1. Celebrating the Servant-Savior
The Gospel of Isaiah
Jason S. DeRouchie, PhD
Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology
Bethlehem College & Seminary
Bethlehem Baptist Church, spring 2018

2. The Prophet Describes the Servant’s Substitutionary Suffering (53:1–10)
A. The Servant’s Divine-Human Nature and Homeliness (vv. 1–2)
B. The Servant’s Experience of Suffering (53:3)
C. The Substitutionary Nature of the Servant’s Suffering (53:4–6)
B’. The Servant’s Humble Response to His Suffering (53:7)
A’. The Human and Divine Perspective on His Suffering (53:8–10)

3. The Substitutionary Nature of the Servant’s Suffering (53:4–6)
The structure:
Thesis (v. 4ab): Surely our griefs (sufferings) and sorrows (pains) he bore.
Incomplete human perspective (v. 4c): God smote and afflicted him (for his own sins, like Job)
Complete divine perspective (vv. 5–6): He was punished for us––our due punishment became his that we might be healed.
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“The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). .

4. Our punishable state
“All we like sheep have gone astray/erred” (v. 6a)
Jer 50:6. My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.
Ezek 34:4–6. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

5. Our punishable state
“All we like sheep have gone astray/erred” (v. 6a)
“Our transgressions … our iniquities” (v. 5ab)
We have all actually sinned:
Rom 3:10–11. None is righteous, no not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Rom 3:23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

6. We are all guilty in Adam and therefore under God’s wrath from conception:
Isa 43:27. Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.
John 3:36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Eph 2:1–3. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked … 3 and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Rom 5:17–19. Because of one’s man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man…. 18 One trespass led to condemnation for all men…. 19 By the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

7. Full substitution: What Christ underwent:
“He was pierced for our transgressions”
Ps 22:16.  For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.
Zech 12:10. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
John 19:34. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

8. Full substitution: What Christ underwent:
“He was pierced for our transgressions”
“With his wounds [bruises/slashes] we are healed”
Isa 1:6. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.
Matt 27:26. Then [Pilate] released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
John 19:1. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.

9. Full substitution:
Negative imputation––Christ’s punishment was for our faults, not his:
He has borne our griefs (v. 4a)
He has carried our sorrows (v. 4b)
He was pierced for our transgressions (v. 5a)
He was crushed for our iniquities (v. 5b)
We went astray, but he carried the iniquity of us all (v. 6)
Positive imputation––the peace and healing Christ should have known became ours:
His chastisement brought us peace (v. 5c)
With his wounds we are healed (v. 5d)

10. Full substitution brings spiritual healing–– full reconciliation with God:
Rom 4:25. [Jesus our Lord] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
2 Cor 5:21. For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Pet 2:24–25. [Christ] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep [Isa 53:5d–6a], but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

11. Full substitution secures physical healing–– full freedom from the curse:
Matt 8:16–17. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases” [Isa 53:4].
Jas 5:13–15. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save [/heal] the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

12. Matt 11:4–6.  And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”