WWUTT 2119 Like a Lamb Led to Slaughter (Isaiah 53:7-9)

Penal Substitutionary Atonement in Isaiah 53

Penal substitutionary atonement is one of the most hated biblical doctrines by heretics and liberal theologians. But it is a doctrine that is plainly taught in the pages of Scripture, especially Isaiah 53, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. In our study of the book of Isaiah, we've been in Chapter 53. And going through this chapter more slowly, as this is the month of Easter, and Isaiah 53 reveals to us the Christ, foretells of what He will be like, what He will go through for us, and all of this, that we may recognize the wonderful work of salvation that God had predestined.

700 years before Jesus was born was when these things were prophesied, and God put forth His Son that through His sacrifice, we would be forgiven our sins. We're into the second half of Isaiah 53 now, so I'm going to begin by reading in verse 7 and go through verse 12 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.

By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, that for the transgression of My people, striking was due to Him?

So, His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.

If you would place His soul as a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied.

By His knowledge, the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide for Him a portion with the many, and He will divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.

Yet He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. We are in that third portion of Isaiah 53 now, which goes from verses 7 to 9. What we've read thus far, we have read that He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Man of sorrows, that famous hymn was lifted right from the words of Isaiah 53. In the next section, we read that He Himself bore our griefs. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

There's that famous passage in verse 6, all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to His own way, but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. The doctrine that we commonly refer to as penal substitutionary atonement, Isaiah 53 perhaps unfolds that doctrine more clearly than any other chapter in the Bible, especially as we read that He was pierced for our transgressions.

Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Later on in verse 10, we read Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, if you would place His soul as a guilt offering.

So that concept or that idea of penal substitutionary atonement, that is a biblical doctrine. It's really an essential biblical doctrine. You must believe that Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The very fact that scripture refers to Christ's sacrifice as a propitiation for our sins, the whole concept of penal substitutionary atonement is wrapped up in that word propitiation. We see that word in Romans 3 .25, God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

Propitiation means that the wrath of God was satisfied by the sacrifice of Christ. In 1 John 2, He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4 .10, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

This is one of the most hated doctrines. It is astonishing the number of people that I will encounter who just vehemently hate the concept of penal substitutionary atonement. Brian Zahn, who is a false teacher in St. Joseph's, Missouri, a heretic, outright heretic, has kind of made it his platform to oppose penal substitutionary atonement, which he calls cosmic child abuse, that God would put His Son to death, that the Father would crush the Son on our behalf.

The Father killing His Son, that's barbaric, he would say, and God help him. Every time I hear him make that statement, it makes me tremble. I tremble for him. You are accusing God of wickedness. You're accusing God of sin.

God help you, that He would convict your heart and that you would repent of these wicked things that you say. Penal substitutionary atonement, what do we mean by that term? What does it mean? Well, penal simply means punishment.

It is a penalty. It is the judgment that one deserves because of their sin. We deserve judgment. Jesus does not. But He laid His life down on our behalf, and that's where you get to the next word, substitution.

He replaced something. By His sacrifice, He stands in our place. So penal, this is the judgment that we deserve, substitution, Christ took that punishment upon Himself, and then atonement. He made payment for our wrong.

And that's exactly what we have expressed here in Isaiah 53, Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. And then the section that we read today, verse seven, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.

So going back to the verse that we finished with last week, we are all like sheep that have gone astray, but Jesus is the lamb that was sacrificed in our place. We were all blemished lambs. We could not have died to atone for our own sinfulness.

If we were going to perish, we would not only die in our bodies, but then we would perish forever under the judgment of God in hell. But Jesus put Himself forward as a sacrifice, Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation in His blood to be received by faith for a demonstration of His righteousness.

Because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So Jesus is the lamb, the spotless lamb that is put forward on our behalf. And as we read in Hebrews, that the blood of bulls and goats never had the power to forgive us of our sins anyway. It is the blood of the lamb of God that is able to take away our sins.

And so by faith in Him, God transfers to us the righteousness of Christ. Our sins placed upon Him and God crushes Him for our iniquities, our righteousness placed upon us so that God receives us as sons and daughters of God.

