Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions
The hosts are continuing their series on The Suffering Servant, and in this program they’ll begin to explore the first few verses of Isaiah 53. In this amazing prophecy, we have a clear example of what theologians from across the centuries have referred to as “the great exchange.” This coming servant suffers the punishment which all of us deserve, and we receive his peace and blessing. And this peace is not some kind of feeling that we need to conjure up inside, but instead it is an objective reality that we need to embrace through faith alone.
Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 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,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53: 1-12
Guest Quote:
“The good news is a lot better than God has a wonderful plan for your life and wants to make it happy, healthy and wealthy, or that he wants to come in and give you a method for self-improvement. But rather that the eternal beloved Son of God came into this world to rescue us from wrath by being stricken, smitten and afflicted; wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities so that we can be reconciled to God and no longer be his enemies.” – Mike Brown
Term to Learn:
“Of the Means of Redemption Through the Declaration of Justice and Mercy of God in Christ”
We believe that God, who is perfectly merciful and just, sent His Son to assume that nature in which the disobedience was committed, to make satisfaction in the same, and to bear the punishment of sin by His most bitter passion and death. God therefore manifested His justice against His Son when He laid our iniquities upon Him, and poured forth His mercy and goodness on us, who were guilty and worthy of damnation, out of mere and perfect love, giving His Son unto death for us, and raising Him for our justification, that through Him we might obtain immortality and life eternal. (Taken from The Belgic Confession, Article 20)
(This podcast is by White Horse Inn. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)