The Vicarious Messiah

By S. Lewis Johnson, Jr.

Lewis Johnson served as a teaching elder and regularly ministered the Word at Believers Chapel in Dallas, Texas for more than thirty years. During his academic career he held professorships in New Testament and Systematic Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. At the time of his death in 2004 he was Professor Emeritus of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Dallas Seminary. Both MP3 files and printed notes of Dr. Johnson’s sermons and theological lectures may be downloaded from the website of the SLJ Institute «www.sljinstitute.net». His recordings may also be downloaded from the Believers Chapel website «www.believerschapeldallas.org/temp/online.htm».

An Exposition Of Isaiah 53:4-6 [1]

Introduction

This passage might well be called, “The Great Reversal.” In ignorance the Israel of the past, of the time of our Lord, denied the Holy and Just One and slew the Author of Life (cf. Acts 3:14-17). They self-confidently assumed responsibility for the Messiah’s death by shouting, “His blood shall be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27:25).

The Israel of the future, however, being an enlightened people by then, humbly accept their guilt by crying out, “But he was pierced through for our transgressions” (Isa. 53:5). As we have seen in a previous study, the tenses of the verbs in verses 1 through 9 set the reference of the thoughts expressed by the speakers in past time. [2] They are looking back over their past acts and attitudes to the Messiah and acknowledging their sinful failure to recognize him as the promised deliverer. It is truly “The Great Reversal”!

This great prophetic song of the Suffering Servant is also one of the most significant of all the Old Testament passages on the atonement. And it surely indicates that whatever theory of the atonement we may hold, it must include the idea of substitution. Christ’s death is far more than simply an act which reveals God’s love and thereby produces in us a response of faith and love that saves, as men like Peter Abelard and many contemporary theologians have maintained. It is also far more than a defeat of Satan and a release of sinners held captive by him, although that is a true idea (cf. Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8). The “classic idea” of the atonement laid stress upon the defeat of Satan. And it is more than simply a satisfaction for sin rendered to the justice and holiness of God, as Anselm stressed, although any genuine explanation of the atonement must include that. To put it simply, the death of Christ was a penal satisfaction through substitution. As a substitute for God’s people, Christ bore the divine penalty for sin and thus accomplished their release from the judgment of sin. That is what is expressed by the words of our passage.

Listen to the fifth verse, “But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him.” There it is plainly, a penal satisfaction of the divine claims against us through substitution. As Forsyth put it, speaking of the atonement made by the Son of God, “There it is that Christ comes to himself for good. There, as it were, He finally finds his tongue, and takes command of the deep eloquence of moral things.” [3]

That this section is written of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, is confirmed by Matthew’s citation of verse 4 after describing Jesus’ act of casting out demons and of healing all that were sick, “This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases’” (Matt. 8:17).

The Confusion Of Israel, Verse 4

Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried; yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Their Faith Now, Verse 4a

As we said, Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is Israel’s great penitential confession. It is to be made in the future, perhaps at the time that they see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and abundant glory (cf. Matt. 24:30). In that case the prophecy is the vocalization of Zechariah 12:10-14, where the Lord speaks as Zechariah prophesies, “I (that is, the Lord) will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (v. 10). What a glorious day that will be when Israel, moved by efficacious grace from God, shall come to the realization of what they have done to their Messiah and what he has done for them. [4]

Verse 4, then, expresses their faith in that future day, “Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried.” The adverb “surely” is “an exclamation to emphasize the unexpected.” [5] Since the word translated “bore” is used in connection with the bearing away of the nation’s sin by the goat of departure on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:22), it has been suggested that there is an allusion here to the Day of Atonement. The true Day of Atonement would then be the day Christ died on Golgotha, and that, of course, is true.

Their Faith Then, Verse 4b

The second part of verse 4 describes how they felt at the time that Christ was carrying out his atoning ministry. They confess, “Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken.” The attitude of Israel to him was similar to the so-called “Deuteronomic” view of suffering—that is, if a person suffers misfortune, it is because he has done, something wrong.

In Charles M. Schulz’ cartoon, “Peanuts,” it is Lucy who champions that view. The following encounter of Linus with a sliver in his finger and Lucy’s reasoning about it illustrate this:

Lucy, seeing something is wrong with Linus, says, “What’s the matter with you?” 

Linus replies, “I have a sliver in my finger.” 