Jesus was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. It is this very chapter that is referenced in 1 Peter 2. I've made a confrontation of Brian Zahn in the past because Brian Zahn will say that penal substitutionary atonement is not taught anywhere in the Bible.

And I will bring up Isaiah 53 and show it to him. We've had these interactions before, he and I. He used to live just two hours away from me and his false teaching was felt in the area where I preached.

I would encounter people who would come in my church that would say they listened to Brian Zahn and I would have to convince them he's a heretic and you should have nothing to do with him. So he and I have had our back and forths and he would make this claim that penal substitutionary atonement is not taught anywhere in the Bible.

I would bring up Isaiah 53 and quote it to him. And guess what his best response was to that? His best response was Isaiah 53 isn't quoted anywhere else in the Bible. That's all he had as though that was somehow his trump card like that would that would totally defeat the penal substitutionary argument.

Well first of all he's dead wrong because Peter quoted quite a bit from Isaiah 53. Listen to 1 Peter 2 21 which I've read in the context of Isaiah 53 already in previous lessons but listen to this again for to this you have been called since Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps who did no sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth who being reviled was not reviling in return while suffering he was uttering no threats but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

Now that's not a direct quote there are some direct quotes in there but that's not a direct quote of Isaiah 53 7 yet you can tell where Peter was directly influenced by that right he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter going on 1 Peter 2 24 who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree penal substitutionary atonement so that having died to sin we might live to righteousness by his wounds.

You were healed that's Isaiah 53 for you were continually straying like sheep also Isaiah 53 but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. It is unmistakable the doctrine the theology that is being taught to us here in Isaiah 53 centuries before Jesus would come and die as an atoning sacrifice on our behalf.

We can read it plainly here and as I mentioned last week the language that we read in Isaiah 53 though this was this was spoken of hundreds of years before Jesus fulfilled it yet the language is past tense.

Do you notice that our griefs he bore our sorrows he carried he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities verse 7 he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth.

And we've been reading about the fulfillment of that as we've been going through our study in Matthew right on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. We just read in chapter 26 how Jesus was brought to trial this this monkey trial that happened in the presence of the high priest.

They made accusations of him and he did not open his mouth. And we're going to see this again as Jesus comes before Pilate and once again accusations are going to be made of him. And he won't open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter like a sheep that is silent before its shearers.

Now I have never been involved in shearing sheep. Certainly have never been involved in sacrificing sheep or butchering a sheep. I guess as we would do it today wouldn't be uh lamb sacrifices in the temple or anything like that.

However a missionary friend of mine had gone down to South America and they the church that he went to that he was ministering in. They did a thing for their Easter week for their holy week where they would slaughter a lamb and they would do that in memory of the Passover lamb that would be sacrificed in that very week when Jesus would partake in that supper with his disciples so they would practice communion they would have the bread and the cup.

But then they would also slaughter a lamb in that particular week. And he videoed it. And when he came back to our church and shared of these things at our church in Kansas he showed us the and when the lamb was bound it was laid down on the ground as somebody would read from the scriptures.

And as the lamb was bound and laying there on the ground it was making all kinds of noise and and ruckusing as it was being brought in. But once it was bound and laid on the ground it was completely silent wasn't even dead yet.

But yet being bound it was silent. That was very strange to me that it made all this noise until they bound its legs and then it was still did not struggle did not make a sound. And immediately what came to my mind was Isaiah 53.

That may have been what the the preacher in that moment was reading from. I don't remember clearly but but I do remember thinking of Isaiah 53 when I saw that he was like a lamb led to slaughter but but he didn't open his mouth.

And so just as this happens really with a sheep what a picture that God providentially painted with this animal that would be fulfilled in Christ. That he too when he was being led away he didn't protest because he knew that he was in submission to the will of the father ultimately it to the glory of the father.

But my friends he also did this out of love for us. For as we read in 2nd Corinthians 5 21 for our sake he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Verse 8 by oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Did we not just read that when we were in Matthew 26 earlier this week he was oppressed. He was judged though he did not deserve it. Now consider this next line. This is probably one of the most difficult lines in Isaiah 53.

