Calvary’s Cross and Our Confession (Isaiah 53:4-6)

Isaiah 53 • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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If you have your Bibles with you this morning, I invite you to turn with me once again to Isaiah 53. As I mentioned last week, this magnificent passage of Scripture is truly the heart of the entire Old Testament. Some theologians have even described it as the Mount Everest of Old Testament chapters. Now with that image in mind, last week we began to ascend the great heights of this passage. We started actually back in Isaiah 52:13 and worked our way upward to verse 3 of chapter 53. Those opening six verses to our text were the initial climb, today we will focus our attention on verses 4-6, which form the summit, the highest theological point of this chapter, and then over the next two weeks we will descend from the peak as we consider the last six verses of this profoundly deep chapter of Scripture. Now if you missed last week, or if you’re like me and just need lots of reminders, let me once again point out something very important. Notice if you will that this prophetic chapter, regarding the Messiah, speaks of future events as if they occurred in the past. The inspired prophet speaks vividly of the unimaginable horrors of the cross of Calvary, where the sinless Son of God, Jesus, God’s Servant, died for the sins of others, as if it had already occurred. Yet, those key events will not occur for another 700 years from then. How then are we to make sense of that? Well, we must understand that what we read in Isaiah 53 is the heartbreaking confession of the nation of Israel at the end of the Tribulation, when many of them will turn in faith and lament as they recognize that Jesus was the Messiah. Here, you see, they are confessing, we missed it! They couldn’t see how Jesus was possibly the promised Messiah for He failed to meet their hopes and expectations. They longed for a majestic king who would free them from their oppressors, and yet God sent them His humble slave who died a sinner’s death to free them from the presence and power of sin. And on one glorious day in the future, God, in His sovereign grace according to verse 1, will reveal that truth to them. At that time, the spiritual blindness of Israel will give way to sight, and they will repent of their sin and confess Jesus as LORD.

That’s what this passage represents, and for those of us who are not of Jewish descent, but who have placed their faith and hope in Christ for salvation, the words of this passage become ours as well, as we can truly say and confess that the innocent sinless Jesus, the Son of God, the promised Messiah, suffered and died for our sin, and not His own. He appeased the wrath God towards us as well, so that we can be made whole, righteous and forgiven. You see, this passage answers the greatest question of all? How can sinful man be made right with God and allowed to spend eternity in heaven, in His glorious, holy, and sinless presence? With that in mind, will you read with me the entire lament once again starting in Isiah 52:13…

Today, we just want to explore the highest ground of this passage, verses 4-6, and I want you to see how the cross of Calvary, where Jesus bled and died for all our sin, the just for the unjust, how that historical event leads us to confess the totality of our sin…

1) Calvary’s cross leads us to confess our misplaced thoughts and attitudes (v.4).

Last week, in verses 2 and 3, we saw how Israel longed for a king and not a sacrificial servant. They expected and hoped that the Messiah would come as a powerful warrior-like King to free them from Rome’s oppression. But Jesus failed to fit their royal paradigm, for He certainly didn’t he look like a king. He was born in a manger, grew up in an unpromising village, surrounded himself with uneducated simple-minded people, and died the death of a criminal. In their eyes, because of these things, there was nothing majestic about Jesus at all. And yet, while He was on earth, in front of their very eyes, He openly displayed His sovereign power over nature, the weather, sickness, evil, and even death. But because He didn’t meet their misplaced expectations, they saw Him only as an insignificant nobody who died the death that a blasphemer deserved. That’s how they viewed Jesus in the opening three verses of Isaiah 53. But now… notice their confession in verse 4. “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried…” The word “surely” emphasizes a not only a strong affirmation but a shocking reality that was revealed to the speakers. They had it all wrong, their expectations and assumptions were misplaced. And now they proclaim with brokenness and certainty that the Messiah bore and carried both their griefs and sorrows. The words bore and carried describe someone hauling a heavy weight on the behalf of someone else, it literally is a picture of a servant picking up a weighty burden and placing it on his own shoulder. And notice this heavy weight is comprised of griefs and sorrows. The Hebrew word for grief implies sickness, diseases, and calamities. These are descriptions of the effects of our sin. You see, sin here are viewed from the perspective of what it produces. The idea is that sin produces misery and hardships that we must inevitably suffer, difficulties that we must bear in this world. Sorrow is a similar word in the Hebrew language, it literally means pain and suffering. But there is a big difference between a grief and a sorrow. Griefs are generally the outward effects of sin, the hardships our sin creates for us in our world, while sorrow speaks to the inward horrors of our sin. The shame, the guilty conscious, its the effect of our sin that we feel our heart, mind, and soul. Sometimes, the weight of our sorrows truly outweighs the weight of our griefs, do they not? And yet, the Messiah, carries all these things to the cross, where it pleased God to crush Him under this incredible weight of such guilt. Please understand that Jesus took the full punishment for our sin as He carried the full weight of not just our sin, but also the enormous heaviness of all the consequences and effects of our sin as well.

