Isaiah 53 - The Iniquity of Us All

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him 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. 3 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. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 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. 6 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. 7 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. 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, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 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. 10 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. 11 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. 12 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. - Isaiah 53:1–12

Sermon Text:

This morning, in the light of our Easter Sunday commemoration, we will skip ahead to consider a verse out of Isaiah 53.

If the Lord is willing, this will not be the only time we look at this rich chapter in our study in the book of Isaiah.

I plan on returning to our regularly-scheduled chapter 48 next Sunday.

But for this morning, please open your Bibles of Isaiah 53 and follow along as I read:

[READ ISAIAH 53]

This morning I would like to highlight a single phrase for us to consider – the second part of verse 6:

The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

This phrase tells us nothing less than the good news of God’s salvation of His people.

A message we begin to see in the former chapter, 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. - Isaiah 52:7–8

You might be asking today: what is so good about being confronted by a perfectly holy God?

I am in my sin; I am entirely unworthy.

And if I were to stand before Him and He judge me, I would have to be condemned – I am guilty of being worse than anyone thinks I am.

How is any of that “good news”?

We just read it: we have turned – every one – to his own way.

I have turned aside to my own way – and I have made a mess of my life.

I have engaged in sins I once had control of, but no more; now they control me.

The lustful thoughts that used to come around once in a while occupy my waking hours.

The drink or drugs I used to take for fun now require me to keep up the habit even when I have fought them with tears.

The annoyance I used to feel is now anger, rage in side of me.

How can the messenger of God give me ANY comfort in my condition?

The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

To look at this great news this morning, we will ask four questions:

1. Who has done something?

2. What did He do?

3. For whom did He do it?

4. How did He do it?

First – WHO has done something.

The LORD has done it.

There are a lot of people walking around that don’t realize this.

Maybe you’re one of them.

They think that when their time to die has come, they will stand before God.

But instead of judging them in holiness, they think God is going to whip out a giant set of scales.

And on one side, He will put all the good things they did in their life; and on the other, all their sins and bad things.

And if the scale tips to the good, even a hair, they will be admitted into heaven.

If that is what you are counting on, please understand: you have nothing good to even put on the scales.

We have turned – every one – to his own way.

You may think you have done good things, and you may have really done some things to benefit others, but God, through the Bible, assures you it won’t be enough for ANYONE to claim heaven.

You are simply not that good; I don’t care how good you think you are.

Others may say something like: if there is a good and loving God, He couldn’t send people to hell.

So they decide to take their chances in atheism or in a denial of God’s holiness.

If you think that, my friend, I ask you how could God be good if He DOESN’T punish the guilty?

Would God be good if He let unrepentant mass-murderers into heaven?

Or molesters?

Could He be good if He didn’t punish sin?

The Bible says He is good, and He does punish EVERY sin.

Sin is enough to separate you from God.

Sin is enough to kill you.

Sin is enough to send you to hell forever.

And so we see that we, like sheep, go astray, doing our own thing heedless of the danger our sin brings us.

So there is nothing we CAN do, even if we were at all willing, to save ourselves.

We have to have a Savior, someone to rescue us.

And the only one who can do that is the Holy Lord of everything.

So if God is the only one who can do something to bring us this promised good news, what has He done?

He “laid on Him the iniquity of us all”.

What does that mean?

The guilt we have from all the sinful things that come from our crooked heart and mind, God takes off us and places on “Him”.

Who is this “Him”?

He is the One who was despised, rejected.

He is the One who bore our griefs, carried our sorrows.

He is the One who was smitten, struck, by God.

He is the One who was pierced, who was crushed, who was bruised and beaten.

He is the wounded One, the one who brings us peace.

He is the One who was killed, buried, and lives forever because He rose from the dead never to die again.

He is Jesus Christ, our Lord, the only begotten Son of God.

He is the One who was in the beginning with God and was God, and became flesh to dwell among us.

Now you may be thinking – that’s not fair. We did the sinning – Jesus never sinned, not even once.

So how is it fair, how is it just, to punish someone else for our sin?

That is God’s mercy in action.

That is God loving the rebellious world so much that He sent His only begotten Son to rescue us.

It is God’s mercy because left to ourselves, not one single person would be saved – not one.

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. - Psalm 14:1–3

We were ruined, born ruined.

We were created in the image of God, but not long after the first man, Adam, was created, He sinned.

And every single person naturally descended from him bore his guilt. We know that because everyone naturally descended from him died – which was the penalty of that sin.

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. - Romans 5:19

That is what it means that God “laid our guilt on Him”:

If Jesus had had any sin at all, He couldn’t have taken our guilt, our sin, our iniquity.

But He didn’t have any sin, so God put the sin He forgives onto Jesus Christ – and He punishes it.

Remember – sin has to be punished, crushed.

Death has to be the wages of sin.

God’s wrath is against all sin because any and every sin is an affront, a grave insult, to His holiness.

So He laid our iniquity on Him.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21

That brings us to the third question: for whom did God do this?

Isaiah’s words: “us all”.

But we need to understand who the “us” is, don’t we?

Am I in the “us”, or am I part of “them”?

I have alluded to that famous verse – John 3:16 – a couple of times already, but God tells us there who the “us” is:

Whoever believes in Jesus Christ will not perish, but will have eternal life.

