Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Isaiah 53 | Date: May 10, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Servant of the Lord

Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. Continuing our studies on the doctrine of salvation, you remember we began with the broad category of redemption planned, and we looked at the decree of God to save, and the doctrines of election and predestination—God selecting a people whom he would save, and then sending his Son to save them. And that was now, what we’ve been in now for a number of weeks, redemption accomplished. God the Son coming to accomplish redemption. We looked at that, first of all, in the broadest sense, that the Son has indeed come on a mission of redemption to secure the redemption of God’s people.

Then we looked at it under the broad category of sacrifice. We looked at what sacrifice means in the Old Testament, how it pointed forward to Christ, and then we looked at Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 with the theme of a better sacrifice, where it expounds the nature of Christ’s death as sacrifice. Well, we keep narrowing it now, and today we deal with the doctrine of substitution. Christ in our place, Christ our substitute. And I think no better place to go than Isaiah chapter 53. Actually, I’ll begin my reading with chapter 52, verse 13.

“Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many as were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance in 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. Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form nor 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. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes 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 from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death. Though he had done no violence, 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 sin, 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.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what a mountain peak, what a marvelous passage of scripture this is. And what a wonderful theme we take up this morning, Christ in our place. We pray that you will give us, if give us anything, any understanding at all, give us an understanding of this centrally important aspect of the gospel, that our hope is tied to Jesus Christ alone who took our place. We pray in his name, amen.

Isaiah chapters 40 through 66 are what have been called by students of the Old Testament the Book of Comfort. It’s announced that way in chapter 40 in verse 1: “Comfort, comfort ye my people.” And he announces this graphic and exciting description of what God will do for his chosen people Israel in bringing them redemption. A prominent figure in this Book of Comfort, chapters 40 to 66—a prominent figure within all of that—is this one who is called “My Servant,” or the “Servant of the Lord,” the “Lord’s Servant.” He appears several times, and in particular, there are four what are called Servant Songs in this Book of Comfort; that is, brief poems within Isaiah’s text about the Servant of the Lord, usually called “My Servant.” We have one in chapter 42, verses 1 to 4. There’s another in the early verses of chapter 49, the early verses of chapter 50, and then again here in our passage, chapter 52, verse 13, through the end of chapter 53. Now there’s arguably a fifth servant song in chapter 61, although the servant is not mentioned explicitly, so it’s not normally included, but it’s clearly about him as well.

Now as we first meet this servant of the Lord in these servant songs, the first thing we notice is the servant is pretty evidently Israel. Israel herself was God’s servant called to do his will on the earth. And there are a number of passages in these servant songs where that’s made explicit, where Israel herself is called the servant. Chapter 41, verses eight and following: “You, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend.” We have it again in chapter 42, “Jacob, my servant,” and again in chapter 44, “Jacob and Israel, you are my servant.” And so we have it—it’s very obvious that Israel is the Lord’s servant in view here.

A Representative Servant

And yet, once we’ve seen that, it’s also extremely important in order to understand it, that there is a single figure within Israel, a figure who individually represents the rest of Israel and acts on their behalf for the Lord. So he is the servant of the Lord par excellence. And we see him referred to with the singular pronouns “he” and “him.” It’s not just Israel. We also find one passage here where Israel addresses the servant, “he.” So clearly there’s this one from within Israel who represents Israel as the servant par excellence. And in fact, it is that representative servant from within Israel who acts to represent and redeem Israel and bring about God’s saving purpose for them. So we have then a servant rising up from within Israel, serving the Lord to accomplish his purpose for his people. Chapter 61 that I mentioned earlier, we have him saying, “I have come to preach and to bring deliverance to his people.” And in fact, the neighboring kings, we are told here, admire not Israel, but this representative from within Israel, this servant who acts on their behalf.

Well, if you’ve read the Bible once, it seems pretty obvious that this is a messianic figure. In fact, in Isaiah as well, we have that. In chapters 1 to 39 of Isaiah, we have the promise of the coming of the Davidic king over and again. There’s some very especially famous prophecies in that section. Chapter 7 of Emmanuel, who will come. Chapter 9 of the son is born, the child that is born, the son that is given. Clearly a messianic figure, a Davidic son who will come. And then in chapters 40 to 66, we have Isaiah telling us of the arrival of that king. And in these passages, that king, that Davidic king, is referred to as the Lord’s servant, the servant of the Lord. That is something of an irony. He’s a servant and yet he’s a king. He’s a servant king coming to serve the great King. We have this great figure arising from within Israel to bring about the Lord’s purpose.

Now the important thing that we are told in chapter 53 here—actually chapter 52 verse 13 and following through chapter 53—is that it is by this individual servant of the Lord that Israel will be restored. Just a quick overview. Look at chapter 52 verse 13 and following. He’ll be exalted. He’ll prosper. He’ll be an exalted king. Verse 13, “Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.” But then jump down to the end, chapter 53 and verse 10 at the end of the verse, “He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” So here we have this triumphant figure, exalted, successfully accomplishing the Lord’s work for him in such a way that he’s exalted for it and triumphs because of it.

The Sufferings of the Servant

And yet, and this is the real irony of the passage, and yet, astonishingly, this servant suffers and suffers unspeakably. We find that in chapter 52, verse 14: “As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.” Chapter 53, verses 1 to 3, he’s a seeming nobody, a life marked by rejection and suffering. “He grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, 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 did not esteem him.”

He gives us details of his suffering in the following verses. Verse 4: “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. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

So he’s one who suffers and suffers greatly, and then, more narrowly, what is especially strange and astonishing is the nature of those sufferings. I want you to follow the text here. He was punished specifically. He was punished, and he was punished for sin. That’s very important to the understanding of the passage. Look at verse eight: “He was stricken for the transgressions of my people.” He’s stricken for transgressions. He is punished because of sin. But the remarkable thing is these sins are not his own. Verse eight again: “He’s stricken for the transgressions of my people.” He suffers because of their sins. Verse four: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Verse six: “All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” He is suffering in the place of those who sinned. Verse 11, he was the righteous servant but he bears the iniquities of others.

In fact, verse nine tells us explicitly, all of this was entirely undeserved. “They made a grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.” And yet shockingly, verse 10, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him. He, the Lord, has put him to grief.” And as for the servant himself, he endures all of this willingly, even voluntarily. That’s verse seven: “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, and yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a lamb that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Verse 12, he, the servant, poured out his soul to death. This suffering, this unjust suffering, this suffering for the sins of others, was not something wrenched from the servant unwillingly. He came for that purpose, and willingly, voluntarily stands in the place of his people to suffer punishment for their sins.

The Doctrine of Substitution

So on the one hand, this servant’s suffering and death were undeserved and unjust. And yet on the other hand, they were divinely appointed and willingly taken. And you put all that together and you think, what in the world? A man suffering for the sins of another unjustly because he had done no sin, and yet this was appointed by God, and it is something the servant himself takes willingly. You put all that together and you have to see he was the servant of the Lord, serving the Lord’s purpose, suffering in the stead of and in the place of the Lord’s people. His suffering and death was in fact the means of rescuing them. Because he suffers the punishment for sin, they will not. Because he bears the iniquity of their sins, because he stands in their place, they are not punished. He is in fact their stand-in, his substitute. And this is simply the doctrine of substitution.

I want you to see the various expressions of that again as you go through the text again. Look at chapter 53 and verse 4. Sometimes the Hebrew arranges the wording here just to draw attention to the fact that it is our sins for which he suffers. And so it fronts the clause like verse 4, “Surely our sicknesses he bore them, and our pains he suffered them.” Verse five, “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 six especially, “We all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Verse 8, the end of the verse, “He was stricken for the sins of my”—that is God’s—”people.” Verse 10, very graphically in the second part of the verse, he would render himself a guilt offering. He would make himself an offering for sin. That is, he would be the guilt offering, the one that was introduced back in Leviticus chapter 5, the one that’s described a couple of times in Leviticus. The Israelite, when he would incur guilt before the Lord by his sin, would bring a lamb or a ram to be slaughtered. It would be sacrificed. The blood would be thrown against the side of the altar to make atonement for sin. That’s the word, the asham, the guilt offering that is offered is himself. He gives himself as the guilt offering. Verse 11, “Their iniquities, he will bear them.” By his suffering, many are made righteous. Verse 12, for that is the sins of many, he bore them.