I think we tend to isolate our sin, and neglect to think of how our sin alters our life all together. We fail to see how the hardships we face and how our lack of joy and peace are all connected to our sin. And yet, when Jesus was nailed to the cross, all of it He bore on our behalf! He took the full burden of our guilt, our shame, and the countless effects of our sin upon Himself. He paid the full penalty for them and carried them away.

In the book of Leviticus, in chapter 16, we read of the requirement of two animals for the atonement of sin. The priest, if your remember, would lay their hands on one of them, who was known as the scapegoat. And this laying on of hands was symbolic of transferring the guilt of the people’s sin onto the animal, an animal who would be sent out into the wilderness, to never return again. The other animal is then sacrificed, killed upon God’s alter as a sin offering for the sins of the people. Jesus, you must understand, is both the scape goat and the sacrifice. He bears our sin and all its burdens away, never to return again, from as far as the east to the west, yet He also offers His life as a sacrifice for our sin, dying in our place, for reconciliation to God demands the shedding of blood.

You see, Jesus took the full punishment of the believer’s sin. He paid our enormous sin debt in full, and brings to an end the reign of sin in our life with all its effects, and all of its manifestations, all of its griefs, and all of its sorrows. And in one glorious day, for those who are in Christ, saved by grace, we will experience the fullness of that, and sin will be no more! Listen, we should have suffered for our sin, we should have to endure the wrath of a holy God, but He did in our place. He took it all away from us, all that belonged to us, all that we should have experienced by way of God’s judgment. All of the sin, all of pain, all the devastation, and eternal punishment, He bore it and carried it away forever.

A remnant of Israel will one day come to that divine knowledge. Their eyes will be open to that reality, and they will accept Christ as the Messiah and realize the massive error they have made in their thinking and expectations. Therefore, notice their confession in the second half of verse 4… “Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.” They are proclaiming, “we had it all figured out!” But oh how wrong we were. We assumed that Jesus got what He deserved from God. In our minds, he was a blasphemer. He claimed to be God’s son, He claimed to be king, but since we couldn’t see it, we put Him to death. Therefore, He was stricken meaning to strike violently. He was smitten, meaning He was basically beaten to death, and He was afflicted implying He was humiliated, degraded, and destroyed. In their mind, all of that occurred by the hand of God, because Jesus got what He deserved. But now they get it! He was completely innocent, and they were the guilty party, for on Calvary’s cross He bore their sin and died the death they deserved.

Now, there's two points of application that I hope you see in this verse… First, when our thoughts about Christ are misplaced, when we fail to look to Him as our only hope and Savior, who died in our place. When we fail to see and remember the incredible weight and burden of our sin that He himself bore as He appeased the wrath of God, when our thoughts are consumed with other things, when our attitudes are shaped by our own misconceptions, we inevitably will choose to live in sin and thus we will certainly experience and suffer from the horrendous effects of our own choosing. Proverbs 13:15 proclaims, “the way of a transgressor is hard” (KJV). Oh, how we make our lives so much harder when Christ is not at the center of our lives and worship. The weight and stress of our sin chokes out all the joy, peace, and hope. Our hearts will never taste true satisfaction, that only God can give, when our minds are consumed with other things. You see, if Christ isn’t bearing the weight of your sin, then you are. And though right now, your life may not seem all that bad, that weight may not seem to be too heavy to bear, we must recall that Romans 6:23, reminds us that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Your sin will be judged by a holy God. It’s inescapable. We must all stand before His judgment, and some of us will stand forgiven and redeemed because Jesus bore our sin on Calvary and faced the wrath of God for us. Through faith and repentance, you have received that free gift of eternal life that is only found in Christ. But some in this room will stand condemned to die and spend eternity in hell, where you will experience the wrath of God for every sinful and misplaced thought you had concerning Christ, and for every sinful act you have and will commit. Listen: your only hope is to confess Christ, place your faith in Him, turn from your sinful and selfish way, and begin to live for His glory. Now, you may be convinced that’s impossible, but listen to second point of application…