Lucy responds, “Ah, Ha! That means you’re being punished for something. What have you done wrong lately?” 

Linus protests, “I haven’t done ANYTHING wrong!” 

Lucy’s response is, “You have a SLIVER, haven’t you? That’s a MISFORTUNE, isn’t it? You’re being punished with misfortune because you’ve been BAD.” 

By this time Linus’ tongue is out of his mouth and beads of perspiration are falling from his face. 

Charlie Brown enters the discussion at this point with, “Now, wait a minute…. Does…” 

Lucy interrupts him with, “What do you know about it, Charlie Brown? This is a SIGN! This is a direct sign of punishment! Linus has done something very wrong, and now he has to suffer misfortune!” 

Lucy continues her sermon, “I KNOW ALL ABOUT THESE THINGS! I KNOW THAT A…” 

Linus now interrupts with, “It’s OUT! It just popped right out!” 

Lucy, obviously unhappy and looking like a thundercloud, turns to walk away but hears Linus say, “Thus endeth the theological lesson for today!”

This viewpoint is that of the nation of Israel, for they thought him “stricken,” a word sometimes used of leprosy, as in Uzziah’s case (cf. 2 Kings 15:5). [6] They also say that they thought he had been “smitten of God” (cf. 50:6). In other words, they thought his sins were the reason he was suffering crucifixion (cf. Matt. 26:67). Actually he was smitten of God (as verse 10 clearly indicates), but it was not for his sin—rather, that he might accomplish atonement in his death.

The verse clearly indicates that the sinful nation is not a people without religion. They think of him as smitten “of God.” They believe in God and regard suffering as a punishment for sin—the “Deuteronomic” view. They look, however, to the wrong place for the sin. Instead of looking at themselves, in the spirit of Pharasaism they look for sin in him.

In Jewish literature he has been called Poshe, “the transgressor,” and in the Talmud he is linked with Titus and Balaam in Hell. [7]

The Conviction Of Israel, Verse 5

But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed.

Regarding His Wounding, Verse 5a

The opening (“But he”) of verse 5 is emphatic, being contrasted with the “yet we” of verse 4. “Yet we” esteemed him smitten of God, “but he” was wounded for “our” transgressions. The word rendered here by “wounded” is one that has the sense of piercing. “He was pierced for our transgressions” is the rendering of the New International Version. It suggests the incident at the crucifixion, when the Roman soldier pierced Christ’s side, producing the outpoured blood and water (cf. John 19:34). The nation then shall sing Toplady’s great hymn, “Rock of Ages.”

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and pow’r. [8]

Regarding His Crushing, Verse 5b

The crushing, reminiscent of the prophecy in Eden of the serpent crushing him, refers to the depth, intensity, and completeness of his suffering. He bore it all, and finished his work (John 19:30; cf. Gen. 3:15).

Regarding His Chastisement, Verse 5c

The chastisement which has led to their peace [9] finds its origin in his bearing of it. The peace is, of course, peace with God (cf. Rom. 5:1).

Regarding His Bruise, Verse 5d

The words, “by his scourging,” are literally “by his bruise,” the word for bruise being singular in number (cf. 1 Pet. 2:24). It is generally taken as a collective singular, but if it is not, it may refer to the distinctive bruising of the cross.

One notices, as George Adam Smith has pointed out, progress in the nation’s appraisal of the Suffering Servant: “At first they were bewildered by the Servant’s suffering; then they thought it contemptible, thus passing upon it an intellectual judgment; then, forced to seek a moral reason for it, they accounted it as penal and due to the Servant for his own sins; then they recognized that its penalty was vicarious, that the Servant was suffering for them; and finally, they knew that it was redemptive, the means of their own healing and peace. This is a natural climax, a logical and moral progress of thought.” [10] The “we” of the passage refers to “the true Israel,” believing Israel, those whose thoughts of him have changed by God’s working in their hearts, those to whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed in effectual grace.

The Confession Of Israel, Verse 6

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

Their Sin, Verse 6a-b

And now the elect remnant of the nation makes its confession of sin—and it is unreserved, for “all” have sinned; and it is thoughtful, for the metaphor of sinning “like sheep” is marvelously revealing, being both personal and particular, for each has turned “to his own way.”