But it goes right along with this. He was judged but not for his sins but for ours. The next line in verse 8. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living now remember that that God had said to Israel that if you keep these statutes if you keep these laws that I am giving to you you will flourish in the land that I am giving to you you will be blessed you will thrive.

You will inherit the land and you will you will keep it as an eternal inheritance. But if you do not keep these laws in these statutes that I am giving you today then I will cut you off out of the land of the living.

And there were other penalties that we read there in the law as well like certain people if they did not do certain things or if they were caught disobeying certain laws then they would be cut off from the people of Israel.

So what we read here is that Jesus is is cut off out of the land of the living. That's what's being prophesied here. So what's being communicated is the penalty for breaking the law is coming upon Christ.

He's the one that gets cut off. He's the one that the father smites because our sins have been placed on him. So the father punishes him on our behalf. That's simply what's being expressed there in those words.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away. The people hated him they oppressed him they judged him. But ultimately this was to be done to make payment for our sins. As for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living they think that they're putting him to death.

Because you know what we read in Matthew 26 was he claimed to be the Christ. So they're saying well he spoke in blasphemy we're going to put him to death. But who among that people who were putting him to death considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living.

That for the transgression of my people striking was due to him. So it was because of our sin that he died. Not because he blasphemes. Certainly not. He's the son of God. There was never a blasphemy uttered from his mouth.

Everything that he said is true. Right down to the very words i am equating himself with Yahweh because he is God. There was never any deceit from his mouth. Never a word that was spoken that was that was sinful.

For even a moment the people might have thought of the things that he said this way. But who of his generation considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of of us taking our transgressions upon himself.

And it's for this reason that striking was due to him. This was why he died. Not because he did anything wrong. He didn't open his mouth again. From 1st Peter 2 22 he did no sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth.

He died as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people then. Verse 9. So we're still isaiah 53 verse 9. So his grave was assigned with wicked men. Yet he was with a rich man in his death. Now what's this talking about.

Well we're getting to this. We haven't come to this yet in our study of Matthew. But in chapter 27 after Jesus dies we know that he was buried in the tomb of joseph of arimathea. Joseph have had offered his tomb as a burial site for jesus joseph a rich man.

He was buried with sinners. So he died between the two thieves. Of course he was buried with those who were guilty of sin though he himself was not guilty of sin. And it was with a rich man in his death that he shared this tomb because as verse 9 goes on he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

He did not deserve to die. But he died of his own accord in submission to the will of the father as he said in john i have the authority to lay my life down and i have the authority to take it back up again.

And jesus gave his life not because he deserved to die but for our sake so that we would be saved. Psalm 22 is another one of those psalms that prophesies of jesus. In fact we've been as a church we've been singing this psalm every sunday set to music for the month of march because we know that this psalm points to christ.

This is the psalm that begins my god my god why have you forsaken me. As we continue in matthew 27 that's going to be the psalm that jesus prays from the cross. But there at the end of the psalm psalm 22 verse 30 their seed will serve him.

It will be recounted about the lord to the coming generation they will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has done it. So there's a generation that saw these things happen and they would proclaim it to the next generation.

And so these things have continued to be proclaimed right down to us to this very day that we would know the gospel message of jesus who died as an atoning sacrifice for sins and rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of god that we deserve for our transgressions.

But we will be forgiven and have everlasting life. Praise be to god. Heavenly father. I thank you for what we've read here and i pray that it makes us better worshipers of god knowing what it was that you did for us knowing what was needed for us to be forgiven.

The blood of bulls and goats wouldn't have been enough. It took the precious spotless lamb of god your son jesus christ to die for us that we might be forgiven and reconciled to god and live with you forever.

He gave himself for us that our sins would be put upon him and by his wounds. As we read in isaiah 53 we are healed. So teach us to walk now this day in light of the righteousness of christ that has been given to us.

Remembering these words that peter said we might die to sin and live to righteousness. We were continually straying like sheep. But now we have returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls. So let us not go astray any longer but follow the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep.

It is in jesus name we pray amen. This has been when we understand the text of pastor gabriel hughes. For all of our podcasts episodes videos books and more visit our website at www .utt .com if you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment email when we understand the text at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

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