Secondly, now here it is…if Jesus bore all our sin and all the effects of our sin away as verse 4 proclaims, then the power of sin is completely broken, and we can chose to live for Him in joyful submission and obedience. Listen, here is the truth, as a follower of Christ, you don’t have to sin. Now, of course, I realize that on this side of glory, you will always struggle with sin and there will always be some degree of sin present in your life until Christ comes, or you die. Spurgeon used to say, “Our old man is crucified, but He is long at dying.” Perhaps, you’ve experienced that firsthand! But as we grow in our faith and grace our lives should grow to look more and more like our humble and obedient Savior. And as we learn to trust in His presence and power, as we learn to love the Word and hide in our heart, He will help us overcome those deep seeded habitual sins in our life that have robed us of His blessing. Listen, I don’t know what sins may have you chained and captive this morning, but I know this… if you are in Christ, and you know that He died for you, then the power of sin has been defeated in your life. And in Him, you can overcome whatever sin has you entangled. Now, I assure you, there is a war you will have to fight, it won’t be easy, and it will be humbling, long and exhausting, but there is hope!!! Because in Christ, you have everything you need to overcome sin! As a counselor and as a pastor I have had the joy of seeing people overcome sinful habits and patterns that they never thought were possible. Listen, God is big enough and powerful enough to see you through it, for He has carried the burden away and set you free from the power and penalty of your sin. As Peter said in the passage read earlier, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24). You simply must be humble and willing enough to trust in Him and live in obedience to His righteous will for your life.

Listen church family, when our minds drift away from the cross, when we think little of His sacrifice, or deny His sacrificial work, we will inevitably excuse and embrace sin activity with all its effects. Our lives will become dreadfully hard and we will be judged for such foolish action. Oh, how we must look to the Calvary this morning and confess our failure in keeping His cross at the center of our lives.

2) Calvary’s cross leads us to confess our sinful conduct and behavior (v. 5).

As Israel in the future receives their spiritual sight, they will come to realize that the guilt that caused the Messiah’s suffering was not His own, but rather it was their own sinful behavior that caused Him to suffer and die. Pay attention to the small pronouns in verse 5, for they are key words to understanding the text. “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.” You see, this second aspect of Israel’s confession recognizes that the punishment that the Servant endured on the cross was actually due to them for their own sinful conduct. It is as if they realize that their sinful activity was a direct result of their misplaced thoughts of Christ. For certainly, we easily fall into to sin when we fail to think biblically about Christ and our sin must be punished.

You cannot ignore the punitive nature of the graphic and disturbing words used in this verse. The Servant was pierced, crushed, chastened, and scourged. This chosen vocabulary is all very strong terminology which describe injuries that were inflicted by some kind of severe form of discipline.

Now, we must remember that at the time this was written, 700 years before Christ, stoning was the most common form of execution. Therefore, these words would have been strange to the original audience, for they would have struggled to even imagine the horrors of what would become known as the Roman crucifixion. Yet, it is obvious from our vantage point to see how Isaiah was indeed led by the Holy Spirit to pen these specific words. Shocking words that reveal not just the severity of the punishment at hand, but also the horrendous nature of our sin that leads to such punishment!

Notice, the first two Hebrew words, translated in English as pierced and crushed, are two of the strongest words Isaiah could have chosen to describe the terrors of the cross. The word pierced carries the idea of being pierced through and being slain to death. Isaiah is clear that the Messiah would be pierced for our transgressions, that is our deliberate disobeying of God’s Word. That’s why He was pierced on our behalf, because we have not kept God’s commandments. Christ was obviously pierced when He brutally nailed to Calvary’s cross. David in Psalm 22:16 also prophesied about the piercing that would occur on the cross, he placed these words in the Messiah’s mouth, “For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.” We also told in John 19:34, that a soldier pierced the side of Christ with a spear and His innocent blood and water poured out. But Jesus was also crushed, and the word crushed is equally violent. It literally implies being beaten to pieces, destroyed, or being pulverized into dust for our iniquities. The word iniquities speaks to the fallen nature from which such sinful actions and attitudes flow. You see, the Servant was crushed to death by the burdens of our sin nature, the sinful actions that pour out of that nature, and the just wrath of God that such deserved.

But Jesus wasn’t only pierced and crushed, was He… No, He there was also chastisement and scourging. The word chastisement is a general term used to express punishment and correction. We must remember that Jesus was sentenced to death, and His execution was an official punishment for sins He never committed. In fact, Pilate was blackmailed and intimidated into sentencing Jesus to die on the cross. He literally could find no fault in Him, but the people had their way. And lastly, we know that Jesus was scourged. Meaning He was marked with stripes and raw wounds as a result of being beaten and whipped on his back with heavy sticks that had strips of leather attached to it, leather that was embedded with bone, rock, and glass. Many people who were scourged died as a result. In fact, most historians agree that scourging was often worse than death itself. This was a brutal beating. But notice the wonderful and gracious results associated with the Messiah’s chastisement and scourging. He was chastised for our peace and well-being. The Hebrew word used here is the word shalom, and it speaks to the removal of enmity between God and sinners. Romans chapter 5 declares that all men apart from saving faith and the work of the cross are enemies with God. Romans 5:1… “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:10… “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” Oh, how the peace that our inner souls crave for the most, is found at Calvary alone.

