What did the cross of Christ accomplish? What did the death of Jesus provide for the believer? What does humanity need to be reconciled to God? These are serious and important questions. They are questions concerning the biblical doctrine of the Atonement. Throughout the history of the Church, the doctrine of the Atonement was articulated in various ways. These are often called theories of the atonement. The seven main theories are: Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA), Christus Victor, Satisfaction, Ransom, Moral Influence, Government, and Recapitulation. Of all these theories, PSA is the most controversial, and it has been for some time, but it is more so in recent years. It seems that many people are bringing the doctrine into question or even denying that it is biblical altogether. I do not believe these theories are actually theories but aspects of what Christ achieved for sinners, and PSA is the central aspect of the atonement from which all others flow. Without penal substitution, there is no atonement. There is no AT-ONE-MENT. We are estranged from God by our sins. The consequence of this estrangement is judgment or punishment. God is holy righteousness and just. He must judge sin. But God is also loving and merciful. He offers Himself (The Father sends the Son) as a substitute to suffer the punishment for our sins. We find PSA in many passages in the Bible. The most clear and moving passage is Isaiah 53. This essay is not a critique of the theories of atonement or an answer to the objections to PSA, though both of those are worthwhile ventures. This essay is an exposition of Isaiah 53.
The Bible is a large and complex book. It is often hard to understand. It helps to keep in mind that the Bible has two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. And a simple and accurate way to get at the heart of the Bible is to say that in the Bible, the OT is about promise and the NT is about fulfillment. What do the OT promises and the NT fulfill? Broadly speaking, the OT promises salvation (atonement), and the NT fulfills the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. We find the promises of salvation most often in the OT books of Psalms and Isaiah. In the book of Isaiah, the promises are diverse and varied. One of the beautiful and meaningful ways we see the promise of salvation in Isaiah is in the Servant Songs. There are four of these Servant Songs in Isaiah that give us insight about the person and work of the Messiah (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12). The fourth and final servant song is the most detailed and moving of them all, and deals directly with PSA.
Isaiah 53 is about the suffering of the servant sacrificing himself for sin. We do not find anywhere in the Bible a clearer depiction of what Jesus did on the cross than in Isaiah 53. The chapters and verses in the Bible were not in the original text, but were added much later to facilitate the study of the Bible. They are often a good representation of the flow of the message, but sometimes are off a bit. That is what we find here in Isaiah 53. The suffering servant song begins with the last three verses of Isaiah 52 (52:13-15).
The structure of the suffering servant song is in three parts alternating between the testimony of the Lord and the testimony of people. First, we have the testimony of the Lord: the exaltation and humiliation of His suffering servant (52:13-15). Second, there is the testimony of people: The meaning of the suffering and death of the Lord’s servant (53:1-9). And third, we see the Lord’s testimony: exhalation of the servant, offering atonement for the sins of the people according to the will of the Lord (53:10-12).
Exaltation and Humiliation of the Servant
The final servant song begins with the testimony of the Lord as to the work of the suffering servant in honor and in dishonor. The Lord gives his servant the highest honor because he acts wisely: “Behold, my servant shall act wisely, he shall be highly lifted up, and shall be exalted.” The servant acts wisely in that he fulfills the work of salvation the Lord sent him to do. He did not waver from it. Though he was misunderstood and persecuted, he continued to do the will of the Lord in his mission. The ultimate exaltation will be that the servant, the resurrected Jesus, will sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
The humiliation of the suffering servant will come at the hands of wicked people who beat him and crucified him, distorting his appearance beyond that of a human person. “As many were appalled at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of mankind.” Jesus suffered the hatred and violence of people against him as a sacrifice for sin according to the plan of the Father.
By submitting to the horrors of the cross, Jesus was highly exalted in resurrection and was seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. In this position, he will sprinkle kings and nations with his glory. “He will sprinkle many nations; kings will shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they understand.” The suffering servant, because of his willingness to suffer, will be the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He will bring in the kingdom of God.