So here we have the Lord’s people and the Lord’s servant. The Lord’s people sinned; the Lord’s servant suffers for those sins. And because he suffered, they are saved and rescued from the punishment. By his sufferings, they are delivered from the punishment that they deserve because of their sins. He’s their stand-in. There are a few times, three times in this passage, that it gives us an expression that is just brimming with implications other places in the Old Testament as well, and that’s this expression “bearing sin” or “carrying sin.” We see it in verse 4: “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Verse 11: “He shall bear their iniquities.” Or verse 12: “He bore the sin of many.” This expression of bearing or carrying sin normally connotes in the Old Testament the bearing of punishment or the carrying of the punishment for sin.

So, for example, in Leviticus chapter 16, guilty Israel is freed from punishment because the sin goat, the scapegoat, bears their sin off into the wilderness. Another time, Leviticus chapter 24, the blasphemer is to be taken outside the camp. He’s to be stoned. He’s to be taken outside the camp and bear his sin—meaning, obviously, to bear the punishment for his sin. And we have the same in Numbers 14 and some other places as well. The interesting thing here, though, is that although the Lord’s servant bears sin, bears the punishment for sin, it is not for sins that are his own. It is for the sins of others. Verse 4 again: “He has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows.” Verse 11: “Their iniquities he shall bear them.” Verse 12: “He bore the sin of many.” Here we have the Lord’s servant bearing punishment in the place of the Lord’s people. He doesn’t just act for the people in some vague way and not just in a representative way. He takes their place, stands in their place and takes the punishment that they deserved. Because of their unfaithfulness, and because he takes their punishment, they are rescued.

In fact, this has to be just a quick survey of the passage this morning, but notice we have to highlight just what is accomplished by his substitutional death. Again, look through the verses with me. Verse five: “Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.” Restoration, reconciliation to God. Again, verse 5: “With his wounds we are healed.” Complete restoration, deliverance from the curse. Verse 10, his death for others constituted a guilt offering: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes offering for guilt.” So there is the removal of sin by the offering of a guilt offering. Verse 11, he explains further, “Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.” That is, he’ll like what he sees. He’ll take delight in what he sees, and then the rest of the verse tells us just what he sees that gives him delight, and that’s the justification of his people. “By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous,” because he, the righteous one, stands in the place of the Lord’s unrighteous people—they in turn will be accounted righteous because he bore their iniquities.

And then verse 12—I think this theme is just a fascinating one that we see in Isaiah already. We’ll see it in a big way in the Gospel of John in weeks ahead. And that is that he describes his suffering as the means of his success. He succeeds and triumphs by means of his suffering and death. So verse 12: “Therefore I will divide him”—notice that “therefore,” that is because of what we’ve seen in the previous verses, he bears the sins of others. He offers himself as a guilt offering. Because he suffers in their place, therefore “I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.” That is, he’ll see the results of it and these people will be rescued. Because, why? “Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.” So far from his suffering and death being his failure, it is the means of his success. Here he serves the will of the Lord and is successful in it.

So then here is the Lord’s servant. He voluntarily takes the place of sinners, stands in their place. The Lord, for his part, is pleased to crush the servant, punishing him as the sinner’s substitute. And his death then constitutes a guilt offering, which secures every saving blessing for his people: the removal of sin, reconciliation to God, and justification. In his rejection and in his seeming defeat—it’s a marvelous theme, especially when we come to the New Testament—in his rejection and his seeming defeat, he accomplishes God’s saving purpose.

