Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Salvation Found in the Suffering Servant

It has become popular in todays age to separate the Old Testament from the New Testament. Yet as the early church theologian Augustine says, “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.” The truths of the New Testament were in shadowy forms waiting to be revealed when Christ came. And when we see the accomplishments of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, we see how the Old Testament is revealed fully in the New.

Therefore, in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, we find Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant. Nearly 700 years before Christ came, Isaiah wrote of Him. Isaiah attested to all that he would do to save His people from their sins and misery. The great Suffering Servant of the Lord, the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, accomplished redemption on behalf of his own people. Salvation is found only in Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”” And as we have looked frequently in Romans over the past month, “all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The Suffering Servant’s Scorning (53:1-3, 7-9)

The Suffering Servant’s Substitution (53:4-6)

The Suffering Servant’s Sovereignty (52:13-15; 53:10-12)

[1] The Suffering Servant’s Scorning (53:1-3, 7-9)

It is often said “why do bad things happen to good people.” We frequently sympathize with this expression as we walk through life, boasting in our own merits and self-righteous goodness. We think that nothing should happen to us. Yet this is the wrong question to ask. Instead, we should find ourselves asking, “Why does anything good happen to bad people.” The Bible makes it clear that apart from Christ you are dead in your sins and trespasses, you are alienated from God, you are imprisoned to sin. You say to yourself, “I am no sinner.” Have you lied, have you hated someone, have you lusted after someone? If any of these you have broken, you stand condemned before a holy God. If you have not loved and served the Lord. If you have not worshipped him alone, then you have once again violated His law.

Why then do bad things happen to good people? There has only been one occurence in all of history where something bad has happened to a good person. Only one time. Jesus Christ lived perfectly. He was without sin and knew no sin. Yet, as Isaiah 52:13-53:12 show us, this Servant of the Lord endured treachery, endured shame, endured oppression, endured affliction, and endured the wrath of God, to save sinners. This bad thing turned into a good thing, the salvation of all who call upon the name of the Lord.

[a] an act of humble beginnings (53:1-3)

[v. 1] Can one even believe the message that the prophet Isaiah exclaims? Is it fathomable to the listeners that the long awaited Messiah, the long awaited greater prophet than Moses, the royal and everlasting dynasty of David, would be on the receiving hand of the Father’s wrath? The belief Isaiah has in mind is a reliable faithfulness. Is there true and genuine faith in the message the Law and the Prophets proclaim concerning Jesus?

[v. 2] We are told that this Servant of the Lord grew up. This very Servant had to endure all of the trials of life. Likewise, the servant is referred to as a “young plant” which is typically translated as a nursing child. Just like a young plant, the Suffering Servant was fully reliant upon the providence of God. Just as the plants are reliant upon the seasons of rains and sunshine to grow, so also was Jesus the Messiah fully reliant upon God the Father. All throughout Jesus’ ministry His full reliance upon the will of the Father is in view.

This very Suffering Servant had no qualities that would set him apart from the ordinary Israelite. In contrast to Saul and David, who were handsome, kingly, and tall, the Suffering Servant would have no appearance, no beauty, no majesty, no outward manifestation that he was anything of importance.

[v. 3] Outwardly and physically, this servant of the Lord looked humble. Not only did he look humble, but he was treated with contempt, with scorning, and with rejection. Typically, when despised is used it refers to the wicked. They are utterly despised and abhorred by the Lord and his people. So here, the Suffering Servant is treated among the wicked though he does no wrong.

Hence, he is a man full of sorrows. The word translated as “sorrow” really refers to being “full of pain” or “suffering.” The Servant was a man full of pain in his entire being and he was acquainted with the guilt that followed from separation and rejection from men. The Gospel of John points to the reality of this passage applying to Jesus, John 1:11–13“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

[b] an act of violent oppression (53:7-9)

[v. 7] We come to the magnitude of the Suffering Servant’s scorning. If anything is clear in these three verses, it is that Jesus the Messiah deserved none of this. He was oppressed by those He ministered to. The people themselves sought to put Jesus to death on several occasions. It is the same vicious act the people of Israel endured by the hands of the Egyptians in Exodus 3:7 “Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.” The sufferings and oppression the people endured was backbreaking labor and brutal beatings.

Likewise, the Servant Jesus was afflicted, or better translated as, “and he allowed himself to be afflicted.” This is utterly fitting of the Good Shepherd and Jesus’ ministry by and large. He was not merely afflicted by the hands of sinful men, but allowed Himself to fall by their hands. This is precisely what he alludes to in John 10:14–18“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because 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. This charge I have received from my Father.””