Now, believe doesn’t just mean “I believe that Jesus lived and was a good man.”

He was a good man, but that belief is not enough.

That is not believing IN Him – that is believing ABOUT Him.

Believing IN Jesus means trusting Him, looking to Him for everything about salvation.

It means that you leave behind the days when you control your life and direction, and you look to Him to guide your life.

The Bible often uses these terms: repent and believe.

Repent – leave behind your illusion of control and your love of sin,

And believe – be freed from that slavery to your sinful desires and actions.

Be free from your addictions, your lusts, and your constant search for deeper sin.

If you have followed Jesus Christ, if you are relying on Him for your salvation and goodness,

If you are, over time, growing in the things that look like Jesus:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and things like that, you can have assurance you are in Christ.

Is your love for others growing?

Is joy coming at the strangest of times?

Is there a peace increasing even on bad days?

Are you better able to bear difficult people or circumstances?

Can you increasingly give without thought of being paid back?

Do you love the Law of God because it tells you how to please Him?

Do you stand for the truth, particularly in your own heart first?

When you publicly stand for the truth, do you do it humbly and firmly?

And do you constantly strive to put into practice all the good things God has told you, confessing to Him when you fail?

If these things are yours and are increasing, you can have confidence you are in Him.

But what if this is not you?

What if you just prayed a prayer, or many prayers, but you have no greater love for God or man than you did before?

What if you have held out, loving your sin, telling yourself that there is plenty of time to come to Jesus later?

If that is you – if you don’t find repentance in your heart – you don’t turn from your sin.

If you don’t long for Him, loving Him, perhaps imperfectly, but loving Jesus Christ nonetheless.

If you are terrified at the thought of Him suddenly appearing and catching you before you get your life cleaned up.

If hatred and bitterness and regret are eating you up inside.

If that is you in any part, there is good news for you:

You can be saved, even if you aren’t right now.

The faith that has saved every person who has ever been saved is available to you.

If you will repent and believe, following Jesus, you will be saved.

There is no need to walk a single day more in your sin and darkness, in your guilt and shame.

There is no need for a single moment more to carry that burden of terrible secrets and crushing fear.

Call out in prayer to Jesus, leave behind your sinful life and embrace His goodness by faith, and you will be saved.

Because the salvation He brings, that He has brought near, is from God.

It is right there – right within your reach today.

Trust Him, try Him by faith, and He will save you.

That brings us to the fourth question: how did He do it?

How did God accomplish so great a salvation?

The Son, Jesus Christ, eternally God, became flesh through being born to a virgin, Mary.

He grew, and He never once sinned.

There was never anything He did that was not perfectly good and right.

There was never anything good and right that He failed to do, nothing that He left off.

And although He never sinned, He was arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified by the Jews and the Romans.

Not a story – an actual execution on a wooden cross.

He died.

Not passed out, not comatose. Dead.

Beaten with whips and fists, thorns beaten into His scalp, great spikes through His hands and feet, and a spear, at the end, thrust into His side to make sure He was dead.

And hung on that cruelest of executions – a cross.

He was hastily buried in a borrowed tomb while the Jewish sabbath happened.

And then, early in the morning of the eighth day, now forever the Lord’s Day, He rose from the dead in a glorified body.

And even though it was glorified, it still bore the scars of the nails and spear.

These, even now, even today, serve as a testimony to the salvation God gave through Him.

Because He ascended into the sky, promising He will return to reward His beloved people and condemn all those who do not believe.

All this to do one thing: to deliver God’s salvation, that good news Isaiah is longing to see, to all His people.

For forgive ALL our sin – not just the ones we recognize or the ones we confess.

If you will trust in Him, every sin you have ever done, whether you thought it was sinful or not, is forgiven in Jesus Christ.

Because the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Target Date: Sunday, 20 April 2025 (Easter)

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Thoughts on the Passage:

This is the chapter (scroll) the Ethiopian Eunuch was reading in Acts 8 (8:32).

This chapter is the heart of a great section of Isaiah that shows us how God will save His people to the uttermost.

2 – We might, along with the Eunuch, ask who Isaiah is talking about: himself or another?

It is written in the past tense (the way we translate it).

This is called “proleptic” – talking about future events from the point of view even further in the future.

This allows the writer to not only describe what will happen, but also what will be the outcome of those events.

This is found most often for us in literature as foreshadowing, in science fiction, or in histories – mostly because we do not have the actual ability to predict the future. Thus, God is the only one who can appropriately use this extensively in non-fiction.

What is the Good News of this passage – Where is Jesus Christ? (if you can’t answer this question, are you finished?)

Teachings:

What do we learn about God/ Jesus/ Holy Spirit?

Applications:

For the Christian:

For the Backslidden:

For the Unconverted:

Primary Preaching Point:

Building Points:

For v. 6b: - The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

1. Who did it?

2. What did He do?

3. Who did He do it for?

4. How did He do it?

[on even numbered page]

MORNING PRAYER:

Adoration:

Almighty God and everlasting King.

Confession:

Forgive us our pride, and the loathsome lengths to which we will go to support our fleshly vanity.

Thanksgiving:

In You we find our only hope, both in this life and in eternity joined with Christ Jesus.

Petition:

We beg that You subdue the power of our sins by Your Holy Spirit.

Intercession: (also beyond our local)

We pray that Your peace would reign anew on the earth: