his [Jesus's] glory and spoke of him" (John 12:37-41).
He Was Despised, and We Esteemed Him Not
In Isaiah 53:2-3 the prophet gives three reasons for the unbelief Israel will confess:
He [Messiah] grew up before him [the Lord] like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces,
he was despised and we esteemed him not.
First, the Messiah had a humble beginning and upbringing, far from centers of power. Nevertheless, he grew up in full view of God the Father, who watched approvingly as his incarnate Son "increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:42).
Second, Jesus gained nothing in their eyes from his family origin, social status, or education since he was not trained in the rabbinic schools. They were obsessed with the outward appearance of things, unlike God, who looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Jesus's physical presence evoked no sense of grandeur. He was, by his own confession, "gentle and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). It was inconceivable to them that someone so gracious and humble could be their Messiah. How could he possibly be the majestic conqueror they hoped for? So bizarre and distasteful was the whole notion that when Pontius Pilate mockingly put a placard on the cross declaring Jesus to be the king of the Jews, the outraged religious leaders angrily said to him, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' bur rather, 'This man said, "I am King of the Jews"'" (John 19:21).
That points to the third reason they rejected the servant: his life had a contemptible end. As Isaiah 53:3 says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not." They deemed him vile, contemptible, worthy of shame and derision because instead of leading the nation to triumph over the Romans, his earthly life ended in sorrow and execution by the Romans.
The people of Israel could have looked at the death of Jesus with all its horrors and recognized it for what it was: God's sacrifice of his Son as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). They could have viewed it as the sacrifice pictured when God provided Abraham with a ram to offer as a substitute in place of Isaac. They could have seen Christ's death foreshadowed in the Passover lambs, whose blood on the doorpost delivered the people from God's wrath. They ought to have been able to understand he was offering the final and only true sacrifice that takes away sin—something the countless millions of animals sacrificed over the centuries could never do (Hebrews 10:4). But because they didn't really see themselves as sinners, they evidently thought the endless offerings of the Old Testament sacrificial system were sufficient means of dealing with their transgressions, rather than as symbols of something better to come.
The Substituted Servant
Isaiah 53:4-6 is the third of five stanzas in the extended prophecy, and it is fittingly situated. This is a succinct and eloquent expression of the entire passage's central theme:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
This third stanza reflects a staggering awakening, a sudden realization of why God's servant had to suffer such humiliating agony. It is not only the vital theological key to Isaiah 53, but also the vital marrow of everything Scripture teaches about how sin is ultimately atoned for. Surprise mingled with dismay is exactly the mood here. This is the confession of people who have suddenly seen a truth they had long denied or neglected.
Most shockingly, the sufferings described in this passage include the outpouring of God's wrath in righteous retribution for the sins of those who rebel against him. God's servant was "stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. In other words, the servant's wounding and crushing was a purposeful act of penal substitution by the sovereign will of his Father, God. "Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace." That clearly means he bore the punishment sinners deserve—the full measure of God's wrath "against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18).
If you find such ideas shocking, that is precisely Isaiah's point. The price our Savior paid to redeem his people from the guilt and bondage of sin was horrific, and Scripture never tries to soften the reality of the righteous wrath of God. Unless we understand and embrace the truth that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31), we can never appreciate the Father's great mercy and love toward us in sending his own Son to die willingly in the place of sinners.
Jesus said, "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment" (John 5:24). The apostle John, overwhelmed with how the sacrifice of Christ demonstrates the love of God, wrote: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10). "God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17).
The three verses in this central stanza of Isaiah's suffering-servant prophecy are tied together by a common theme: confession of sin. Each one expands the scope of what is being confessed.
They Confess Their Sinful Attitude
Isaiah 53:4 begins the confession:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
They despised him because he did not meet their expectation of what the Messiah was supposed to be like. Yet what he was actually doing for his people was infinitely greater than anything they had expected. At the return of Christ, their spiritual heirs will see their error and confess that their attitude toward Jesus had been wrong.
The servant of Isaiah 53 is suffering because he has taken on himself the full burden of his people's sin and guilt, with all its consequences. That is precisely what the New Testament said Jesus did for sinners. He was "offered once to bear the sins of many" (Hebrews 9:28). "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24). In fact, he "offered himself without blemish to God" (Hebrews 9:14)—a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the demands of God's justice. In technical terms, he fully expiated his people's sin, meaning he put an end to it by death.
