The Jesus Gospel - Liam Goligher takes us to the heart of Isaiah 53

Wounded for me

The 2006 Boston University in London annual lecture was given by Professor Peter Hawkins, the Professor of Religion and Literature there. He commented that many who come to study the Bible at Boston assume they know what it means. He cited evangelicals — sure they know what the Bible means — though they have never read it.

Then he went on to describe the different gospels that are gaining currency: for instance, the prosperity gospel, the self-esteem gospel and the therapeutic gospel. Commenting on the prosperity gospel, he said that the idea that following Jesus leads to success and triumph cannot be sustained from Jesus’s own teaching. If success is the criterion for heroism, then Jesus doesn’t qualify.

Listen to some of the things Jesus said: ‘The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.’ Or, ‘He opened up their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures and told them, “This is what is written: The Christ the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day”.’ We are told three things. First, Jesus understood his destiny to be suffering and death. Second, he learned his destiny from the Bible. Third, he had resolved to fulfil that destiny voluntarily. But which Scriptures guided his view about his destiny?

The great German Professor Joachim Jeremias put it like this: ‘No other passage from the Old Testament was as important to the church as Isaiah 53.’ John Stott wrote: ‘Every verse in the chapter except verse 2 is applied to Jesus in the New Testament, some verses, several times… Jesus’s whole public career… is seen as the fulfilment of… Isaiah 53.’

Isaiah is addressing the nation 700 years or so before Jesus appears. The nation is a privileged and holy nation but has disqualified itself from being described as God’s holy people. Sin is the problem, and Isaiah is addressing those who will come under the ap-proaching judgement. As he looks into this troubled future, Isaiah tells them about the coming figure whom he calls ‘the Servant’ and this passage marks the high point in his description.

Exalted one humbled, 52.13-15

Who is this Servant? His description begins with exaltation: ‘My servant will act wisely’ (v.13). That is he will accomplish his purpose. ‘He will be raised and lifted up.’ This parallels the story of Jesus, who is raised in his resurrection, lifted up through his ascension to heaven and highly exalted at the right hand of God. Isaiah has already used this exaltation phraseology four times, and everywhere else it describes God himself (Isaiah 6.1).

But then Isaiah reverses the process by telling us that this exalted Servant will be brought very low. ‘Many…were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man’ (v.14). There is shock at his appearance. (Modern-day heroes are good-looking.) But many are repelled by what they see; appalled at his scarred face and torn body. Yet, in spite of this, he still makes an impact. ‘He will sprinkle many nations’ (v.15). The overall idea is that just as many are appalled at him, many are going to benefit from him. The word ‘sprinkle’ refers to the Servant’s work being a priestly work, a sign of sacrifice being made.

Promised one rejected, 53.1-3

The Servant, or promised one, is first described as ‘the arm of the Lord’ (v.1). Whenever this expression is used in Scripture it always has overtones of power and triumph. Surely that is what we expect here? Instead, Isaiah focuses on the weakness of the Servant (vv.2,3). When this arm appears, it appears like a tender shoot and a root out of dry ground — vulnerable and unobtrusive. People will not naturally look at him and say ‘That’s the leader!’ At Christmas he came into the world as a baby. Only by revelation could people ever see that this one, who is so humbly born, so unimpressive in appearance, could yet be the arm of the Lord (Luke 2.25, 30).

When Isaiah says, ‘He was despised’ (v.3), it means to be regarded as of little value, not worth talking about. Jesus was despised. People thought he had no relevance to them whatsoever, especially because he had his own troubles — ‘a man of sorrows’ (v.3). The authentic Jesus doesn’t measure up to our normal ideas of success or celebrity or strength. And just as today people are beguiled by the doctrine of health and wealth, so in the past Christians have been beguiled by the ideas of success, influence and even political and territorial superiority. But they weren’t acting as Christians; they were following the world’s philosophy. Jesus, this arm of God, will surprise us. Hence the question: ‘Who has believed our message?’ (v.1). Not many.

Substituted one punished, 53.4-6

At the heart of the passage we discover God in action through the work of a substitute, who is acting alone. He is ‘pierced for our transgressions…crushed for our iniquities’ (v.5). The whole emphasis of verses 4-6 is on his suffering. He suffers, but not because of anything he has done wrong. Ours are the griefs, sorrows, transgressions, iniquities; he is the one ‘stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted’.

Isaiah 53 says it explicitly. Sin is an offence against God. He takes it seriously, it provokes his wrath and he will punish it himself. Alienation from God is so serious that the OT sacrificial system was introduced to teach us that an innocent sacrifice must die if we are ever to have fellowship with God again. There is no escaping the point; it is God himself who punishes the Servant as he stands in for his people. Isaiah says later ‘it was the will of the Lord to crush him’ (v.10, English Standard Version).

This is what we call ‘penal substitution’, a substitute suffering the penalty due to another. But the question re-mains: ‘Can an animal die for a human being?’ In the end a sheep cannot act as a substitute for a person. But a perfect man could. The Lamb of God could. John’s Gospel introduces Jesus with the words: ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1.29). What happens to the Servant? He is ‘pierced’ and ‘wounded’. ‘Crushed’ means pulverised. The language emphasises how seriously God takes sin.

We typically wish to make light of our ‘shortcomings’, to explain away our ‘mistakes’. But God will have none of it. The refusal of humanity to bow to the Creator’s rule, and our insistence on drawing up our own moral codes that pander to our lusts, are not shortcomings and mistakes. They are the stuff of death and corruption, and unless someone can be found to stand in our place, they will see us impaled on the swords of our own making, broken on the racks of our own design.

So what has God done about it? ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (v.6). At the very heart of the Christian message is the self-substitution of God.

Innocent one slaughtered, 53.7-9

The substituted one is also the innocent one. Verse 7 talks about his voluntary acceptance of his role: the silence of willing submission. ‘He was oppressed …yet he did not open his mouth.’ Why? Because he was standing in our place, he is going to take our sin upon himself. He will not evade what lies ahead because we are on his heart.

He experiences injustice. The gospel accounts prove that every rule of Jewish procedural law was broken at the trial of Jesus. He is led like a lamb to the slaughter.

Weak one glorified, 53.10-12

There is always something terribly compelling about the story of the innocent sufferer. It leaves so many questions up in the air and it is the same here. Is this an accident? Was this beyond God’s control? What did Jesus’s suffering achieve? Isaiah rounds off as he tells us: ‘After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities’ (v.11). Not only will he see life, but he will give us life. We think of the words on the cross: ‘Finished!’ ‘Accomplished!’ ‘Done!’ The work he came to do is completed. So there is triumphal exultation in verse 12: ‘I will give him a portion among the great’.

Before that moment of standing before Pilate in the judgement hall, this is on Jesus’s mind. Before they took him and put nails through his wrists, this is on his mind. What is the only proper response to what this suffering Servant achieved? ‘Sing’, Isaiah says, ‘shout for joy’ (54.1). It is time for joy because of what this Servant has achieved. ‘Enlarge the place of your tent’ (54.2). Realise that something is going to happen that is going to break all boundaries. Good news. The God we have offended by our sin is the God who loves us and the evidence is the work of the suffering Servant. God’s last word (55.1) is to invite all to come to the Lord Jesus!

This is an edited extract from The Jesus Gospel by Liam Goligher, published by Authentic Media, and is used with permission.