The Suffering Servant as Our Substitute

Isaiah 53:4-6

Introduction

E.g. How do you think you would respond if someone walked in here this morning with the intent of shooting people? Would your response be different if it were at a shopping centre or restraurant where you didn’t know the people like you do here? I wonder who you would would take a bullet for?

Romans 5:7 “7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.”

Paul makes the point that we might do it for someone we think is worthy of the sacrifice

Even that is uncommon

When we see it happen we praise them as a hero

These days the most likely response is probably going to be to hide and livestream it

Romans 5:8 “8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Paul’s point is that we aren’t the righteous or good, we’re the sinner, the enemy of God

Yet Chist died for us still

This is one of the great wonders & magnificent beauties of Christianity & the Gospel

Not just that Christ died but that He died for undeserving people

In fact, this truth is a fundamental belief of Christianity

READ Isaiah 52:13-53:12

We come to the 3rd stanza of this glorious song of the Servant

1st stanza introduces us to His suffering and ultimate success

2nd stanza is how He & His work will be misunderstood and rejected

3rd stanza brings us to heart of that misunderstanding - substitutionary nature of His work

This passage is rich & deep & extremely important

We could easily turn this into a doctrine lesson that could last weeks

Theologically speaking this passage addresses what is known as the Vicarious Death of Christ

Perhaps a little more specifically the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Christ

Penal = punishment for transgression, a satisfying of God’s holiness, a debt was paid

Substitutionary = that another paid the debt that was owed in the place of the actual debtor

Atonement = that the payment was satisfactory, the cleared & attributed to the guilty

Here this familiarly expressed in the hymn Man of Sorrows

Bearing sin & scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood

We don’t have the time to delve into all of that this morning

We do want to understand why this is important and what it means for us

Jesus Bore Our Sin

Isaiah 53:4

He Bore Our Griefs and Our Sorrows

Deals with sin completely

Isaiah uses the same 2 words here as he did in Isa. 53:3

griefs = sickess & sorrows = pains

His point isn’t to focus our attention on relief from temporal troubles

Matthew gives us this verse in context of Jesus’ ministry

Jesus has healed leprous man, centurions servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, demon-possessed, all kinds of sickness

All of this is said to be a fulfilment of Isaiah 53:4

Matthew 8:17 “17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.””

Showing that Jesus came to deal with sin, completely

Every aspect of sin, every result

This is no partial salvation but the work of completely destroying the tyrrany of sin in every way

He bares away our griefs

I didn’t really touch on the connection to sacrifices in last weeks stanza - Meal/Grain offering (Lev. 2)

Here the connection with 2 offerings/sacrifices is quite clear

Peace Offering (Lev. 3)

This offering was about substitution

It was an offering about having peace with God

Leviticus 3:2 “2 And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar.”

It symbolised the transferring of guilt from the offerer to the sacrifice which would be killed as a substitute

Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:21-22)

Perhaps the more clear reference is to the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement

borne means to bear away

Day of Atonement used 2 goats to represent how God atones for sin - looking forward to Christ

1 goat was killed and the blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Lev. 16:15-19)

1 goat was taken & High Priest would place hands on the goat symbolising transfer of people’s sins to the goat

Goat was released into a deserted place to bear away the sins of the people

Leviticus 16:21–22 “21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.”

Picture of what Jesus would actually do for us

By dying for our sin, our sin is transferred onto Him and He will both pay the price for sin & bear them away

He carries our sorrows

Carried has to do with the weight of the load

Sin & all it’s consequences are a heavy load to carry

We stoop, stumble & are crushed by it’s weight

In carrying our sorrows Jesus stoops down to us burdened under sin

Lifts that load off of our shoulders and carries it away

This is Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28 “28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

He Bore Our Ridicule

Our self-righteousness

Perhaps we remember the illustration from John 9 last week

John 9:2 “2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?””

Assumption is this man suffers because he deserves it

Jobs friends assumed the same thing about him

Job 4:7 “7 “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off?”

Same assumption is made of Jesus - He must deserve His suffering

It is a statement of self-righteousness

We determined that God was punishing Him

We’ve determined what His death was for & what it was about

Our answer, all of our answer is, it couldn’t be about me it has to be about Him

While we were His enemies

Like we noted at the beginning

Jesus did this for us while we were His enemies

Hebrews 12:2–3 “2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

Luke 23:32–39 “32 There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. 35 And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” 36 The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, 37 and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” 38 And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS 39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.””

Jesus Brings Peace with God

Isaiah 53:5

He Suffered Violence for Us

The curse of sin

Why all of this suffering and death?

That is the consequences of sin

It is the very thing Adam & Eve were warned about

Genesis 2:17 “17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.””

Result was exactly as God had said - everything fell under the curse of sin

From that moment everything was dying & ruined

This is what the words transgressions and iniquities means

That we have gone beyond God’s boundaries

That we have not lived in perfection or holiness

The cure for sin - the cross

We hear the remedy for this immediately

Genesis 3:15 “15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.””

Sin only results in devastation, pain & violence

Cure for sin is the cross

Wounded for our transgression is literally, pierced through

Bruised for our inquities is to be crushed

The cross is Jesus “bearing the awesome weight of sin” (The Power of the Cross - Getty)

The cause? Us not Him

Main emphasis of this stanza isn’t the pain, violence He bore

Emphasis is why is He bearing it?

our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities, our chastisement

Cause of His suffering wasn’t His own sin but ours

Statement of Isa. 53:4b was wrong - He wasn’t suffering because He deserved it

Isaiah 49–66, Jeremiah II. The Servant’s Sufferings in Their Reason, Their Intensity, and Their Issue

You thought that He was afflicted because He was bad and you were spared because you were good—no, He was afflicted because you were bad, and you were spared because He was afflicted. - Alexander McLaren

Paul sums up the essence of this idea:

2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

That is, on the cross Jesus suffered for sin as a substitute for us

To Bring Peace to Us

We’re separated from God

Perhaps the ultimate result of sin is in the idea of separation

Sin separates us from everything that is good, from life in all of it’s beautiful forms

1 way that was illustrated was in the Garden of Eden

Result of their sin, part of the curse, was they were sent out of the Garden forever

Place where they knew God, talked with God was barred from them

Ones who once were friends with God are now enemies by thier own choice

Romans 5:10 “10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

He brings peace with God

Chastisement/punishment for our sin He took on Himself - death

So that we could be reconciled to God - no longer enemies but friends, family

Romans 5:10 “10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Jesus sets everything right so that through Him we can be at peace with God

What separates us from God is taken care of, relationship is restored, peace with God is real

He brings healing of God

1 Peter 2:24 “24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”

I love how deeply this song of the Servant is imbedded in Scripture

It is the cross, the Gospel that brings the healing we need

Why? Pain, sadness, turmoil, anger, resentment… are the afflictions of sin in our life

You won’t find peace & healing by looking inside yourself

You won’t find healing from your past by ignoring it

Jesus’ bruises, cuts, deep wounds, chastisement are the causes of our being healed

Gospel isn’t just a message about being saved from hell

It is the very way God restores everything that sin ruined

Unbeliever or believer, the Gospel is what we need

Jesus Brings us Home

Isaiah 53:6

He Sought Us

While we went astray

He is the Good Shepherd

Reveals His holiness and love

He Bought Us

With purpose

Debt completely paid

Reconcilliaton Made

Conclusion