As all genuine confessors must, the people in Isaiah 53:4 acknowledge full responsibility for their sinful rejection of the Messiah. The New American Standard Bible well conveys the personal aspect in the way they confess their guilt: "We ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." The Hebrew pronoun is an intensified version of the first-person plural. There is much genuine humility and true remorse in this expression. They realize they falsely impugned Jesus's character.
They Confess Their Sinful Behavior
One day they will see clearly that the guilt causing his suffering was theirs, not his. Isaiah 53:5 makes that clear:
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All those words describe things that actually happened to Jesus. He was pierced in his wrists, feet, and side (Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34, 37). He was crushed by the beatings he endured at the hands of the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:67) and the Romans (Matthew 27:29-30; John 19:3). He was formally but illegally punished as the result of an unjust indictment, trial, verdict, and sentence (Luke 23:16, 22). And he was severely marked with stripes and raw wounds as a result of the brutal scourging he received at the hands of the Roman lictors (Mark 15:15).
He "endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2) so that his people could be at peace with God. "Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace," says Isaiah above. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, here refers to the removal of enmity between God and sinners. "While we were yet enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10). And now, "since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).
The healing in view here in Isaiah 53:5 is a powerful remedy for an otherwise incurable spiritual infirmity: our fallenness and resulting enslavement to sin. That is the underlying cause of our "transgressions" and "iniquities." So all of verse 5 is an explicit confession of sinful behavior. Although Isaiah is recording the confession that will be made by repentant Israel, it is also a fitting confession for anyone coming to faith in Christ because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
They Confess Their Sinful Nature
The final stage in Israel's confession recognizes sin at its deepest level:
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6
Here the people are essentially pleading guilty to the same charges the prophet Isaiah leveled against their unfaithful ancestors in his opening prophecy: "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you ... continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil" (Isaiah 1:4-6). This is not merely a list of discrete offenses. Nor is it applicable only to the Jewish nation. It is an indictment of fallen human nature.
The fault lies in our very nature, not merely our thoughts or our behavior. Wrong thinking and actions flow from a sinful disposition. True confession of sin must therefore deal with sin at its origin: the human heart. Isaiah's fellow prophet Jeremiah explains, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus himself declared that "out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander" (Matthew 15:19; Genesis 6:5).
Israel's likening of themselves (and all sinners) to sheep is an apt analogy. Sheep by nature are stupid animals, prone to wander off on their own and place themselves in mortal danger. They are defenseless against predators and cannot take care of themselves. In a similar way, people are prone by nature to go astray from God, turn to their own way, and become lost or morally helpless. The good news of the gospel is that "the Lord has laid on [Christ] the iniquity of us all" who trust in him. That explains why God "does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities" (Psalm 103:10). He has not compromised His own righteousness. He does not merely overlook our transgressions. Rather, he fully satisfied justice and put away our sin forever through the death of his Son.
The Silent Servant
In Isaiah 53:7-9 we read:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
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,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
The image of the sacrificial lamb is used to introduce the startling concept that this servant of the Lord, the Messiah—whom the Jewish people envisioned as a powerful military conqueror and political ruler—would be led passively and silently to slaughter, like one of their sheep. Of course, sheep do not know they are being led to slaughter, but this servant knows full well what fate awaits him and goes meekly to his death in voluntary submission to God's will.
After the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the significance of Isaiah's prophecy was obvious to every person who seriously considered the passage. Isaiah 53 instantly rose to prominence as a focal point in the study, testimony, and teaching of the church (Luke 22:37; Acts 8:32-35; 1 Peter 2:24-25). A common theme in the apostles' preaching was "that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer" (Acts 17:3; Acts 26:23; Luke 24:26).
Sadly, even today, Isaiah 53 is always omitted from the scheduled public readings in synagogues worldwide, but such rejection was not the universal response of all ethnic Hebrews. The early church at first consisted entirely of Jewish people. We are told "the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith" (in Christ as the Messiah, Acts 6:7). The links between the Old Testament sacrificial system and the death of "Christ, our Passover lamb" (1 Corinthians 5:7) were too numerous and too striking to deny.
The sacrificed animals vividly pictured the fact that the penalty of sin is death. They also showed that God was willing to provide an innocent substitute who would die in place of penitent sinners. Messiah, the Lord Jesus, was ordained in the eternal counsel of God to be the ultimate sacrifice (1 Peter 1:19-20). Jesus accepted that role willingly and, when the time came, silently.
Silent Before His Accusers
Isaiah 53:7 says,
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
His silence reflects his submission to God, his willingness to obey him no matter the cost—even unto death. Isaiah 53:7 tells us the Messiah was silent even though he was oppressed and afflicted. Beginning with his arrest in Gethsemane in the middle of the night, Jesus suffered physical, psychological, and emotional abuse. He endured the outrageous justice of mock trials, in which he was falsely accused by false witnesses giving false testimony. No proof that he had committed any crime was ever presented, and his guiltlessness was formally declared by both Herod (Luke 23:14-15) and Pilate (Luke 23:4, 14, 22). His innocence was affirmed as well by Pilate's wife (Matthew 27:19), the repentant thief (Luke 23:41), the centurion, and the execution squad (Matthew 27:54). Yet Pilate nonetheless gave in to the demands of the people and their leaders and unjustly sentenced him to death.
People typically do not suffer in silence—and the more intense and unjust the suffering, the less likely anyone is to bear it in silent passivity. But the servant of Isaiah 53 "opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter." Throughout Jesus's ordeal, the New Testament repeatedly mentions his stone silence. When questioned by the high priest, he remained silent (Matthew 26:63). On trial before the Sanhedrin, he remained silent (Mark 14:61). When the Jewish religious leaders accused him before Pilate, he remained silent—a fact that amazed Pilate (Matthew 27:12-14). When Herod questioned him, he did not answer (Luke 23:8-9). And when Pilate himself questioned him, he still did not reply (John 19:9). Jesus spoke a few necessary words in each of those situations, but he never said a word in defense of his innocence or in protest of his unjust treatment.
His silence signaled his willingness to die. It's worth stressing again that Jesus' ministry was not a noble plan gone wrong. He himself said, "I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (John 10:17-18). As he contemplated the cross, where he would die as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus said, "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have to this hour" (John 12:27).
Silent in His Death
Isaiah 53:8 says,
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation,
who considered that he cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
Oppression and judgment refer to legal terms in the Hebrew text. Oppression refers to the injustice and suffering the Lord's servant endured during his arrest and trials. The judgment comprises every phase of the various trials Jesus was subjected to (3 Jewish and 3 Roman, 6 total). The phrase "taken away" refers to the carrying out of his sentence when he was taken away to be executed. There was no attempt to give Jesus a fair trial. Multiple verdicts declared him innocent, and then he was handed over to the executioners at the behest of an angry mob. His death was in reality an act of state-sanctioned murder. (For more details on the injustice of Christ's trials, see John MacArthur's book The Murder of Jesus.)
Being "cut off out of the land of the living" is a common Hebrew expression that refers to being killed. Despite all that Jesus was—God incarnate, who did miraculous works that no one else ever did and who spoke like no one else ever did—he was executed. Because of who he is, this was the most horrendous injustice in human history. Yet the telling statement "as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living" was all too true. Who gave serious thought to the injustice being committed against Jesus?
He was "stricken for the transgression of my people," wrote Isaiah, referring to the Jewish people, as in Isaiah 1:3: "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." John's Gospel recounts how, in the meeting where the conspiracy against Jesus was hatched, the high-priest Caiaphas argued that putting Jesus to death would be the lesser of two evils: "It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation perish" (John 11:50). The apostle goes on to explain, "He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad": Gentiles who would come to faith in Jesus (John 11:51-52).
Israel collectively misjudged Jesus. They believed he was struck dead by God for sins and blasphemies, as his accusers claimed. In reality, he was stricken by God for the transgressions of his people to bring salvation to both Jews and Gentiles.
Silent in the Grave
Isaiah 53:9 introduces an astonishing set of details:
They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Since Jesus was crucified with criminals, it was expected that his body would be disposed of in the same manner as theirs. The Romans purposely left the remains of their crucified victims out in the open. Crucifixions were usually done within sight of high-traffic thoroughfares to serve as a graphic illustration of the fate that awaited those who dared to challenge the might of Rome. To leave a corpse exposed like that was strictly forbidden by God (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). Eventually, even under the Roman occupation, officials would dispose of the remains at a common grave site. In Jerusalem, that location was the Valley of Hinnom, a ravine on the outskirts of Jerusalem used as a perpetually burning garbage dump.