Ironically, this very Shepherd of Israel takes upon himself the actions and qualities of His sheep by acting like a lamb led to the slaughter. The very Shepherd that lays down his life for the Sheep is likened to a sheep Himself in order to suffer on their behalf. The New Testament brings light to how this applies to Jesus. John the Baptist’s own testimony in John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” 1 Peter 1:18–19“knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Acts 8:32–33“Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.””

[v. 8-9] What is the result of being led to the slaughter? Physical death. Verse 8 tells us he was cut off from the land of the living. In verse 9 we are told he made his grave with the wicked. Although the people of Israel pushed him to the death penalty, there was no fault found in him whatsoever. There was no sin found in him. Just as one of the criminals testified in Luke 23:41 “And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.””

Not only that, but verse 9 was completely fulfilled. John 19:38–42“After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”

The humility of Jesus Christ is seen in Philippians 2:6–8“who, though he was in the form of God, 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.” The perfect Saviour, the perfect Lord, the true Messiah humbled himself to the point of death. And Paul lays our the profound nature of this death by emphasizing even death on a cross. To die in this way was to be cursed in Israel.

[2] The Suffering Servant’s Substitution (53:4-6)

The Suffering Servant did not come just to be brutally beaten and left for dead. Instead, he came to substitute Himself on behalf of His own people. “He suffered, but it was we who sinned” (Oswalt, 386).

[53.4] Isaiah draws upon the imagery of Leviticus 16:22. The Day of Atonement was the great day for God’s people where their sins would be forgiven. After making sacrifice, the scapegoat would bear the sins of the people. As it is written, “The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.” Likewise, the Suffering Servant bears the burden of sins and carries them with him. How wonderful a picture than the cross itself, the very object and place where Jesus the Messiah, very God, very man, would be crucified and die? Jesus Himself bore the instrument of his death physically and spiritually. He bore it physically in the object of the cross itself. He bore it spiritually in the sins of His own people.

How does the text continue though? We esteemed him stricken by God and afflicted. The response is thus: “So here the people had seen the Servant afflicted with some hateful disease and had wondered to themselves what terrible thing he had done to deserve that. Now they know that it is they who deserved these fearful consequences” (Oswalt, 387). When you look to the Cross you do not only see the willingness of a Saviour but you see the very place you deserved to be. Is this not what John writes in John 15:13 as Jesus Himself says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

[53:5] This servant whom you behold, this very servant who took your place was pierced, crushed, and chastised. On account of our transgressions he is ‘pierced through’ (i.e. mortally wounded), while for our iniquities he suffers under incalculable emotional and spiritual pressures (Harman,365).

The first half of the verse indicates that the reason for this suffering was “because of our rebellion” and “because of our iniquities.” This forthright confession of guilt plainly states that the Servant suffered the consequences for “our” (the Israelite speakers) sinful acts. This act was penal, for it involved a just punishment for rebellious acts. It was also substitutionary because the punishment that should have fallen on the Israelites who sinned were transferred instead to the Servant” (Smith, 450–451).

[53:6] We get a picture of verse 6 by way of our own sin. Like sheep without a shepherd, in our own nature we sin against the Lord. Ephesians 2:1–3“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Therefore, the Lord laid upon the Servant the iniquities of all who are in Christ. Every single sin on him was laid. There was no obedience that could have merited our own salvation, Galatians 3:10 “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”” And Paul likewise tells us in Romans 3:10 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;” Romans 3:20 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We need a substitution. We need a willing Saviour. And we behold the glories of God in the scandal of the Cross by turning to our saviour for the forgiveness of sins. Peter himself, the very man who denied the Saviour three times, in 1 Peter 2:21–25“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

No one is too far gone to come to the presence of the Lord. No one is too lost so as not to seek the Saviour the very Saviour of sinners.

[3] The Suffering Servant’s Sovereignty (52:13-15; 53:10-12)

The sovereignty of the servant can be summarized in Jesus’ own word in John 19:30 “It is finished.” Redemption is accomplished in Christ alone and the Servant is exalted.

In Isaiah 52:13-15, at the beginning of the passage we are given a foretaste of what this servant will accomplish. He will be high and lifted up, he will be exalted. This is precisely the outcome we are told in the New Testament. Acts 5:31 “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” Philippians 2:9–11“Therefore 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.”

And this great victory is expressed in Isaiah 53:10-12.

Poured out. The suffering servant voluntary poured himself out as an offering unto God. Philippians 2:8 “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Was numbered. He allowed himself to be numbered amongst the accused. From birth to death Jesus surrounded himself with sinners. Luke 22:37 “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.””

He bore the sins. We are promised by Jesus Himself in John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Likewise in John 10:14–15“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Made intercession. This speaks to the ongoing work of Jesus Christ in his sovereignty. He continues to make intercession and pray for his people as promised in John 17 and the Great High Priestly Prayer. So also in Hebrews 7:25 “Consequently, 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.”