Penal Substitution

Well, the next step, looking at all of this, is to answer the question then: just who is this? Who is this servant of the Lord that Isaiah is speaking of? Who is this one who by his death saves the Lord’s people? Well, you remember, of course, as affirmed many times in the New Testament, but you remember the wonderful story in Acts chapter 8, where we have the deacon, Philip, who’s told to go out to the desert and he comes across this Ethiopian official. He’s up in the chariot, and he’s reading a scroll, an Old Testament scroll. Evidently, he’s a Jewish proselyte. He’s reading the scroll, and so Philip asks him, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” He goes, “How can I? Let someone show me.” And Luke tells us there that the passage of the scripture he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Right here, Isaiah 53. And he asks Philip then, “About whom is the prophet speaking? Is he speaking about himself or someone else?” And Luke tells us that beginning at that very passage, Philip opens his mouth and declares to him the good news about Jesus.

I have a professor friend at the seminary. His name is Peter Gentry. He’s a brilliant Old Testament scholar, a brilliant linguist, a Hebraist, almost in a league by himself—just one of those kinds of wonderful scholars in Old Testament studies. I tell you this because it’s important for the story. You have to see him: big full beard. It’s a good thing he’s in Old Testament studies because he could pass for a Jewish rabbi. And one day he was in Germany giving some lectures in German because he can do that too. And he was on the train going from one place to another, and while he was on the train, he had his Hebrew Bible in front of him, he was reading it, and he was here in Isaiah 53 looking through it.

Comes to one of the stops, a Jewish rabbi steps on, and assuming Peter is another fellow Jewish rabbi, he sees that he’s got his Hebrew scriptures with him, sits down next to him. Train’s moving on, and he says, “Oh, I see you’re reading Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 53. That passage has always puzzled me. Who’s he talking about?” He asked the right guy. And better than I could, he starts—he said, “Well, he’s talking about the”—of course, all this is in German—”He’s talking about the Messiah.” He took a step back. “Well, yeah,” he said, “let me show you.” And he went through some of the things that I’ve shown you, and no doubt better. This is an individual within Israel who represents Israel, and by his representing Israel and standing in their place and punished for their sin, they’re delivered. It’s talking about the restoration of God’s people by the Lord’s servant. That guy’s just dumbfounded by it, and he goes into some detail, and I don’t know how long the discussion went, but it went for a bit. Then he came to his stop on the train, and so Peter gets up to walk out, and the rabbi asked him, “What rabbi did you study under?” Peter turns back and says, “Rabbi Yeshua.” We’d love to know what came of that.

In fact, we have many New Testament echoes of Isaiah 53 referring them to Jesus. Jesus himself made reference to it when he said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” All of that is right out of Isaiah 53. In Mark chapter 14, Jesus says, “This is my blood of the covenant poured out for many.” That’s the language of Isaiah chapter 53. We will see this in some weeks to come when the Gospel of John—this is just a fascinating thing—the Gospel of John, the apostle picks up the language of Isaiah 52 verses 13 and following of the exaltation of the Messiah, the servant. He’s exalted. He’s lifted up. Remember that language? We come to that in the Gospel of John, and it’s in reference to Jesus lifted up in his death. And we’ll see the implications of that in time to come.

But many times in the New Testament, this passage is echoed with reference to Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 15: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” 1 Peter chapter 2: “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 now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.” And again, in 1 Peter 3: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.” This is conceptually right out of Isaiah 53. Suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.

This then is the good news of the gospel told ahead of time. As a result of the servant’s work in place of the Lord’s people, because he takes the punishment of their sin, they are rescued from the punishment that they deserve. And so we have to—having seen the fuller revelation in the New Testament—we have to go back and read Isaiah 53 with this fuller information that we have now and read it more carefully.

So verse 5: “But he”—that is Jesus—”was pierced for our transgressions. He”—that is Jesus—”was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him”—that is on Jesus—”was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his”—that is Jesus’—”wounds, we are healed.” That is, because the Lord Jesus was punished, we are not. Because he was wounded, we are healed. Because he suffered for sin, we do not. He is our stand-in, our substitute.