We are told that would not happen to God's servant. God would permit no further indignities upon His Son. The voice of Messiah speaks in Psalm 16:10: "You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption" (cf. Acts 2:27-31; 13:35-37). In an amazing turn of events, Isaiah says the servant instead would be "with a rich man in his death."
That rich man was Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-60), a Sanhedrin member (Mark 15:43) who became "a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews [other Jewish leaders]" (John 19:38). He boldly asked Pilate for the body, and provided his own unused tomb nearby for Jesus to be buried in. This he did with the help of Nicodemus, another prominent council member who also was a discrete disciple of Jesus (John 19:39-42).
God arranged for his Son's honorable burial to demonstrate to the world that his servant, their savior, was innocent. The closing words of this portion of Isaiah 53, "he had done no violence [sin of action], and there was no deceit in his mouth [sin in the heart]," was a testimony by the Father to Jesus's complete, sinless perfection. It was also the first small step toward his exaltation, the subject of the last section of Isaiah 53.
The Exalted Servant
Isaiah 53:10-12 concludes,
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
God himself is speaking now, explaining that although the servant would be crushed, put to grief, humiliated, and "numbered with the transgressors" when he "bore the sin of many" as a guilt offering, he will nevertheless be highly exalted when God causes him to "divide a portion with the many and ... divide the spoil with the strong." That hearkens back to the first stanza of this passage: "Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.... He sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand" (Isaiah 52:13, 15).
The last stanza, above, explains that, first, "he shall see his offspring." Unlike humans, who see their children, possibly their grandchildren, and sometimes their great-grandchildren, Messiah will see all the generations of his spiritual offspring—those whom he is not ashamed to call brethren (Hebrews 2:11), His atoning sacrifice paid for the sins of all God's faithful people before and after the cross. They are given to him by the Father (John 6:37), and Christ brings them all to glory (Hebrews 2:10).
He will be able to do that because God himself "shall prolong his days." That phrase is a Hebraism for a long, enduring life. The risen, ascended, and exalted Christ declares in the last Book of the Bible, "I died, and behold I am alive forevermore" (Revelation 1:18). We are told he now has an indestructible life and that "he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:16, 25).
Isaiah 53 tells us the servant will be honored because through his willing acceptance of God's crushing judgment, he accomplished the work of redemption, declaring triumphantly on the cross just before he gave up his spirit, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). That caused "the will of the Lord [to] prosper in his hand." The work of redemption Christ achieved for his people was to the praise of God's glory (Ephesians 1:12). Because of it "God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11).
Finally, the servant will be honored by the satisfaction of seeing the plan of redemption through to its conclusion. Despite the "anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). He will have the joy of seeing his spiritual offspring, the redeemed of all the ages, gathered into God's kingdom. It will be his honor to see them surround his throne, worshiping and serving him with great joy, to the praise of his glory throughout eternity. He will delight in seeing the salvation of what the New Testament calls the "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16), prophetically described in Isaiah 62:1-5:
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
The Sin-Bearing Servant (Summary)
Isaiah 53 answers the most vitally important question any fallen human being could ever ask: How can a sinner be fully reconciled to God? That is a question everyone eventually needs to face squarely. The question generally arises when someone is struggling under the weight of his or her own guilt, suffering the anguish of sin's consequences, or feeling the profound grief that always results when sin's wages are being paid. Job and his counselors raised the question more than once during his ordeal. Job asked, "How can a man be in the right before God?" (Job 9:2). "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" (Job 14:4).
No one is above this dilemma. No one is righteousness enough to escape God's judgment. Solomon wrote, "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The apostle Paul wrote, quoting David from Psalm 14, "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10, 23). No one should ever think, I'm not so bad. After all, everyone sins. When Scripture speaks of the fact that all have sinned, it is always to stress the truth that without a Savior, the whole human race would be utterly doomed.
Isaiah 53 explains how a person can be right with God, and God can remain just while justifying sinners. Verse 11 says, "By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities." We will work our way through that potent verse, and you will see that the entire New Testament gospel is packed into that terse statement. Every doctrine that is essential for understanding the biblical teaching on atonement is there: propitiation through the death of an innocent victim, salvation by grace through faith alone, justification through the imputation of righteousness, and atonement by penal substitution.
No wonder. Isaiah 53 is the gospel according to God. It is neither an accident nor a surprise that this is the same message proclaimed by Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament.