Mr. Spurgeon’s comments on sinning like sheep are illuminating. He writes:

Not like the ox which ‘knoweth its owner,’ nor even like the ass which ‘remembers its master’s crib,’ nor even like the swine which if it wandereth all day long cometh back to the trough at night, but ‘like sheep we have gone astray’; like a creature cared for but not capable of grateful attachment to the hand that cares for it; like a creature wise enough to find the gap in the hedge by which to escape, but so silly as to have no propensity or desire to return to the place from which it had perversely wandered; like sheep habitually, constantly, willfully, foolishly, without power to return, we have gone astray. [11] Cf. 1 Pet. 2:25.

It has been said, “Every heresy has its root in defective views of sin,” and that is probably a true observation. If it is so, then this national remnant of believers is on its way to sound theology.

Their Salvation, Verse 6c

The clause “but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him” brings the third stanza of the song to a brilliant climax. The figure suggested by the verb “fall on” is an exceedingly emphatic and violent figure. The word is used in 2 Samuel 1:15, where David commands oneof his young men to “fall upon” and slay the young Amalekite who had willfully slain King Saul.

It is as if one held up a magnifying glass and focused all the light of the sun on one small spot. What a fire that would produce! God caused all the fires of divine judgment and retribution produced by universal human sin to meet in the soul and spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ as he hung on Calvary’s cross. There he bore the awful plague of “unknown sufferings,” as the Greek liturgy has it.

Mr. Spurgeon’s metaphor captures the violence of the judgment of the Suffering Servant for the elect but sinful sheep. “Before a great storm,” he writes, “when the sky is growing black and the wind is beginning to howl, you have seen the clouds hurrying from almost every point of the compass as though the great day of battle were come, and all the dreadful artillery of God were hurrying to the field. In the center of the whirlwind and the storm, when the lightnings threaten to set all heaven on a blaze, and the black clouds fold on fold labor to conceal the light of day, you have a very graphic metaphor of the meeting of all sin upon the person of Christ; the sin of the ages past and sin of the ages to come, the sins of those of the elect who were in heathendom, and of those who were in Jewry; the sin of the young and of the old, sin original and sin actual, all made to meet, all the black clouds concentrated and brought together into one great tempest that it might rush in one tremendous tornado upon the person of the great Redeemer and substitute.” [12]

And let us not forget that our text says it is none other than Yahweh himself who laid on him the iniquity of us all. It was, then, the Father himself who caused his Son to cry out at Calvary, “My God! My God! why have you forsaken me?” (cf. Matt. 27:46).

Thus, as the representative of his people, the Lord Jesus has become responsible for their debts and obligations to the divine justice and holiness, and he has paid them all. As the scapegoat, upon whom the sins of Israel were laid on the Day of Atonement, so upon the Suffering Servant of Jehovah have been laid the sins of his sheep, and he has borne them off into an uninhabited land (cf. Lev. 16:21-22).

Conclusion

The first thing that stands out in these verses is the basic Christian truth that Christ’s sufferings were substitutionary. That truth is affirmed about ten times in this passage. Notice the prophet’s uses of the pronouns, “our,” “we,” and “us.” [13]

Countless modern theologians have rejected the biblical doctrine of propitiation, namely, that righteousness and justice are attributes of the divine being and must be satisfied by a proper substitute, if forgiveness and justification are to be meted out. Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, a noted clergyman and one of the first six presidents elected by the World Council of Churches, thought that such a view of God was “loathsome”; to him it was “an offense” to his moral sense. In one of his writings he even implies through an illustration that such a God was a “dirty bully”! [14]

I must say to those who reject the propitiation offered by Christ, as Luther said to Erasmus, “Your thoughts of God are too human.” [15]

Is such a work of Christ a just work? There is a fourfold support for thinking so. First, the act of propitiation was an act of God. As Paul says, we are “justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24-26).

Second, it was a voluntary act on the part of the Son. Third, it was carried out in his relationship of union with the people of God, and was no more immoral than a husband’s payments of his wife’s debts. Finally, it was and is in perfect harmony with the divine plan of the fall under a covenantal head, Adam, and of a restoration in redemption through another covenantal head, the Last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:21-22).

The final thing that stands out here is the sufficiency of his sufferings. “All of us,” to use the prophet’s words, “like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.” The remedy corresponds to the perversity.