Isaiah 53 verses 10 and following. Notice the consequences again, the consequences of his substitutional death. And read it again with our New Testament glasses. “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him”—Jesus—”He, the Lord, has put him”—Jesus—”to grief. When Jesus’ soul makes an offering for our guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord”—that is the will of the Lord to save us—”shall prosper in his”—Jesus’—”hand, out of the anguish of his soul.” That is, Jesus’ soul, “he shall see and be satisfied.” That is, satisfied with what he accomplishes there for us. “By his knowledge shall the righteous one, Jesus, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.” That’s us, accounted righteous in Jesus, justified. “And he, Jesus, shall bear our, their, our iniquities.” Therefore, verse 12, “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, Jesus, bore the sin of many”—that’s us—”and makes intercession for the transgressors”—that’s us too.

Verse 10: His—that is Jesus’—death, is an offering for guilt. He makes sacrifice, offers himself in death as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins. And verse 11, by Jesus’ substitutionary sin bearing, we are justified. We have the righteous servant as our substitute, bearing the sin of his people, and rendering us righteous because of it. Having borne our sin, taking our place in judgment, he accomplishes the Lord’s purpose, and as he says in verse 12, the will of the Lord prospers in his hands. Redemption accomplished: the Lord’s servant taking the sins of the Lord’s people and bearing the punishment for those sins himself in their place.

This is the doctrine of—and I’ll give you the specific terminology that you want to know—penal substitution. Both terms are important. Penal substitution, two concepts involved: one, penal—it has to do with the penalty of sin, punishment being meted out substitutionally. That is, in our place, he bears the punishment of our sin, making satisfaction to divine justice, so that justice having been meted out in punishing our sin in the person of our substitute, the Lord Jesus, we then are rescued from our sin and from the punishment that we deserved.

The doctrine of penal substitution is a doctrine you want to know. The language of the older theologians: he took our “law place.” Before the law of God, we were condemned. The law demanded our condemnation. The Lord Jesus took our law place. He stood in our place, took the judgment for our sin, made satisfaction to God for sins that were not his own, and he was condemned in our place so that no God-forsakenness remained for us. That’s verses five and six. 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 Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

I’ll say it again. Penal substitution is a doctrine you want to know, you want to be familiar with. On that very first day, when God opened our eyes to sin, the very first thing we did was run to Jesus because we knew we needed someone to stand in our place to take the judgment for us. And every day of my life since—marked by sin every day is—I want to know that I have someone who stood in my place making answer for my sins. I don’t want to have to pretend that I’ve done well enough. I certainly don’t want to just hope that God will lower the bar to let me in. I want to know that justice has been satisfied. I want to know the curse has been borne. And I want to know that God accepts me because someone more qualified willingly stood in my place.

What we want to know is that the whole reason, the whole reason God accepts us, has nothing to do with us. It has to do with someone else more qualified. The Lord Jesus stood in our place, took the punishment for our sins, and we go free because of him. And that is exactly the gospel. That is the good news of Jesus, that he came as the sinner’s substitute to bear the punishment of our sin so that we would be reconciled to God.

This doctrine of substitution deserves the prominent place it has traditionally had in our church hymnody. “What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners’ gain. Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain. Whence come these sorrows? Whence this mortal anguish? It was my sins for which thou, Lord, must languish.” “My sin, oh, the bliss of the glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more.” “Oh, to see my name written in his wounds.” This is the power of the cross. Christ became sin for us, took the blame, bore the wrath. “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood.” “Was it for crimes that I had done he groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree.”

This is the value of Jesus Christ. If you do not have Jesus Christ, you’re on your own. And you will bear the punishment for your sin all by yourself. But the good news of the gospel is that God has sent his Son from heaven as the substitute for sinners, that Jesus Christ has taken our sin to himself, has suffered in our place, bearing the penalty of sin. And you may have Jesus and all of his saving benefits freely. Just come, bow before him, trust in him as your only hope before God, and be saved. Christ our substitute, Christ in our place, our only hope before God. Amen. Let’s pray.