A Word in Season: For Us (Isaiah 53:5–6)

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To see the suffering servant of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, ought to be to stand in awed wonder.

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We see him as stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

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That's Isaiah's language in chapters 52 and 53 of his prophecy when he points forward to this suffering servant, when he identifies somebody who will be known as under God's curse, the wrath of the

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Holy One being poured out upon him. We will see the hand of God descend upon him in judgment and we will be astounded.

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We will be tempted to draw back. We will hide our faces. And yet, says

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Isaiah in chapter 53 and verse 5, we need to take this into account, that even as we rear back in horror at what is taking place, we need to understand that he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.

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All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the

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Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Even as we see the

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Lord Jesus suffering under the righteous wrath of a holy God, we need to understand this transaction that is taking place.

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Yes, he is being wounded, he is being pierced, but not account of his own law -breaking, but on our behalf.

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Yes, he is being bruised, he is being crushed, as it were, under a great weight, but that's not because of his iniquities, but for ours.

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He is being chastised, there is a painful punishment coming upon him.

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But it is not so that he might obtain peace, but because we could never have peace apart from him.

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And if we are to have peace with God, if sin is to be punished so that God can be both just and the justifier, then there must be someone who is punished for sin.

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And his wounds, his stripes, those blows that fall upon him, he is being wounded, but we are being healed.

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And there is no way for us to be made whole in our souls unless the judgment of sin falls upon our substitute.

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Verse 6 really drives home the nature of this transaction. Again, the two parties involved.

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Here is the suffering servant, faithful, righteous, obedient, perfect, and yet despised and rejected.

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And here are his people, those who, like sheep, have gone astray, who have turned everyone to his own way.

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We by nature are willful, we do what we wish and what we please, and unless we had somebody who could have laid on him the iniquity of us all by the

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God of heaven, we would remain wandering and lost. You see, there is no reconciliation with God unless sin can be taken out of the equation.

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And there's no way for sin to be taken out of the equation without righteousness and justice.

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God does not just wink at sin. God doesn't turn his back upon it and say, well, let's pretend that didn't happen.

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No, God sees sin in all its ugliness, the transgression, the iniquity, the wickedness of sin, the sinfulness of sin, and God must deal righteously with it.

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And the only way that you or I can be brought then into his fold is if sin is punished righteously and so may be forgiven justly.

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And there is only one way, there is only one person in whom that can be accomplished.

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By God's sovereign appointment and determination, he lays upon a substitute, one who stands in our place, sin and all its punishments.

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He then is wounded for our transgressions, he is bruised for our iniquities, he is chastised for our peace.

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We are healed through his stripes. Yes, we've been wandering willfully, but if we come to Jesus Christ, we will find one in whom our iniquity is fully and finally addressed.

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God has laid it upon him that it might not be laid upon us. And that's what it means to be a true

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Christian, to have faith in Jesus Christ as the suffering servant of God and the only saviour of sinners.