And likewise, so is our healing. Notice we are healed according to the last word of verse 5. Now, this word in no way hints that Christians should expect a healthy life free of sickness and disease. No, instead, this term is very similar to the word shalom. It speaks of being provided with a spiritual cure and being made spiritually healthy again. Therefore, those who believe are “healed” in the sense that they are being restored to spiritual wholeness and released from the absolute bondage of sin. And so, when you think of healing in those terms, you realize that this spiritual healing mentioned in Isaiah 53 is far more profound and radical than being healed from some sort of physical illness or disease. In fact, the healing in Isaiah’s mind here speaks of spiritual resurrection. Ephesians 2:5… “When we were dead in trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ.” You see, our sickness of sin, the sickness of our soul, is far greater and more malignant that the worst kind of cancer. For indeed, we are utterly depraved beings, and our only hope is Christ and His work on Calvary’s cross.

And so as we look to the cross this morning, surely our sinful conduct and behavior, is ever before us. All of us are guilty, for all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. And this passage today, reminds us that all the guilt, grief, sorrow, shame, all of our spiritual sickness, and every other expression of our fallenness has been laid upon Christ, who voluntarily endured God’s punishment on or behalf. Thereby, He purchased our peace and blessing from God for us. This again will be Israel’s saving confession that they will make in the future, but sadly at this point in time, they remain blind to the glorious realities of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Sadly, they still believe that Jesus got what He deserved as a blasphemer, and that he suffered for his own sin. Therefore, when they die, they perish without the hope of heaven, without true peace, and without healing.

How about you, my friend? Do you understand that Jesus died in your place, for your sin, and for your forgiveness? If that’s your confession today, if you are beginning to see that for the first time, I simply want to point you back to that passage in 1 Peter 2, verse 21. For it gives you clear guidance on how to respond at this moment… Listen to it! “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” There it is… you simply must follow His example, His humble example of being God’s Servant who perfectly obeyed the will and Word of God. Therefore, you must repent and begin to live a life of obedience. Will you do that today? Will you live for Him? In light of the cross, will you confess that the innocent One, Jesus Christ, greatly suffered and perished as He faced the wrath of God for your sinful conduct and behavior? Unimaginable peace and healing for soul are waiting for your response! Lastly, I want you to notice...

3) Calvary’s cross leads us to confess the wayward nature of our heart (v.6).

There is one final confession that we want to consider today. And it’s the confession of sin at the deepest level: “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” (v.6). As we walk through these three verses today, notice they will acknowledge the sin of their misplaced thinking, their sinful behavior, and finally they will rightly confess that all their wayward thinking and sinful behavior flowed directly from their depraved hearts. Listen, these three verses of scripture clearly show us that confession is incomplete if it does not address our sinful thoughts, behavior, and heart. You see a true confession of sin must ultimately deal with sin at its origin, and not merely address the manifestation of sin. Jesus made this very clear in Matthew 15:19… “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”The Bible reminds often that we live from the inside out. That we do what we do because our hearts are what they are. Now, that’s radically different from the psychology of this world that argues that you are a victim or product of your environment. Oh, please understand, our sin problem is not just a matter of how you think or what you do. The real problem is who you are. In other words, we are sinners not because we sin; but we sin because we are sinners. Oh how we tend to think that we sin because we are tempted by those things outside ourselves, but the truth is, the evil desires of your heart are constantly searching for temptations to satisfy their unsatisfiable lusts.

Therefore, notice that Israel compares themselves to sheep. “All of us, (they say) like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Now, I’m not a farmer and I have little to no experience with livestock, but a lot has been written on this comparison and its fascinating and humbling to consider. For indeed, in our sin we are a lot like sheep.

For example, sheep more than any other class of livestock, need endless attention and care. They are stubborn, stupid animals who are prone to wander off on their own and stumble into all kinds of trouble. And unlike dogs, they have no ability or intelligence to make it back home on their own. Instead, they will just keep going in the wrong direction, wandering further and further away. Furthermore, sheep are completely defenseless against predators, for they have no ability to take care of themselves.