Let me say, a few words regarding the “us” of “us all.” I believe that Christ’s atoning work is infinite in value and sufficient for the salvation of every human being. If Christ had purposed to save all men, he would not have had to suffer one further pang. His atonement is sufficient to redeem the entire race. Further, I believe that a universal invitation to salvation is genuinely offered to every creature under heaven.

At the same time, I believe that Christ paid the debts of the elect people of God. If he paid the debts of all, they are paid, and no one can be called to account for them. If lost men are to be called to account—and Scripture plainly affirms this—then on what grounds can they be punished for the sins for which Christ has paid the penalty? Christ’s redemption would then be a redemption that does not redeem.

At a great parliament of religions held at Chicago many years ago, practically every known religion was represented, and many were the learned discourses that were delivered. During one session, Dr. Joseph Cook of Boston suddenly rose and said, “Gentlemen, I beg to introduce to you a woman with a great sorrow. Bloodstains are on her hands, and nothing she has tried will remove them. The blood is that of murder, and nothing will take away the stain. She has been driven to desperation in her distress. Is there anything in your religion that will remove her sin and give her peace?”

A hush fell upon the gathering as the speaker turned from one to another for an answer. Not one of the company replied. Raising his eyes heavenward, Dr. Cook then cried out, “I will ask someone else. John, apostle of Jesus Christ, can you tell this woman how to get rid of her awful sin?” The great preacher waited, as if listening for a reply. Suddenly he cried, “Listen. John is speaking, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin’” (cf. 1 John 1:7). [16]

Not a soul broke the silence. The representatives of eastern religions, western cults, and the diluters of apostolic Christianity sat dumb. In the face of human need, they were without message or hope. The gospel of Christ alone meets our need. The sin of the race requires the blood of Calvary.

Notes

1. This is article nine in a twelve-part series, “Anticipations of the Messiah in the Old Testament.”
2. Cf. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., “The Misunderstood Messiah: An Exposition of Isaiah 53:1-3,” EmJ 21 (Summer, 2012): 35-45 (esp. 38).
3. P. T. Forsyth, The Cruciality of the Cross (London: Independent Press, 1948), 26.
4. See the expositions of the Zechariah passage in David Baron, The Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (London: Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel, 1918; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1972), 436-55; Merrill F. Unger, Zechariah: Prophet of Messiah’s Glory (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1963), 214-19.
5. Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (Leiden and Grand Rapids: Brill and Eerdmans, 1951), 1:44.
6. The term translated “stricken” is used of an individual afflicted with leprosy, but it is also used of other afflictions. Thus there is no implication that our Lord was afflicted with the disease, nor that the disease was the figure back of individuals hiding their faces from him. Cf. Allan A. MacRae, The Gospel of Isaiah (Chicago: Moody, 1977), 137-38.
7. David Baron, The Servant of Jehovah (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1922), 87-88.
8. Augustus M. Toplady, “Rock of Ages,” Hymn # 204 in The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration (Waco, TX: Word Music, 1986).
9. MacRae, The Gospel of Isaiah, 138-39.
10. George Adam Smith, The Book of Isaiah (New York: Harper, 1927), 2:369.
11. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “Sin Laid on Jesus,” in The Treasury of the Bible (reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 3:737.
12. Spurgeon, “Sin Laid on Jesus,” 737.
13. A number of helpful works defending the penal substitutionary atonement are available today among which we may mention: Charles E. Hill and Frank A. James III, eds., The Glory of the Atonement: Essays in Honor of Roger Nicole (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2004); J. I. Packer and Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007); Steve Jeffery, Mike Ovey, and Andrew Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution (Nottingham, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 2007); Richard D. Phillips, ed., Precious Blood: The Atoning Work of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009).
14. G. Bromiley Oxnam, Preaching in a Revolutionary Age (Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1944), 79.
15. Martin Luther, “Review of Erasmus’ Preface,” in On the Bondage of the Will, trans. J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston (Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1957), 87. The standard translation today is that of Philip S. Watson. See Martin Luther, De Servo Arbitrio, in Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation, eds., E. Gordon Rupp and Philip S. Watson, LCC (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), 125. Watson translates, “Your thoughts about God are all too human” (nimis enim humana cogitas de Deo).
16. Editor’s note: For the full text of Cook’s sermon, see Joseph Cook, “Strategic Certainties of Comparative Religion,” in The World’s Parliament of Religions at the Columbian Exposition of 1893, ed. John Henry Barrows (Chicago: The Parliament Publishing Co., 1893), 1:536-42.