Justification

In Isaiah 53:4-6 we have seen two things…first, we have all sinned; second, sin must be punished; but today I get to share the good news of the Gospel, God punished Jesus in our place.

That leads us to the third point, God punished Jesus in our place.

Notice the pronouns of our passage—He has born our griefs and carried our sorrows.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. With His stripes we are healed. The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

If you had lived in Jesus’ day and happened to come to Jerusalem the day Jesus was crucified—you would have been more likely would not have seen Him as God. First, He was nailed to a cross between two terrible men. That alone would have caused you to think that He was one of them. Second, He was beaten beyond recognition—that would have led you to think he was worse than them. Third, if you were a Jew you would know that anyone hanging on a tree was cursed—surely this man was cursed by God. The words, “Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted” are violent words. It is as if Isaiah is saying—we saw him there and God Himself struck Him violently.

But mere appearances rarely tell the whole story. You see Isaiah said, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” These words when used together mean the Suffering Servant took up our sin, placed them upon Himself, and carried them away. Jesus became our sin bearer. He was punished in our place. This is how we are forgiven—this is the means by which our sin is atoned. There is no other way.

Verses 4-6 speak of Jesus’ sufferings—we can take five adjectives to describe it.

First, they were severe. He was wounded—a better word is the word pierced. He was crushed—the word literally means to be torn apart—to be mangled. He was scourged—by His stripes…His suffering was severe.

Second, they were diverse—he suffered physically, but he also suffered emotionally—He was betrayed, He was denied, He was deserted by His friends, and He was mocked by those who just days earlier had shouted Hosanna at His coming. He also suffered spiritually—“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”

Third, His sufferings were fatal. “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.”

Fourth, his sufferings were punishment—“the chastisement.” God punished Jesus in our place. He bore the punishment that we deserved.

Fifth, his sufferings were substitutionary. Jesus said He would give up his life as a ransom for many. He stood in our place.

Look at the end of verse 6, “And the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The LORD struck Him violently. Albert Martin said you and I will never truly understand the Cross until we get beyond what man did to Him. We often think of what the Romans did or of what the Jews did or of what we did to Jesus on the cross, but to get to the heart of the Cross you and I must go deeper—we must go to the invisible realm where the Father laid our iniquity on His Son and was pleased to put Him to grief so that our sin could be atoned.

Neither the Jews nor the Romans were in charge of the events of the crucifixion—those events had been planned before time began and nothing would stand in the way. In the Garden when Jesus said, “I am He” the guards fell to the ground—do you think they could have taken Him if He did not allow it? The One who spoke the world into existence with legions of angels at his beck and call—do you think the Romans could have nailed the nails if He had not allowed it? Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.” Jesus was in total control of the events.

There was a moment on the cross when everything went dark—most believe that was the moment God poured our His wrath on His Son and Jesus paid the price—the curtain of the temple was torn in two and Jesus said gave up His spirit and died. They didn’t take His life—He was the creator of life. They didn’t take it—He gave it.

Why did He endure such suffering? Why did He do it? The love of the Father secured our Atonement and there was no other way. You see there had to be someone who could identifywith sinners, there had to be someone who could meet the requirements of God, and there had to be someone who would be willing to be our substitute…that One was God who became a man and identified with our suffering, He met the requirements because He was perfect, and He stood in our place and took bore our sin. How could you not worship Him?

Perhaps the greatest expression of worship outside of the Word of God is Handel’s Messiah. Handle composed it in 23 days…I read that in those 23 days he hardly ate. People would bring him food and come back hours later and find it untouched. He just sat there at the piano composing as if he were inspired by God. One of his friends dropped by to see him and found him putting the words of verse 4 to music and there he was seated at his piano weeping into his hand, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”

He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows and gave us His joy.

He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities and He gave us forgiveness.

He was punished in our place and brought us peace—He made peace between those who were at war.

He was striped so that we could be healed. His physical stripes brought us spiritual healing.

I gave you five points about Jesus’ suffering, but let me give you one more—His suffering was successful! Jesus accomplished what He set out to do! Jesus atoned for sin upon the cross by taking our iniquity and by giving us His righteousness. Hallelujah, What a Savior!