Isaiah 53:4-6 – Christ suffered on our behalf

Isaiah 53 verse 2 said that the Messiah would be despised and abandoned. Mankind  would reject and hide their face from Him. On the account of His sufferings and humiliation they would despise, reject, and abandon Him and turn their back on Him in contempt. In rejecting the Messiah Isaiah 53:4-5 tell us that those who thought in that way had erred. They had failed to realize that He was bearing the sufferings, sicknesses, and sins on mankind’s behalf. The sinless Messiah had nothing intrinsic in Himself that deserved all that He had gone through. He was carrying the consequences of the sins of mankind, ours included. Yet we, whom He had endured the sufferings for, considered that He deserved the sufferings for His own misdeeds. We failed to realize that it was for our sin that He was smitten of God. He stood in our place to be grievously humiliated and struck down by God.

 

The wounds He was inflicted with were for our transgressions. The punishment for our sins was laid on Him. This Messiah willingly subjected Himself to be crushed for our wrongdoings. It was what He went through that brought our healing. He brought us our right standing with God, bringing wholeness to our spirit, soul, and body. He had vicariously taken the punishment due to us so that we could be redemptively reconciled to God.  He made it possible for God to accept us.   

 

Verse 6 leaves us with no doubt that the punishment the Messiah went through was for us. For we all were like straying sheep, listlessly and aimlessly wandering farther and farther from God. Every one of us, until Christ came into our life, was unconcerned for our sin and how our wrongdoings offended God. In His goodness and grace, God had allowed the Messiah to bear all our wrongdoings. In His sufferings, we strayed sheep can now find our redemption through Him. Instead of griefs, sorrows, transgressions, iniquities, turmoil, sicknesses, we now can have the peace, joy, health, and wholeness in God.  

 

In Christ Jesus, we see all this realized. He became our substitute and took the punishment that was due to us. He intentionally became our substitute. To feel the impact of what Christ had done for us, let’s hear how Eugene Patterson in the Message had so succinctly paraphrased these three verses:

“But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises, we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on him, on him.”

How can we ever repay our Lord for all that He had done for us? Nothing short of a hundred percent commitment is a worthy response for all that He had vicariously carried for us. In gratitude let us commit to living for Him, and living to serve His purpose. That’s the only appropriate response! Let’s do it!