Isaiah’s Prophecy of Redemption
Isaiah 53:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
This is probably the best passage in the Bible to use to demonstrate that God has provided healing for us in Christ’s atonement. Interestingly, it’s in the Old Testament and it was written hundreds of years before Jesus fulfilled it.
This is surely one of the most-quoted chapters in the Bible. It foretold Jesus’ works. One of those works is healing. Unfortunately, this has been somewhat muddled with some unfortunate word choices by the translators. (All statements made regarding the Hebrew are fully documented in this book.)
Verse 3 calls Jesus, “A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” The words used here would correctly have been translated “A man of pains, and acquainted with sickness,” or something similar. Likewise, in verse 4, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” should read “Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains.” For absolute, unshakable, definitive proof of this, see the reply to the objection Jesus Bore Our Griefs and Sorrows, Not Our Sicknesses and Pains, on the Cross. If you don’t feel like reading that, just read Matthew 8:16-17 and see what the Holy Spirit thought He meant in Isaiah 53! The verses are plainly connected with healing. You can argue with my translation, but you can’t argue with God’s translation!
Clearly, Jesus bore our sicknesses at Calvary because verse 4 says that He bore our sicknesses and pains, YET we considered Him smitten of God and afflicted. This is all one sentence. The only time Jesus was “smitten” and “afflicted” was when He was punished for our sins. Therefore, His bearing of our sicknesses and our diseases MUST have been at that time. Because the subject of the entire chapter is Christ’s atonement for us, His bearing of our sicknesses and pains must have been part of that atonement.
Once you see this, the rest of the chapter becomes clearer. In verse 5, we read that Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and that with His stripes we are healed. Jesus’ body was torn up so that our bodies would not have to be torn up. He was our Substitute.
How do we know that He bore sickness as our Substitute? Isaiah said that surely He bore our sicknesses and our pains. He was not bearing His own; He was bearing ours. He was never sick until He was “made sick” for our sins. (“Made sick” is the literal translation of “put to grief” in verse 10.) He was made sick with our sicknesses. He was “smitten of God” and “afflicted” as punishment for our sins, not His own. Isaiah said that we are healed. “We” must refer to the same people referred to by “us” and “ours” in this chapter. The people who are healed are the people whose sins were borne. In other words, YOU are healed. What good would it do for Jesus to bear your sicknesses if God would still require you to bear them? That would be senseless and unfair. Every part of the punishment Jesus endured was what we rightfully deserved for our sins. He took that punishment to relieve us from having to bear it ourselves. Surely, He did not leave any part of the punishment for us to bear ourselves.
Another ironclad proof that Isaiah referred to substitution and not something in Capernaum one evening is Isaiah’s use of the Hebrew words translated borne and carried in Isaiah 53:4.
The word for borne is the Hebrew word nasa, the same word Isaiah uses when he says that Jesus “bare the sin of many” in Isaiah 53:12 – part of the same chapter. When Jesus bore our sin, it was as our Substitute. Consistency requires us to understand that He bore our sicknesses as our Substitute as well.
The word for carried is the Hebrews word cabal, the same word Isaiah uses when he says for he shall bear their iniquities in Isaiah 53:11 – part of the same chapter. When Jesus carried our iniquities, it was as our Substitute. Consistency requires us to understand that He carried our pains as our Substitute as well.
To say that Jesus did not bear sickness and pain as our Substitute would be tantamount to claiming that He did not bare sin and iniquity as our Substitute either! I don’t think any serious Christian wants to go down that road! Either the Hebrew words mean a substitutionary suffering or they don’t – you can’t have it both ways.
The bearing of sickness was required by Deuteronomy 28:15-68, Leviticus 26:14-39, and other passages that explain the “curse” for not keeping God’s Law. Although Jesus kept the Law Himself, He had to be punished by being cursed for our sins Himself. Galatians 3:13 (see Galatians 3:10-14) says that He was made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse. He had to explicitly bear the sickness part of the curse as part of the punishment for our sins. (There were other parts of the curse that it would have been impossible for Him to bear literally, such as the threatened curse involving people’s wives and children, crop failures, and so on. That is why He “became a curse” and was “cursed” so that God would impute that cursedness as payment for our redemption from the entire curse of the Law, including the parts that it would have been impossible for Him to bear in a literal sense.) Part of this curse was sickness – every sickness and disease that there is (Deuteronomy 28:61), and God required Him to bear that part of the curse literally. The parts that He COULD bear, He DID; the rest were covered by the fact that He was “cursed” in general on the cross.
This is why you cannot possibly be an exception to God’s will to heal ALL. He carried OUR sicknesses and OUR pains, and this includes YOUR sicknesses and YOUR pains. Despite modern theology to the contrary, God could not justly ask you to bear a punishment that Jesus Christ already bore in your place. That would be like condemning two criminals for a crime committed by only one. Jesus already served the sentence. It would be senseless for a human court to ask anyone to serve a sentence for a crime when someone else was already found guilty and has already fully served that sentence. The courts may have their problems, but they are not as warped as modern theology yet.
Notice the blessed fact that our healing was not a one-time thing, but an ongoing thing to last through our lifetimes, based on a one-time act by Jesus Christ. Read the tenses carefully: “Surely he hath borne [past tense] our sicknesses and carried [past tense] our pains: yet we did esteem [past tense] him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded [past tense] for our transgressions, he was bruised [past tense] for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was [past tense] upon him; and with His stripes we are [present tense] healed.”
This is important to notice, because eventually you will meet someone who objects that Matthew 8:16-17 refers only to Jesus’ earthly ministry and not to His atonement. But the true fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, which clearly paints healing as being part of Christ’s atonement for sin, must involve healing for all. In fact, Matthew stated that Isaiah’s prophecy of healing in Christ’s atonement “might be fulfilled” by Christ’s healing of the sick in His earthly ministry, which was basically provided “on credit” because of His atonement that Isaiah described. Aside from the fact that there is no other adequate explanation of what Matthew meant, you can find further proof of this in the reply to Objection: Isaiah 53:4 (Matthew 8:17) Was Fulfilled in Jesus’ Earth Ministry and Cannot Be Claimed as a Promise by Christians Today.
Isaiah said clearly that the Messiah would be made sick in our place to bring healing to us. Jesus Christ was made sick with your sicknesses so that you would not have to bear them.
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