But listen, with that in mind, you need to understand… Sheep faithfully act like sheep. They don’t act like anything other than sheep, for they act consistently with their nature. They simply follow their internal impulse that leads them away from that which is safe, secure, and helpful. And that is what the Bible is saying here about us.

Oh, how stubborn, how foolish, how prone to go off on our own… oh how easy it is for us to trust in or own wisdom, rather than trust in His plan. Proverbs 14:12 warns us… “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” Like sheep, we have wandered off on our own thinking, convinced that our way must be best. For certainly, it makes sense and feels good, but oh, how it ends in death. Again, our problem is deep in our nature. We are like sheep, defenseless, ignorant, helpless wanderers. We leave behind the much-needed care, protection, and wisdom of the Shepherd as we trust in ourselves, our own wisdom, and emotion, yet it always leads to hardships and death.

In Matthew 9:36, we read these familiar words, “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” These people were just going their own way, following their wayward hearts, following their own fallen intuition. That’s what sinners do, they simply go their own way and ignore the shepherd, and without Christ, its exactly what you will do, you will follow your heart and just wander all over the place till you find yourself in numerous difficult, challenging, and unsafe situations. Jeremiah concluded (Jeremiah 17:9)… “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”

His answer… only God! God alone knows our heart, and only God can heal our hearts as we saw in verse 5. And He does it through the cross of Christ. Notice the good news of the gospel at the end of verse 6… “But the LORD (Yahweh, God the Father) has caused he iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” That final phrase “to fall on” interestingly stresses a violent attack. The exact Hebrew word (pegah) is used in 2 Samuel 1:15, where David instructs one his men to execute the Amalekite who bragged about killing Saul. And interestingly that verse translates this exact same Hebrew word, in the expression “Go, cut him down.” You see to fall upon, means to attack with the intent to kill.

Listen, here’s the gospel… God caused the guilt of our sin and iniquity to cut down His One and only Son. The good shepherd gives His life for the wayward sheep! Or as the apostle Paul proclaimed in Romans 8:3… “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.”

Here's really the uncomfortable truth that we must not forget… our sin did not kill Jesus on the cross… God did. The suffering Servant’s death that we see here so vividly detailed in Isaiah 53 was nothing less than a punishment administered by God, Himself, for the sins that others had committed. Jesus was holy and innocent, He had no sin of His own. He was sinless, pure, and undefiled, making Him the only suitable sacrifice for our sin. The New Testament affirms this rather unsettling truth over and over again… 1 Corinthians 5:21… “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 1 Peter 2:24… “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Then there is Galatians 3:13… “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us.” You see, God being just, good, and holy cannot possibly overlook or sin. He can’t ignore it or act as if we are good, for we not. Therefore, out of His deep deep deep love for us, He sent His only Son so that He could lay down His life for those who believe. And God was pleased to punish and slay His own Son, to grant sinners peace, forgiveness, and saving grace. You see on the cross, in love Jesus bore our sinful mindset, attitudes, our guilt, our shame. He bore every sinful act we committed, and every sin of omission. You see Jesus died not for just all the wrong things we have thought of and done, but He also died for all the the right things we should have done, but failed to do! Furthermore, Jesus died so that our dead and depraved hearts could be brought to life. He died because we all were in desperate need of a heart transplant. Without a new heart, a heart transformed by His grace, we can never truly change. Sure, we can modify our behavior, we can act differently, but sin will creatively find new ways to manifest itself in our lives. We need a new heart, one that can be shaped by the hands of the Holy Spirit and guided by the Word of God. We need a heart that is free from the curse of sin one that can choose to obey and live for Christ. Such a heart God longs to give to you this morning!

But in order to receive the free gift of God’s grace we must make this confession of Isaiah 53 our own. Romans 10:9-10 explains… “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Have you done that? Will you do that? Though you have continually strayed like sheep, will you hear the call of the Good Shepherd and respond in faith? Will you turn to Him, and trust Him with all your heart?

This morning as we end our service, we have the privilege of gathering around the Lord’s table to celebrate communion. I want to encourage you to look to the cross of Calvary. Look to Jesus who suffered and died for all of your sin. He bore it once and for all and you no longer have to. But this morning as we stand in awe of His sacrifice and the shedding of His innocent blood… Will you confess your great need for Him? My fellow Christians, will you search and consider your thoughts, your conduct, your behavior, and your heart? Will confess and repent of all the sin that still lingers there? Will you set your eyes on the humble and suffering Servant of God and refocus your life to following His great and holy example? Will you give your all to the Messiah who gave His all for you? Will you as 1 Peter 2:24 calls us… “die to your sin, and live for righteousness, for by His wounds you are healed?”