God's Perspective on the Servant's Work
God declares in verse 11 that the righteous one will "make many to be accounted righteous." The "many" whom he will justify are the people of God, those who believe and for whose sins he died and made atonement. His righteousness will be imputed to them, and on that ground alone (because of what Christ has done for them, not for any merit of their own) they are reckoned as righteous before God.
The many will be justified "by his knowledge." The servant knew exactly what needed to be done to solve the sin problem, but the Hebrew phrase can also be translated, "By the knowledge of him shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous." It is the same knowledge Jesus spoke of when he prayed shortly before his arrest, "This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). It is also the same knowledge Paul mentions here: "That I may know him [Jesus Christ] and the power of his resurrection" (Philippians 3:10).
The Isaiah text is a succinct statement of how sinners are justified. They do not gain a right standing with God because they are made righteous, but because they are "accounted righteous." The New Testament explains, "God credits [them with] righteousness apart from works," like Abraham, who "believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness" (Romans 4:1-5; Genesis 15:6). Jesus accomplished that by bearing their iniquities, as Isaiah 53:11 concludes.
Isaiah 53:12 states, "He poured out his soul to death." The Hebrew verb there means "to lay bare." It has a strong connotation of defenselessness. It is an echo of the same truth confessed by repentant Israel in verse 7: He died "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter." The stress is on the willingness of the servant's sacrifice. Jesus said, "I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (John 10:17-18). "He poured out his soul to death": He was acting with a definite purpose, not being manipulated by those who subjected him to such suffering.
Isaiah 53 concludes that he "was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." Jesus was crucified between two criminals, but this speaks in a broader sense to his being identified with transgressors in his incarnation. Although sinless himself as God the Son, sharing the same authority as God the Father and dwelling in the high and holy place of heaven, he "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). Because of his divine identity, Jesus was able to do what no human being can do: he bore the sin of many and thereby "condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).
The final word from the Father about the servant is that he "makes intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12). An intercessor or mediator is one who acts as a link between two parties. Jesus Christ is the bridge between God and sinners: "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the one who pleads our case before God, presenting the merits of his sacrifice as payment in full for our sins. God himself affirms the vicarious sacrifice of Christ as the only offering that can satisfy his judgment and (at the same time) justify sinners. This is what Isaiah 53 teaches.
Seven Important Questions That Summarize Isaiah 53
1. What is the theme of this chapter? Its theme is suffering—horrific, gruesome, traumatic, agonizing suffering. The servant of the Lord was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (verse 3). He bore griefs, carried sorrows, and was "stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted" (verse 4). He was pierced, crushed, chastised, and wounded (verse 5). He was oppressed, and afflicted like a lamb led to slaughter (verse 7). He experienced oppression and judgment, was cut off out of the land of the living, and stricken for the transgression of his people (verse 8). He was crushed and put to grief (verse 10), and verse 11 refers to the anguish of his suffering.
2. Was the servant's suffering justified? No, the suffering was not deserved by the one who suffered since "he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth" (verse 9). And since what comes out of the mouth reflects what is in the heart (Matthew 12:34), there was no evil or deceit in his mouth because there was none in his heart. In fact, he is identified in verse 11 as "the righteous one."
3. Did God attempt to protect the servant from suffering? No, he did not: "It was the will of the Lord to crush him ... [and] put him to grief" (verse 10).
4. Is that failure on God's part to protect the silent, sinless servant consistent with God's righteous nature? Yes, because the servant's suffering was substitutionary, endured not for his own sins, but for the sins of others: "He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed" (verse 5). "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (verse 6). "He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people" (verse 8). "He shall bear their iniquities" (verse 11) and "he bore the sin of many" (verse 12).
5. Why would the servant willingly submit? Why should any man who is righteous suffer so horribly, be unprotected by God, and suffer vicariously for sins he didn't commit? Because he gladly and lovingly obeyed the will of his Father. He made himself an offering for the sins of others (verse 10) and "poured out his soul to death" (verse 12) to rescue His people, whom he and his Father have loved from eternity.
6. What is the outcome of his suffering? First, as a result of his suffering he justified his people and gave them his righteousness. "Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities" (verse 11). Second, he both has been and will be exalted: "Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.... So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand" (Isaiah 52:13, 15).
7. Who is this servant who willingly endured such suffering? It can be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. How can anyone fail to see that? My earnest hope is that if you have read this far, you see the truth—and that whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, your own humble confession will echo the message of Isaiah 53. There is no more burden-lifting truth than this in all of Scripture: "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.... He was pierced for our transgression; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5).