Suffering and Death of the Servant
In the second section (53:1-9), we see the human testimony of the meaning of the suffering and death of the Lord’s servant. This section has three subsections: (1) 53:1-3; (2) 4-6; (3) 7-9. The first subsection begins in 53:1 with two questions, where the second answers the first. “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” The answer to the first question is “no one,” until the gospel message is revealed, and the answer to the second question. People reject Jesus until the gospel message is revealed to their hearts by the Holy Spirit, then they see and know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-6). Next, verses two and three explain the rejection of the suffering servant. “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. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Jesus did not come as a human king or a military man or one of the esteemed religious leaders, but as a teacher and healer among the multitude of the poor. In fact, the elites of the day rejected and despised him, and ultimately led most of the common people to do the same. Thus, only the Spirit of God can woo people to Jesus.
The next subsection of the song (53:4-6) is the heart of the song, expressing the vicarious suffering of the servant for the transgressions of the people. It was for sinners that he willingly died. He carried all our brokenness and alienation from God (53:4), yet we cared not for him. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.” In the suffering of Jesus, there was the great exchange. He was pierced, crushed, and chastised in our place, and we received peace and healing (53:5). “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.” The wounding of the sinless one brought healing to the sinners. This is a clear expression of penal substitutionary atonement. Next, the metaphor changes to the sheep who strayed away and the shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep (53:6). “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.” We turned away from the way of God to our own way. But he, the perfect one, the Lord laid on him the weight of our disdain for the way of the Lord.
In the next subsection (53:7-9), we see all the sordid business of the process of his humiliation in crucifixion. There is a three-step process described here. First, he was severely beaten and unjustly tried, yet he made no defense (53:7). “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Second, he is led away to the place of crucifixion and nailed to a tree while the religious leaders and the people cursed and spat upon him (53:8). “By opposition 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 transgressions of my people?” And finally, we see the burial of the innocent one who died for others. He would be buried with the rich (53:9). “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.”
Atonement and Exaltation of the Servant
In the third and final section of the song (53:10-12), we once again see the Lord’s testimony of the servant receiving exaltation for offering atonement for his people according to the will of the Lord. This section has three subsections, as did the second section, corresponding to each of the three verses. In the first subsection (53:10), we are told that it was the will of the Lord to crush his servant by crucifixion and death. It was the plan of God from all eternity to provide salvation through the death of his Son. But it was the servant who poured out his soul as a guilt offering, and in so doing, he shall see offspring and prolong his days. This is a reference to the resurrection of Jesus and the salvation of many people. “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering of guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”
In the second subsection (53:11), we see that the anguish of the servant’s soul experienced in the crucifixion became satisfaction to him in the knowledge that many will be justified (declared righteous) by his atoning death. The righteous one, Jesus, makes many righteous, sinners, by providing forgiveness for their iniquities through his death (2 Corinthians 5:21). “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.”
In the third and final subsection (53:12), we find the conclusion to the song with a declaration of victory through the death of the servant for the sin of many. Victory through apparent defeat is the glory of the gospel. Death brings life. Here we see the servant, Jesus, pour out his soul to death for the salvation of many. In so doing, he makes intercession for transgressors. “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.”
Conclusion
Isaiah 53 is without a doubt the clearest and most powerful prophecy concerning the death of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in the Bible. The chapter is written in poetic language, which provides a highly evocative expression of the suffering and death of Jesus. But the most moving aspect of the song is that it provides the reader with the meaning of the death of the servant of God, Jesus Christ. It answers the questions: Why did Jesus have to die? What does the death of Jesus mean to people? The servant song in Isaiah 53 is the clearest articulation of the biblical teaching of penal substitutionary atonement. We find Isaiah 53 quoted in the New testament in seven passages (Matthew 8:14-17; Luke 22:35-38; John 12:37-41; Acts 8: 26-35; Romans 10:11-21; 1 Peter 2:19-25). Two of these passages deal directly with penal substitutionary atonement (Acts 8:26-35; 1 Peter 2:19-25). The death of Jesus was a substitute for the penalty that our sin brought upon us, and was the means by which we are put in a right relationship with God. The beauty of all this is that it is the eternal plan of God that demonstrates His great love for us. It is the way, the only way, God heals His broken world.